Private Mars mission not just possible, but probable

02/25/13 23:19:00    

By Michael Mealling

This coming Wednesday, February 27th at 1 pm Dennis Tito will announce Inspiration Mars. A lot of the information has already been released. Rand Simberg even discusses the feasibility of the mission.

All of this is probably predicated on SpaceX flying the Falcon Heavy which is currently scheduled for its first flight at the end of this year or early next. If the Heavy flies and Tito gets even close to launching it will probably cause the SLS to be immediately canceled. Given the time-lines involved that would mean SLS doesn't survive to see the summer of 2015. The open question is whether that includes Orion and how the SLS budget gets re-allocated.

If Tito's mission launches and makes it to Mars then many will begin to question NASA's entire budget. NASA and Congress will need to get out in front of that story to justify NASA's budget. Senator Shelby's response will truly be a magnificent thing to watch.

What I fear is a mission failure. A free return trajectory is low risk but that's a very long trip and a lot can go wrong. I sincerely hope the result of a mission failure is Congress not falling back to the “see, only NASA can do this” mode.