This would be the first ever commercial mission to Mars, and such a claim could be safely dismissed as absurd. But this announcement, as bold as it is, is probably worth taking seriously because of the companies and players involved. Founded in , Relativity has raised more than $ billion and is set to launch its small Terran rocket later this year. It plans to D print most of its vehicles and has long been developing the fully reusable Terran R rocket, which is expected to out power SpaceX's Falcon for a commercial mission to Mars. Relativity plans to prepare the Terran R rocket for launch in and make its maiden flight to Mars with a payload in late.
The Impulse Space project is newer, less than a year old, but it involves experienced engineers. Its founder is Tom Mueller, the first employee hired by SpaceX, who led the propulsion division for more than ten years. Its engines are used in Falcon , Falcon Heavy and Dragon. Muller sees launch as a solved problem and is developing a line of non toxic, low cost engines to serve the Switzerland WhatsApp Number List space propulsion market. This is a completely new era of spaceflight, and we want to be able to provide a reliable and inexpensive space installation. We want to do everything orbital, lunar, interplanetary flights, Muller said in an interview. Mission concept The Mars mission was conceived last year when Relativity's vice president of engineering and manufacturing Zach Dunn approached Mueller.
They were old colleagues. Mueller hired Dunn at SpaceX back in , where the intern was soon put in charge of testing the engines and then the entire facility for the first Falcon rockets. Relativity wanted to make a splash with its first Terran R mission, and Mueller accepted the challenge. They devised a mission where the Terran R vehicle would launch a Martian cruise missile developed by Impulse Space on a trajectory to Mars.