I recently heard a talk on a similar idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogravity_assist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogravity_assist A lot of technology

I recently heard a talk on a similar idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogravity_assist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogravity_assist A lot of technology still needs to be developed before something like this is viable, but if it were possible a trip to mars travel time would be cut down tremendously. If I remember right there were two launch windows a year using that method.