A $100 Million Trip to the Moon

Kyusaku Natsume writes "Russia's federal space agency will offer a $100m trip to the moon. From the UK Guardian's article:" "We've had the necessary technology for many years, the only problem will be finding someone prepared to pay that much." "

Comments

Seems a bit steep to me...

[TripMaster Monkey]

From TFA:

Space tourists will not land on its surface but will circle its dark side and orbit close enough to examine its cratered lunar crust. They would live in two cramped modules about three metres across and eat biscuits and food in tubes.

Doesn't sound all that great, really...$100 mil for that? I can do that right now for free...in fact, I am doing that right now (sitting in my cramped cubicle, eating Ding-Dongs from the snack machine, and examining the cratered lunar crust.

Oh, and by the way,

"There is no dark side of the moon really...matter of fact it's all dark."

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon

Warning

[matt21811]

Warning: Dont buy this. The price is does not include a landing. You just fly around the moon and come back. It is clearly a rip off.

Re:Warning

[imsabbel]

Well, considering people paid >10 Million for just getting into low earth orbit, 100 million for going all the way to the moon (including seeing earth as a tiny sphere in the disctance) doesnt seem _that_ out of place...

Re:Warning

[iocat]

Yeah, I was just reading my Lonely Planet: Moon guide, and they said specifically to watch out for drinks that didn't have a listed price, and foreign space agencies that promised you the moon, but not a landing on the moon...

Russsia shouldn't be the only one

[JossiRossi]

I find it odd that Russia is at the forefront of commercial space travel. I mean they are capable of it, but I somehow thought that by now a public company could have pulled it off already. NASA f'ing up space travel with it's politics and disillusioning some about it likely has not helped.

Re:Russsia shouldn't be the only one

[stlhawkeye]

I find it odd that Russia is at the forefront of commercial space travel. I mean they are capable of it, but I somehow thought that by now a public company could have pulled it off already. NASA f'ing up space travel with it's politics and disillusioning some about it likely has not helped.

Blame government hand-wringing. The last time they allowed a "space tourist" on a shuttle flight, it was a schoolteacher who won a contest, and she got killed. NASA is understandably reluctant to suffer such a disaster again. The Challenger incident set our space program back to such a serious degree that it's still never recovered. Before Challenger, talk was afoot of orbital space flight being the next wave of public transportation. Imagine flying from New York to Tokyo in a few hours!

NASA never really recovered from Challenger, and Columbia should have been to nail in NASA's coffin, as it was. And it may prove to have been in the end. We're well overdue to privatize American space exploration. That doesn't mean that government cannot engage in it, only that government shouldn't be the owners of American space initiatives. NASA ought to be split into two groups: a regulatory/oversight body to manage space projects and allocate research time on government-owned orbital platforms such as Hubble, and a second body that is purely scientific in nature. Private American spaceflight would be completely permissable on the grounds that telemetry, observations, and research conducted on such flights be made available to NASA for internal use (not republication).

Get NASA out of the hardware and flight businesses.

except

[NeMon'ess]

Once you're there getting back will cost another hundred million.

Didn't RTFA

Space tourism and lottery

[Arthur B.]

It may not be easy to find someone willing to pay 100M$ for a trip around the moon. Isn't it waay easier to find 10M people in the world willing to pay 10$ to perhaps win a trip around the moon ? I know I would.

What a bargain

[ChrisF79]

Damn, I'd pay the $100M but I don't think my boss would let me take the week off.

Re:Not the first time

[Chairboy]

That's not... completely accurate.

The Soyuz capsule was designed to travel to the moon as the Zond variant. The system was tested in the late 1960s, using the same type of Proton boosted soyuz capsules to orbit the moon and return, and did so with animals aboard that survived.

But yes, other then being wrong in almost every other respect, you are correct when you say "They posted this idea before".

Re:So lemme see if I got this right...

[badfish99]

Maybe NASA could pay it? They haven't been to the moon for a while.

What else is included?

[mustangdavis]

For $100 million, they better do better than just a pass around the moon!

For example, the Russians on board had better be some REALLY hot Russian babes (like those mail order brides they are always advertising)!

For $100 million, I'd want to be the first guy to have a three way in Space! (with 2 hot women - of course). I also want the exclusive rights to reproduce and sell the video :)

For that matter, would I be the first guy to have sex in Space?

I mean, seriously, if they're not landing on the moon, they had better give me something to do for two weeks. Two weeks in Space would get boring after the first few days if I had nothing to look forward to other than flying around the moon and (hopefully) landing (in one piece). They'd have to provide some serious entertainment for me to fork over that kind of cash ... (that is, if I had it).

Re:discount

[grub]

what about a donation for a make-a-wish foundation candidate?

Good idea. If the rocket explodes on the way up or the craft disintegrates on the round trip or burns up reentering the atmosphere we could just shrug and say "Hey, the kid was going to die anyway."

Re:Three steps to a better world

[cosmo7]

Baikonur: OK, Bill, you need to switch on the retro-rockets to enter lunar orbit.
BG: OK. Is that a wizard?
Baikonur: Try the wizard first.
BG: Got it. It says the Soyuz launch vehicle is not attached.
Baikonur: Ignore that. Click next.
BG: OK. There's an option for the retro-rockets. Selected. Oh, now it says the Soyuz has to restart.
Baikonur: OK.
(two minutes pass)
BG: Hmm, it seems to have forgotten the retro-rockets setting.
Baikonur: OK, go to control panel.
BG: Hold on, it wants me to update my virus settings.
Baikonur: Ignore that, you're going to miss your orbit insertion window.
BG: OK, Navigation Controls.
Baikonur: No, it's in Configuration Options
BG: O... K...
Baikonur: Click advanced.
BG: OK. Ah, I see retro-rockets in the list.
Baikonur: Select and click configure.
BG: It's grayed out.
Baikonur: Hmm. Are you running as admin?
BG: Uh huh.
Baikonur: It shouldn't be grayed out.
BG: It is.
Baikonur: Did you check the retro rockets are properly installed?
BG: Wow, I'm going right past the moon.
Baikonur: OK, lets try doing a 180 and using the main engines. Go to Thruster Options.
BG: OK. There's a little dog asking me if I want to lift off.
(etc, ad infinitum.)

Couldn't have said it better

[jscotta44]

Thanks for the reality check. The United States has forgotten just how many people died to explore and settle North America. Being on the cutting edge is dangerous. But there are huge rewards for the successful and huge payoffs to those of us left behind. Those pioneers that take the big risks expand our envelope and we get huge benefits from that.