美亿万富翁宣布年载人赴火星

Billionaire Dennis Tito, tired of being told that we can’t send humans to Mars just yet, on Wednesday revealed his scheme for launching two astronauts to the red planet as early as December 2017.

Dubbed “Inspiration Mars,” the flyby mission would exploit a rare alignment of Earth and Mars that minimizes the time and the fuel it would take to get to Mars and back home again. The astronauts would come within 100 miles of the Martian surface before being slung back to Earth.

“It would be a voyage of around 800 million miles around the sun in 501 days,” Tito testified Wednesday at a hearing of the House subcommittee on space. “No longer is a Mars flyby mission just one more theoretical idea. It can be done. Not in a matter of decades, but in a few years.”

Tito is a former engineer who made a fortune in investment management and, in 2001, became the first person to pay his way into space, buying a seat on a Russian rocket. Now he’s pitching Inspiration Mars as a national priority for the United States. Grab this rare chance to go to Mars quickly or risk seeing China or Russia get there first, he told members of Congress.

Tito mentioned a backup plan that would offer Inspiration Mars four more years of development time. Another alignment of planets in 2021 offers a second chance to go to Mars fairly quickly, but the journey would last 80 days longer and require that the astronauts fly much closer to the sun, within the orbit of Venus, in one portion of the trip. That would add to the already considerable radiation hazards.

When Tito broached the idea of Inspiration Mars early this year, he thought he could use primarily private rockets and minimize the need for NASA involvement. But the feasibility study led Tito back to NASA. NASA is building a jumbo rocket, the Space Launch System, that is supposed to be ready for its inaugural, uncrewed test flight in 2017. The second launch, carrying a crew in NASA’s new Orion capsule for the first time, isn’t scheduled until 2021.

Tito’s plan would essentially borrow the SLS for the Mars mission, if NASA agreed. And NASA would have to pay for a lot of this. Tito described Inspiration Mars as a “philanthropic partnership with government.” He said private donors would probably give about $300 million for the mission, and the government would need to provide about $700 million — in addition to the money NASA is already spending, under current programs, on rocket and spacecraft development.

NASA reacted coolly to Tito’s proposal.

“Inspiration Mars’s proposed schedule is a significant challenge due to life support systems, space radiation response, habitats and the human psychology of being in a small spacecraft for over 500 days,” spokesman David Weaver said in a statement. “The agency is willing to share technical and programmatic expertise with Inspiration Mars but is unable to commit to sharing expenses with them. However, we remain open to further collaboration as their proposal and plans for a later mission develop.”据《华盛顿邮报》11月20日报道，美国亿万富翁丹尼斯•蒂托当天宣布，他的“灵感火星”计划最早将在2017年12月实现，届时两名宇航员将乘坐载人飞船开启探索火星之旅。

蒂托20日在美国众议院航空航天小组委员会举行的听证会上说：“这将是一段长达8亿英里（约合13亿公里）、耗时501天的旅程。载人火星之旅不再是梦想，甚至无需几十年，只要再等几年就能实现了。”尽管不会登陆火星，但宇航员距离火星表面最近时在100英里（约合161公里）以内。

蒂托说，之所以选择2017年，是因为到时火星和地球将在一条直线上，能极大地缩短往返时间，并节约燃料。他还提到了一个备选计划，即在2021年另一次类似机会出现时出发，但届时宇航员将要在太空中多待80天，且由于更靠近太阳要承受更多辐射。

蒂托表示想和美国国家航空航天局（NASA）合作，包括借用NASA的“太空发射系统”（Space Launch System）。蒂托称“灵感火星”是“与政府合作的慈善项目”，私人捐助者将资助3亿美元，政府仅需再提供7亿美元，当然这其中不包括NASA当前的各个项目以及研发火箭的费用。载人火星之旅成本极高，此前的说法是需要10到20亿美元。

不过NASA对此反应冷淡。其发言人戴维•韦弗说：“‘灵感火星’计划是个巨大的挑战，要考到生命支持系统、太空辐射反应、居住环境和在小飞船里待上500多天对人的心理影响。我们愿与‘灵感火星’分享技术和计划方面的专业知识，但不能承诺分担费用。”

蒂托曾是NASA喷气推进实验室科学家，后来在加州成立了一家投资公司，赚了一笔钱。2001年，他花钱搭乘俄罗斯火箭飞上国际空间站，成为人类历史上首位“太空游客”。