Mars Travel - A New Company Seeking to Revolutionize the Commercial Space Industry

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Like many space enthusiasts I despaired every time I heard another space project was cancelled or postponed due to funding issues. But what could I do? Even simple space projects and missions cost millions, if not billions of dollars. Most people don't have that kind of money lying around (no really?!), and I definitely don't.

Does that make us helpless? Should we have to accept that space is only the domain of the government or super rich? Can average people actually make an impact on this multi-billion dollar industry? Most people will say no, that such a thing is impossible, but are they right? 

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That is the question I struggled with for a long time because like millions of other people, space fascinates me and I hate seeing it relegated to the back burner as if it isn't important to humanity. I decided I was going to do something about it, so I created Mars Travel, a company dedicated to connecting space projects and missions with corporate sponsors. {Learn More About Mars Travel} The company is just starting out, but soon I hope to begin linking space projects with funding from corporate sponsors. To do this I will need your help, but first let me explain why this will work.

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Funding Space Missions and Projects Without NASA

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These days NASA is on the congressional chopping block. Their budget was cut from $18.7 billion in 2010 to around $17.9 billion in 2011. Despite this, NASA has pledged to continue funding its most expensive flagship programs, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Space Launch System (SLS) with Orion Capsule, despite the JWST costing a third more than originally expected. The original price tag on the telescope was $6.5 billion, but that has since been revised to $8.7 billion. The senate has said JWST will get $530 million in 2012, which is around 3% of the annual budget.  This is just for the JWST; the SLS will cost around $3 billion annually, which is 16.8% of the budget. These programs are immensely important for the advancement of science and discovery, but they will take up almost a fifth of NASA's overall budget annually. If NASA's funding is cut it will create uncertainty for the future of projects that were counting on NASA to fund them, but which may be deemed not important enough to continue.

If NASA funding smaller projects is such a liability, why don't those projects go elsewhere?

The simple answer: there is no real precedence. Who else has the money to fund space projects that cost millions, if not billions of dollars? If NASA decides  it cannot afford to fund a sample-return mission from Mars,  is there any other way for that important project to get funding? What about other important space missions and projects? If there was a viable alternative means of funding for space projects, wouldn't it have emerged already?

There are two answers, but they might take some time to digest:

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