By Sherry Valare
Inspiration
Mars plans
for human
slingshot
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Mars seems to be the hottest
vacation destination for interplanetary travel right now. With many
plans floating around to send rovers,
orbiters, even human missions to
orbit and settle, Mars is a hot topic
in space travel discussions right
now. Dennis Tito, the first person
to travel to space as a tourist with
a purchased ticket, vacationed
aboard the International Space
Station for eight days in 2001. Earlier
this year, Tito announced his plans
to give two people the opportunity
of being the first to take in the sight
of Mars, firsthand.
At 23, Tito was an Engineer
working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, responsible for the
design of trajectories for the Mars
and Venus Mariner Spacecraft
missions. Though his career has not
always centered around space, his
passion certainly did. His initiative,
“Inspiration Mars”, has an ambitious
blueprint mapped out for seeing a
two person crew (one male, one
female) travel to Mars. Landing on
the surface of the planet is not on
the itinerary. Instead, they will orbit
within 100 miles of Mars’ surface,
then use the planet’s gravitational
influence to slingshot the vehicle
www.RocketSTEM.org