No, not Tito Jackson, but a millionaire named Dennis Tito. His organization, the Inspiration Mars Foundation, plans to head to Mars in five short years. Not to land there, but to do a fly-be in a 501 day mission. More details about the planned mission will be released when they become available, but speculation and comments on both sides of the argument abound.
Tito was one of the first space tourists to visit the ISS. Since then he hasn’t been heard of, but suddenly he & his bold plan sans details are in the news.
But it isn’t so much this story that captured my attention as it was the comments that readers of the article made. After verifying the little information in 4 other articles as well as searching out information on Tito, I went back to see what these enlightened readers had to share.
From comments on the impossibility to good wishes to speculation on how he might utilize SpaceX which would certainly make sense as they had mentioned a launch to Mars in that timeframe.
But it was the comments that suggested that we (the USA) couldn’t even get to the moon, and many even still believed we never had been. I could go into a litany of reasons from radio bursts etc. but the easiest would be get a laser and fire it at the mirrors that the astronauts left on the moon. This was done so the distance, which is getting larger, could be monitored and calculated.
If you want NASA to go, talk to congress. Due to constant fluctuations in the budget NASA is doing a great job at doing so many things. Go to the NASA site (NASA.gov) and you will see how many missions they have ongoing. (this involves the earth-Oceans, Climate, Weather, Solar Effects…)
I for one wish Tito well. And if he is looking for some company, I can be reached at...
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