A new private mission called Inspiration Mars is planning to be the first manned mission to Mars and BACK. They will accomplish this using a slingshot trajectory to send a spacecraft by Mars and Venus before returning to Earth.

The mission is the idea of Dennis Tito, the multimillionaire and the world's first space tourist. Tito spent eight days in orbit on a mission to the International Space Station in 2001 and it must have inspired him to send humans even farther.

Tito is looking to NASA for some help and equipment. His idea is to work with a modified capsule from NASA's Orion spacecraft and with the Orbital Sciences Cygnus module. The entire thing would be launched into space by NASA’s new Space Launch System rocket.

The mission will be manned by two and would use gravity to slingshot itself around Mars and Venus before it returns back to Earth.

Inspiration Mars’ initial trajectory would be towards the Sun, whose gravity would help it pick up speed. Then it will get hurled towards Mars and Venus, flying by them, and finally, like a boomerang, it will swing back to Earth.

No word on when this mission would take place.

[Space]