Mars Mission

MONOCHROME:  Seattle is mostly 50+ shades of gray this time of year, but it's still pretty. Here was our view while having a cheap dinner tonight (happy hour prices PLUS kids eat free at Maggie Bluffs).

I love how the Needle blends in with the masts in this photo.

PIONEERS: For awhile now, the Twitterverse has been abuzz with news of a billionaire with a Mars mission on his mind. Specifically, Dennis Tito and "Inspiration Mars "A Mission for America."

Tito was the first ever space tourist. In 2001, he paid $21 million to buy a seat (aboard a Soyuz) on a flight to the International Space Station. Expensive hotel, no?

By all accounts, Tito is a brilliant dude. After watching all of this morning's press conference, I am sold on Inspiration Mars' vision.

The plan is a “fast, free-return” mission which passes within 100 miles of Mars (without landing) before
returning safely to Earth.

As Tito and his pointed out this morning, the mission they have planned will be built around existing, proven low-Earth orbit (LEO) space transportation systems and technologies. For example, IM's capsule will be dispatched form Earth orbit with a single Mars trajectory burn (simple, right?), and additional maneuvers will only consist of minor course corrections, using the gravitational influence of Mars to “slingshot” the vehicle onto a return course to Earth (easy, no?).

It's a long damn flight (510 days there and back), so in addition to the capsule, there will be an inflatable habitat module launched after deploy and detached prior to re-entry.

Graphic: Inspiration Mars

 (This is not that far-fetched. Right now, Bigelow is developing inflatable modules for the ISS.)

The fact that it's not a landing mission makes it ever so much easier (and lighter). The reason 2018 is the magic number is that represents the shortest duration roundtrip mission to Mars, and it coincides when solar flares are supposed to be at a low, given our sun's 11-year weather cycle. Flying within 1-- miles of Mars, with a flight plan "just like a boomerang ... we don't need any propulsive maneuvers. ... It's really simple," Tito said with conviction.

So who's going on this epic journey? MI has deemed it will be one man and one woman (ideally a married couple), both U.S. citizens.

During the presser, we heard from Taber MacCallum, chief technology officer of Inspiration Mars
Foundation, Dr. Jonathan Clark, chief medical officer of Inspiration Mars Foundation and associate professor of Neurology and Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Jane Poynter, president and chairwoman of Paragon Space Development Corporation, which is leading the development of the
Environmental Control and Life Support System for Inspiration Mars. Poynter spent two years living inside Biosphere 2, where she managed the design and operations of the farming section.

Inspiration Mars isn't going it alone. In addition to a number of private sector companies on board, in the press conference, they reported they have been working closely with NASA, and that NASA has been very
http://inspirationmars.org/

During the press conference, Tito characterized the 2018 flight as 'low hanging fruit' and 'a pretty easy mission,' relatively speaking.

The downside? There's no way to abort after launch.

One of the panel today likened the mission to "a Lewis and Clark trip," where things are kept as simple as possible." And then there's the leap of faith part as well. "It's like "throwing your heart out in front of you and then racing to catch it,"  he said.

BUDGET HEROES: Sequestration is big in the news right now. I'm trying to avoid the news right now, because it makes me so damn mad.

That said, I thought the kids might like a crack at fixing the national budget. Hell, they couldn't do any worse than the current congress, right? So, we hopped onto a game called "Budget Hero" by America Public Media. In the game, the kids got to make some tough choices. It was interesting listening to it all go down.

At one point CJ pondered, "Should I eliminate deductions for state and local taxes?"

And when Annabelle had the chance, she increased NASA's budget by 50 percent. Good girl! :) (However, I told her that as a result some people will starve, but them's the breaks, LOL.)

When presented with a choice, CJ said, "Of course not. I'm not going to drill for oil in the Arctic. That's only going to kill everything that lives there."

"It's not going to kill everything immediately" Annabelle reasoned.

The game helped increase the kids' vocabulary. For instance, Annabelle asked, "What's 'infrastructure'?"

Right after submitting her first budget proposal a siren sounded and a message flashed across Annabelle's screen saying, "Your kids called. They want their future back." Ouch! Perhaps she was a bit too liberal. ;)

CJ pained over whether or not, "Should I raise Medicare eligibility to 67?"

"That's exactly what I did!" Annabelle exclaimed with way too much glee for my taste.

In the end, they both balanced their budgets, and the future called to say 'thank you.' Well done. Now maybe they can talk some sense into the ignoramuses in Congress.