Inspiration Mars Foundation
"Send Two People, Take Everyone"
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| Motto | "Now is the Time" |
|---|---|
| Founded | January 25, 2013 |
| Founder | Dennis Tito |
| Type | 501(c)(3) (pending, as of April 2013[update]) |
| Location |
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Area served
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Earth/Mars/Venus |
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Key people
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Dennis Tito Jane Poynter Taber MacCallum Joe Rothenberg Miles O'Brien Jonathan Clark Thomas Squire |
| Mission | 2018 Manned Mars Flyby, or alternatively a 2021 Venus flyby followed by a Mars flyby |
| Website | inspirationmars |
Inspiration Mars Foundation is an American nonprofit organization founded by Dennis Tito that proposed to launch a manned mission to flyby Mars in January 2018, or 2021 if they missed the first deadline. Their website became defunct by late 2015 but it is archived by the Internet Archive. The Foundation's future plans are unclear.
On 27 February 2013, the Inspiration Mars Foundation held a press conference in the National Press Club to announce their plan to procure space hardware, launch vehicle services, and select a two-person married couple as crew, and then attempt to raise the funding necessary to launch a mission to Mars in 2018. Dennis Tito said he was going to fund the foundation with $100 million for the first years of operation.
At the 2013 conference, however, Dennis Tito indicated that the plan was impossible without significant investment from NASA and the use of NASA spacecraft. NASA, however, was an unwilling partner.
The total cost of the mission was projected to be between US$1 and US$2 billion. Tito planned to fund the foundation's cost for the first two years. Then, the foundation planned to raise funds from industry and individuals.
However, in testimony before congress in November 2013, Tito indicated that he expected private donors to only provide around $300 million, leaving the need for an additional investment of $700 million from the US government. NASA responded that whilst they were willing to share technical and programmatic expertise with Inspiration Mars, they were unable to commit to sharing expenses with them. The foundation's funding model, dependent on an unwilling partner, was broken.
In March 2014, SpaceX indicated that they had also been contacted by Inspiration Mars, but that accommodating such requirements would require some additional work and that such work was not a part of the current focus of SpaceX.
The plans that were never funded, were based on free-return and would allow the spacecraft to use the smallest possible amount of fuel to get it to Mars and return to Earth. Leaders of the Foundation stated that In 2018, the planets would align, offering a rare orbit opportunity to travel to Mars and return to Earth in 501 days. Before their presence disappeared from the web, they had set the first mission target launch for January 5, 2018.
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