/ News
Nonprofit To Send A Married Couple Skimming Past Mars In 2018
An audacious plan to send two people looping around Mars and back has a lot of crazy components--who will pay for it? Who will design and build the special rocket and spaceship for this mission? How can it possibly be ready in just five years? And who gets to go? And why? So far, only that last question has an answer, and it’s the only non-crazy part of this new plan: Why not?
We first heard about the “Mission for America” last week, when the first details emerged about space tourist Dennis Tito’s Inspiration Mars program. Tito, who gained fame as the first person to pay for a round-trip ticket to the International Space Station, wants to send a two-person crew to Mars and back in 501 days, starting in 2018. The nonprofit company formed to further this goal held a press announcement Wednesday in Washington, presenting scarce new details but pretty good answers to the oft-repeated question of why. American pride is high on the list.
|
Someone asked Tito if he just waned to beat China to Mars, and he replied, “Wouldn’t I want to do that? Wouldn’t I want America to do that? Wouldn’t you want America to do that?” |
Since the announcement, several space exploration luminaries--not the least of whom is Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin--have lined up to lend moral support. “The purpose is to inspire, to say we're going to do something and then we do it,” he told the Washington Post. A 6-year-old boy who reportedly said “this is my Apollo” has apparently made one of the first donations, worth $10.
The Mission for America has a tight schedule because it aims to take advantage of a rare alignment between Mars and Earth during the 2018 launch window. The trajectory is so carefully designed that the spacecraft wouldn’t need to fire its engines to get around Mars and back; instead it would just use the planet as a slingshot. It would gain immense speeds for the return leg and would need no de-orbit burn. But as we learned with Apollo 13, there’s a really tiny window for error.
Mars Mission Trajectory: The spacecraft would swing around the far side of Mars before returning to Earth. No spacecraft or people would land on the surface. Inspiration Mars
It will be cramped, uncomfortable, scary and lonely, which is one reason why the mission’s supporters think the crew should be a married couple. You’d want two people no matter what, if for no other reason than contingency--in case something happened to one person, you’d have a backup pilot. But anyone making the trip would also be subject to crushing loneliness, especially while watching our planet fade to a pale blue dot as the odometer ticks into the hundreds of millions. Being there with your spouse would make it a little easier.
The Inspiration Mars team clearly has a ton of work to do--and very soon--before this dream gets anywhere near reality. But it’s definitely exciting to think about it.
Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/lewis-and-clark-mars-expedition-would-send-married-couple-skimming-past-mars-2018
/ About us
Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru