Posted on 06/28/2007 10:41:02 AM PDT by Freeport
ASPEN, Colorado - You don't have to pack your bags quite yet, but passenger travel to the Moon is on the flight manifest of a space tourist company.
The price per seat will slap your wallet or purse for a swift $100 million - but you'll have to get in line as the first voyage is already booked.
Space Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, is in negotiations with the customers who will fly the first private expedition to circumnavigate the Moon.
"I hope to have those contracts signed by the end of the year," said Eric Anderson, Space Adventures' president and CEO.
Anderson outlined the future for his space travel firm during Flight School, a workshop for commercial space and private aviation ventures, held here June 20-22 at the Aspen Institute.
Lunar leap: free-return
A Space Adventures team has blueprinted a circumlunar mission using a unique blend of existing and flight-tested Russian technology. At the heart of the lunar leap is Russia's venerable Soyuz spacecraft. A pilot and two passengers would depart Earth in their Soyuz, linking up in orbit with an unpiloted kick stage for a boost outward to the Moon.
"The Soyuz was originally designed as a circumlunar spacecraft. It hasn't flown with people around the Moon, of course. But the Soyuz would fly a free-return trajectory - a boomerang course - around the Moon. So there's not a lot that needs to be done to the Soyuz to accommodate for that...it could probably fly around the Moon right now," Anderson told SPACE.com. "There will be some upgrades to the communications systems...and we would make the window bigger too."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
filing
What happens in moon-partial-orbit stays in moon-partial-orbit. Except for the Bill Bennett Exemption to that rule.
Didn’t these guys ever hear of Apollo 13?
Has a ‘Astronaut Farmer’ feel to it.
Interesting movie by Bill Bob Thornton, btw.
Not simple by any means, but I would suspect that that lesson is well incorporated into the spacecraft modifications he’s referring too.
I could see myself saying that, over and over, about 30 minutes into the mission.
They'd have to pay me $100 million to go on that trip.
On one hand, the Soyuz is a damn reliable piece of equipment. On the other hand, to everyone who seems to think that private enterprise should handle space exploration, you guys go first. :D I’d actually trust NASA rather than some startup that decided the moon would be a great tourist destination.
I would assume that the company is doing a little phyc. weeding before people sign up. Otherwise I wouldn’t go either!
That's just it, Apollo 13 lost all power. The lunar module became the crew's "lifeboat" - an option Soyuz wouldn't have. Just within the last month the Russian module on the ISS lost it's computers for a couple of days. I'd take a Soyuz to orbit, where you can always return right away if you needed to but I'd pass on the Moon.
Good! Can you bonus me the $100 million? I’ll go get a ticket now...
Charge $10 to get to the moon and $100 million to return.
I’d rather die this way than in a hospital bed!
Yes, but they've also heard of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, which were successes.
"Open the pod bay door, HAL!"
That he can do, legally. He can’t land on the moon if it so much as scuffs the regolith.
Good one...
Dave.. I can feel my mind going Dave...
Pull the other one...
If a private entity lands on the moon, you can watch the “moon treaty” flush... And good riddance...
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