SpaceX is known for having some pretty ambitious goals.
It is working on starting that whole human colony on Mars, after all.
But now the company has added another ridiculous goal to its list.
It’s going to try to send two people around the Moon at the end of 2018.
These astronauts won’t be employed by NASA, though.
They’re paying customers who approached SpaceX to do the trip.
We don’t know who they are just yet, but they’ve put down a sizable deposit for the
mission.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the trip should take about a week to pull off.
The two customers will launch on top of the Falcon Heavy; that’s the souped-up version
of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket that’s supposed to fly for the first time this summer.
And the passengers will ride inside the Crew Dragon capsule, an upgraded version of the
Dragon cargo capsule.
SpaceX has already been developing the Crew Dragon to carry astronauts to and from the
station for NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Program.
Apparently the vehicle can do just fine carrying people near the Moon too.
The plan is for the Crew Dragon to loop around the Moon, go a bit out into deep space, and
then come back to Earth.
All in all, a trip that spans between 300,000 and 400,000 miles.
The vehicle will mostly be automated, but if there is an emergency the passengers may
have to step in.
To get back, the Crew Dragon will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and land the passengers,
hopefully gently.
It’s a unique mission for SpaceX, because it’ll officially put it in the space tourism
business.
So far, the company has launched satellites for commercial companies and cargo for NASA.
And SpaceX will be launching people soon too, but those riders will be NASA astronauts.
If it pulls this off, it’ll be the first time private citizens have traveled this far
out into space.
While this is new territory for SpaceX, the Moon mission sounds an awful lot like another
upcoming space mission — one that NASA wants to do.
Right now, NASA is building a brand-new rocket called the Space Launch System, or S-L-S and
a crew capsule called Orion.
Together, the pair is meant to carry astronauts into deep space and onto Mars someday.
The S-L-S hasn’t flown yet, but the plan is for the rocket to fly for the first time
— without a crew — in late 2018.
But recently, NASA said it was going to look into maybe putting people on the first flight
of the SLS, possibly for a mission in late 2019.
That trip will take a two-person crew, riding inside the Orion crew capsule, on an eight
or nine-day mission around the Moon and back.
Hmm, that sounds familiar?
So with this Moon mission announcement, SpaceX seems to have created a bit of a space race
between the public and private sector.
The company is sending the message that it can do what NASA plans to do, only faster.
It seems like a political move for SpaceX, too, since the new administration may be more
interested in using the private space industry.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy looks to be significantly cheaper than the SLS, so officials may be
interested in using the more cost-efficient option to explore space instead of what NASA
is building.
But there are a few big caveats to consider.
First of all, NASA’s vehicles have a lot of support in Congress, so they probably won’t
be replaced by SpaceX anytime soon.
Plus, SpaceX is terrible about meeting deadlines.
The Falcon Heavy was originally supposed to debut in 2013 or 2014, but its flight has
been repeatedly pushed back to this year.
There are also some questions of safety.
Within the past two years, two of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have exploded.
Elon argues that the Falcon 9’s success rate is still quite high, but that there will
definitely be risk involved with the Moon mission.
He says the customers are “entering this with their eyes open.”
Good cause it’s gonna be one hell of a view.
If the trip is successful, Elon sees these private Moon vacations as being a big source
of revenue for SpaceX.
He thinks there’s a market for at least one or two trips a year, and the missions
account for 10 to 20 percent of SpaceX’s revenue.
As for how much each mission will cost, he estimates a little more than the cost of taking
people to International Space Station.
Right now, NASA pays between $70 and $80 million to send just one astronaut to the station
on a Russian Soyuz rocket.
So if we’re operating in that ballpark, I uhhh guess I’ll start saving now.
So Elon clarified that these people aren’t from Hollywood.
Ah, But Elon announced this moon vacation, while I was on vacation.
So I think it is only fair that I become one of the people to go… for free.