Unfortunately it's a fly by mission. He's tired of hearing we can't send humans to Mars just yet because most missions want to land there and they are still ironing out that approach and tech, as it requires a return vehicle, and fuel for it it, which is probably the biggest hurdle for a manned landing on Mars. Tito just wants the US government to spend billions of dollars on a 2 man fly by.

Speaking as a space nerd, this interests me, but I see it as kind of pointless. They need to focus on a landing. 501 day mission with two people in it will just get ridiculed by the media for being expensive and worthless, and they'll be right. This is just a ploy by Tito to grab a headline, and maybe (unlikely) get a couple hundred billion to do bore the ever living shit out of two guys for 500+ days on a flyby mission to Mars. NASA is already pro at getting things to Mars and orbiting probes, and even making complex landings.

Problem is, without a landing, a 500+day mission isn't going to get the attention it deserves, they'll show the launch on the media stations, perhaps a couple updates here and there, and the flyby. Problem is, you can't do live TV from that far away, so the PR aspect is kind of bunk. It will all be delayed by up to 6-8 minutes depending on time of year. So all we'll get our recordings, which again are cool and all, but we already have pictures of mars, we have made multiple robotic landings, we have pictures from the surface, and even soil sample tests. Two guys flying by and doing something we already know how to do really doesn't bring us any new science, and it really doesn't bring us anything we haven't seen. I see this as almost a set back to an actual Mars landing because now we have wasted billions on this, instead of putting that towards a landing.

Space budgets are rough as it is. Spending it on this, will only set an actual Mars landing back. I just find it silly. Tito is being intentionally dishonest here, no one said we can't send two people to Mars and back right now, they just said we don't currently have the tech to LAND people on Mars and RETURN them. It would be cool to see, and it would be a pretty cool mission, but without any other science being done or pre-landing anything for future missions while they are there, I really don't think it's worth the pricetag to send two guys on a 500 day trip around Mars. If something happens to them on a pointless mission, how well do you think getting the budget for a landing will go?

I'm conflicted over this, there is some value in a flyby mission, but overall I give it a thumbs down. Also, I'd rather not give this guy the flyby mission, and instead wait til SpaceX is ready to do it, because they are the only one really working on a return craft currently and getting close. Give them the flyby experience if it's deemed needed. Orbital is just trying to play catch up here. They aren't even going to use their rocket or their funds! They want NASA to give them a rocket, the money to do it, and what are they bringing to the table... a capsule? Save the Mars funds for SpaceX or NASA themselves. They have rockets, capsules, and are working on return vehicles.

Orbital Sciences doesn't deserve this, they are behind, and they know it, and want someone else to front everything to get their stock price to go up. Big surprise.

EDIT: In further reading on this, Orbital doesn't even plan to use their own capsule for this. They want to use the Lockheed Orion capsule (which isn't ready yet), launced on multiple SLS NASA rockets (not ready yet, haven't even flown yet), and use US budget dollars to do this. So this entire proposal boils down to "NASA you should go to Mars in 2018 and hurry up this already delayed heavy lift project up! Oh, and we'd like the credit!"

Just read his wikipedia page on him. This guy is awesome.