Even if everything does go according to plan, though, cynics might question the value of a billion-dollar, one-and-a-half year trip that comes within spitting distance of Mars but does not land.
There was the chatty older couple on their annual half year RV trip across the USA with their leashed cat, who later invited my older son Kai to watch the NBA finals in their vehicle.
When the travel blogger Matt Kepnes, a k a Nomadic Matt, set off on a six-and-a-half-year backpacking trip that would take him to a staggering 70 countries, the relative merits of his bank account and credit card were an afterthought, he said.
Q: I'm planning a gap year trip to South America this year.
On the year trip, we just went wherever we wanted to at that time.
It's cool that you took a "Chicken Soup for the Soul"/ Middle-aged crisis/millennial self-discovery/cheap gap year trip to Bangkok/Bombay/Istanbul/wherever.
If while on the mandatory gap year trip to Indonesia you stumble across an image of the Führer, don't be surprised.
The gap year trip for Israel is for many British Jews a sine qua non, an essential part of becoming a Jewish adult.
A gap year abroad doesn't mean you need to spend 12 months travelling, says Hollie Brooks, market director at Bunac, which organises gap year trips abroad.
Britain's task was made harder seven minutes into the second half when Larsson was dismissed for tripping Nikola Karabatic, although replays suggested the former world player of the year tripped over himself.
CDOT noted that prior to the retrofit, about 20,000 vehicles per year tripped the alarm.
