Cheap orbital flights + future mars exploration

''Searfoss is the senior (and so far only) test pilot for XCOR Aerospace, a California startup that started selling tickets today for suborbital trips to space for $95,000 per ride.
...
XCOR's passengers, meanwhile, will wear pressurized garments, fly only with a pilot and be strapped down for the entire ride. It won't last as long or go as high. XCOR's strongest selling point is the view.'' [source]


''NASA is delaying launch of a giant Mars robotic mission that is hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, the space agency said Thursday. ...
The Mars Science Lab is billed as the most advanced spacecraft to probe the Martian surface. The size of a small sports utility vehicle, it will study whether the environment was habitable in Mars' early history and will carry high-tech instruments to analyze rocks and soil in greater detail than previous surface missions.'' [source]