You can still book your flight to Mars

Space to dream

Richard Branson’s dream of commercial space flights has suffered a setback after a prototype craft crashed. But others are still offering opportunities for adventure…
— Golden Spike is an American company planning to send a couple of passengers to the Moon from 2020 onwards. Each will pay an estimated return fare of $700 million.
— Inspiration Mars Foundation plan to take advantage of a rare alignment of planets in 2018 to send a male/female couple on a ‘quick’ 501-day flypast of Mars. As yet, it hasn’t announced whether or not they will have to pay for the privilege.
— Mars One, a Dutch company, plans to start a colony of four humans on Mars by 2023. If they survive, another four will join at two-year intervals up to a maximum of 20. None will return. The company says it has received 200,000 applications.