Billionaire proposes sending astronauts to Mars and back

(The Boston Globe, November 21, 2013)

Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we cannot send humans to Mars yet, revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017. Dubbed ‘‘Inspiration Mars,’’ the fly-by mission would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the time and the fuel it would take to get to Mars and back. The astronauts would come within 100 miles of the Martian surface before being slung back to Earth. The project would require cooperation from NASA and a great deal of NASA hardware. NASA officials did not immediately respond to Tito’s detailed proposal.