Is 2014 the year for private/university planetary missions?

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mikejz

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I was reading about launch windows, and discovered something interesting: In 2014 a once in 20 years windows is open that would allow for a Earth-Mars-Venus-Earth trajectory. The big thing is that since it comes back to earth a mission would not need to worry that much about data communications back to earth (High gain antennas, large tracking dishes, earth pointing, etc) I could just store the data and send it back to earth when comes back. Seems like the perfect opportunity for a university or private org to launch a miniature mission; it might be able to be done for only a couple million, if that. Not exactly a ton of new science, more of a proof that small groups can launch planetary missions.
 
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