Could Manned Mars Mission Happen?

2/25/2013 (Updated 7:05:50 PM)

(Source: Jason Weinstein)

The year will be 2018. Our next president will be a year into his or her first term, today's high school juniors will be graduating college, and man could be on his way to Mars. At least if millionaire Dennis Tito has his way.

Tito is proposing a private, 501-day round trip to mars. He'll reveal details at a press conference in Washington on Wednesday. But is this trip possible?

"Well, physically I would say it's plausible. Whether or not they can meet the timeline by 2018 is definitely in question," said Roy Williams of Kopernik Observatory.

Tito chairs the Inspiration Mars Foundation. According to the group the trip is intended to encourage a new generation to get involved in science, technology, math and engineering.

"I think it could excite a lot of STEM education. It's really important to get students interested in science. Going to Mars would be a project that might do that," said Williams.

Private initiatives supplementing NASA projects could be the future of space exploration.

"With companies like Space X winning the X-Prize and getting into orbit and even sending a capsule to the International Space Station, it shows private enterprise can do it," said Williams.

There are big challenges to a manned mission to Mars, financial and otherwise.

"It it's going to take over a year to get there there's already been experiments where people are actually having psychological problems being cooped up for such a long trip. So I think that('s) a problem, along with radiation," said Williams.

But no one ever said reaching for the Red Planet will be easy.

"I still think human beings are very smart. We can figure things out and they have to definitely pick the right people to be in a small can for that long," said Williams.

***In Vestal, Jason Weinstein, Fox 40 HD News***