Students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other universities announced Monday that they will be launching a mission called Time Capsule to Mars, which aims to send tens of millions of people to the Red Planet by 2017.
The team plans to do this by sending three tiny satellites, called CubeSats, that contain photos, videos, messages, and audio clips from the year 2014 to Mars' surface, according to Boston Globe. The project's leaders said at a press conference in Washington that it is the first crowd-funded, interplanetary mission led by students.
11 MIT scholars are involved in the project and will be overseen by Paul Lozano, director of the Space Propulsion Laboratory at the university. Lozano said new inventions may be needed while the project moves along, and that it will test several new technologies. If the mission is successful, it will help develop more inexpensive ways to explore Mars, he added.
"This is not different from any other benefits technology brings to society," Lozano said. "These endeavors require a high technical skill, and it's very important for young people to be a part of that."
The mission is expected to cost close to $25 million, The Verge reported.
Advisors for the project include astronauts Kent Rominger, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Charlie Precourt. Assistance will also be provided for the students from NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Explore Mars, a nonprofit organization based in Boston.
The idea for the time capsule came about when students and leaders in the space industry met at the Humans 2 Mars summit in Washington last year and discussed ways to get people excited about space while engaging a larger audience in space exploration.
"We want to remind people we go to space to push forward humanity," said Emily Briere, the project's mission director and student at Duke University. Briere added that a lot of technology, such as wireless headsets, "came from the Apollo era."
"We think space exploration is a natural avenue to explore that has endless rewards to people on Earth."
Lozano mentioned that there are some risks with the mission, such as that most of the technology needed is new and hasn't been tested yet.
"You're very far from home, so getting there is very hard," he said. "The actual propulsion, the communication, and the health of the spacecraft are the biggest concerns."
The students and industry leaders behind the time capsule said they are confident that it will succeed, the Boston Globe reported. The group is letting people make donations for the mission at timecapsuletomars.com, where people will soon be able to upload materials for the project.
"A group of students having the motivation to put together a viable mission like this and raise the funds themselves, that in itself is inspiring," said Chris Carberry, executive director of Explore Mars. "Every member of this team wants to send humans to Mars one day, and this is one way to inspire the public."
