New Mars Forums

Milling some ideas around in my head, I'd like to get some feedback on a few of them.

What would you all think about the possibilty/plausiability of a unmanned Mars mission, funded, directed and controled from the private sector, namely the Mars Society?

Conditions for this hypothetical are:
-A Private entity is willing to launch a payload of a specific mass into a TMI orbit
-Sufficent funding can be obtained for the testing, procurement and manufacture of the unmanned mission
-Support using NASA's DSN to facilitate mission communication

What are some ideas for missions? I have included some ideas of my own, geared mainly toward the near-future Mars-Direct style missions.
-Small Scale In-Situ Propellant lander with or without sample return
-Multiple Aerial Balloon Recon Packages
-Orbiting TDDRS's