Comments on: Inspiration Mars seeks closer ties with NASA for its human Mars flyby mission

By: Jeff Foust

Jeff Foust — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:41:01 +0000

“Mr. Tito is reported to have said he may well now approach Russia and/or the Chineseâ€¦!”

Based on comments he made at Wednesday afternoon’s press conference, that statement is not correct. Tito believes that Russia or China could do such a mission on their own (although with very limited evidence to support that assertion), but was not interested in cooperating with them. After all, Inspiration Mars is billed as “a mission for America”!

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 23 Nov 2013 10:03:51 +0000

I understand that NASA has now declared that they cannot financially support this mission.

Mr. Tito is reported to have said he may well now approach Russia and/or the Chinese…!

I just can’t see how going to either of them will meet with the original mission objective, “inspire the next generation of americans”.

Sorry to say it, it looks like the “party’s” over.

By: StephenB

StephenB — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 18:49:30 +0000

Nice write-up Jeff. I hope that the SLS is ready by then, and that just the perception that the mission is too risky would not make it a non-starter. Presumably, it would also have to be supported by the next administration.