Millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito's plan to send two astronauts on a 501-day flight that zooms past Mars and swings back to Earth would set plenty of precedents on the final frontier — but the most intriguing precedent might have to do with the astronauts that are to be sent: one man and one woman, preferably a married couple beyond childbearing years. We're talking about sex in space, folks.

And if that's not intriguing enough, consider this: There are already a couple of candidates for the job.

"We'll certainly throw our hat in the ring," said Taber MacCallum, who's a member of the development team for the 2018 mission that Tito has in mind.

MacCallum and his wife, Jane Poynter , were crew members together in Biosphere 2 , the controversial two-year-long experiment in long-term environmental containment. They went on to become co-founders of Paragon Space Development Corp, a company specializing in life-support systems for spacecraft. Their expertise in life support is why they're involved in Tito's "Mission for America," which was officially unveiled on Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington.

But it just so happens that they also fit the profile for the trip: Poynter is about 50, and MacCallum will turn 49 on July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The couple won't be the only candidates in the running. "When we tell people we're proposing to send a man and a woman on a mission to Mars, as a married couple, people line up. ... That chord gets struck over and over again," MacCallum said.

MacCallum explained that Tito wants the crew on humanity's first trip to Mars to be representative of humanity, and because the current concept for the trip calls for two spacefliers, that means a man and a woman. A married couple would be ideal, MacCallum said, because of the "whole issue of companionship." MacCallum didn't refer specifically to sex, but that would presumably be part of the companionship package.

"When you're out that far, and the Earth is a tiny, blue pinpoint, you're going to need someone you can hug," Tito told Space.com . During Wednesday's briefing, Tito told reporters that he envisioned Dr. Phil giving the couple "marital advice" during the trip.

In addition to their experience with life-support systems (and with each other),
MacCallum and Poynter can draw upon their experience with life in isolation during the Biosphere 2 experiment in Arizona, which lasted from 1991 to 1993.

The isolation inside a two-room spacecraft for 501 days will be even deeper. Even though the Biosphere 2 crew was separated from the outside world,"we could walk out at any time," MacCallum pointed out.

That's not the only challenge: Even with radiation shielding in place, the round trip to Mars is likely to involve exposure levels higher than NASA's limits , MacCallum said. (That's why the astronauts should be beyond their childbearing years and willing to accept an increased risk of cancer.)

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/27/17107722-millionaire-dennis-tito-plans-to-send-woman-and-man-to-mars-and-back?lite

Picture of Taber MacCallum and his wife, Jane Poynter, they are part of the planning team for a mission to Mars in 2018, and also potential candidates to take the trip.

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