Inspiration Mars: How it will Work

The buzz started well before Inspiration Mars’ February 27 press conference, but it has only gotten louder in the hours since. With little more than a feasibility study to be formally published on March 3, Dennis Tito and his conclave of they-could-actually-pull-this-off specialists have committed to send an American man and woman on a flyby mission to Mars in 2018. So far, not much more is known than the outlines of the trajectory, the projected mass and volume of the vehicle, and that “austerity” in terms of eliminating redundancies and automation and eroding typical food, water, and air quality profiles, is to be the mission theme.

Inspiration Mars, which aims to inspire people to embrace more adventuresome space goals, based their calculations on use of SpaceX Falcon Heavy and Dragon hardware, although at least the latter is unlikely to be available in time for a 2018 mission; the organization is exporing alternatives.

Below is an overview of the mission profile as it was introduced on Wednesday, courtesy of Space.com.

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration