Can a person fly to the Moon as a tourist?

Can a person fly to the Moon as a tourist? - Birds Flying Under a Pink Sky

I don't want to really fly there, it would take too long and probably would be prohibitively expensive for me.

But nevertheless I am really wondering if it is already possible, and if so, how expensive it is and which companies might offer such ventures?



Best Answer

Unfortunately since 1972, travel to the moon has been non-existent, tourism or business. Currently the best bets to get yourself to the moon are with the USA, the European Space Agency and China - all have serious space programs with intentions to return, but are in no hurry - indeed the European Space Agency prefers robotic missions in general.

NASA was targeting their next trip for 2018, but that now looks to be perhaps a decade later than that. China is aiming for 2024, and India is perhaps dreaming but claims to want to go in 2020. Naturally places are limited on these crafts so you'll want to get in early.

Prices are difficult to estimate. Space tourism to the International Space Station is generally on the Soyuz rockets which can only reach Low Earth Orbit, and trips are generally believed to be around US$20 million per person.

If you're content with just a look at the moon, the private company Space Adventures and the Russian Space Agency have floated the idea of a flight around the moon for around US$100 million.

Getting around is more difficult once there, you can't fly as there's no atmosphere, and unless you bring a rover/vehicle you're stuck walking. If you can manage to land on Mons Hadley, the Descartes Highland or the Taurus-Littrow valley there are three stranded moon buggies from previous trips that may have some power left in them for your purposes.

There's not much to do once there - but the view of Earth is outstanding. You can play golf - although there's no official courses, but with the low gravity you'll set a personal best for driving, I promise!

And of course, where better a place to do the moonwalk than on the Sea of Tranquillity, site of the original manned moon landing!

Don't forget to bring food and drink with you, as there are currently no markets or shops on the surfaces, although Dominos is planning on opening a branch of its pizza chain there soon.




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Can a person fly to the Moon as a tourist? - People on Concrete Building during Sunset
Can a person fly to the Moon as a tourist? - Back view of unrecognizable travelers in headsets admiring view of city during flight in helicopter
Can a person fly to the Moon as a tourist? - Back view of anonymous tourists in motor boat sailing on rippled lake between rough rocks under cloudy sky with flying bird



Can you go to the moon as a tourist?

SpaceX is building a lunar lander for crewed NASA missions to the Moon, but that same technology can be used to one day deliver paying tourists to the lunar surface. The Elon Musk-founded company also has plans to send a tourist flight called dearMoon around the Moon without landing on the surface.

Can anybody fly to the moon?

Answer: Airplanes and helicopters using the resistance of the Earth's atmosphere (mostly nitrogen gas) to provide \u201clift\u201d, which allows them to fly. Since both would have to exit the Earth's atmosphere to get to the Moon, neither would be able to fly to the Moon.

How much does it cost to fly someone to the moon?

Reporting on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing two years ago, Forbes calculated that the Apollo 11 mission cost $355 million to launch in 1969. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to about $2.7 billion in today's dollars -- 34% cheaper than the projected SLS launch cost.



Space Travel To Moon:See How SpaceX Will Send The First Tourist To Moon In 2023 With BFR




More answers regarding can a person fly to the Moon as a tourist?

Answer 2

Another more graphical answer:

Guide to going into Space

Answer 3

With the privatisation of space travel business, there are some interesting projects in pipeline.
Check the below links:

  1. Virgin Galactic - Richard Branson's Virgin Group Venture
  2. Blue Origin - Jeff Bezos' (Amazon CEO) venture
  3. Space Elevator
  4. List of private spaceflight companies

Answer 4

A company, Golden Spike, offers bookings for lunar tours in the next decade.

According to news articles, the fee is as low as $1.4 billion.

Answer 5

Wikipedia has a page on that topic: Tourism on the Moon:

Space tourism companies which have announced they are pursuing lunar tourism include Space Adventures,[4] Excalibur Almaz,[4] Virgin Galactic[2] and SpaceX.[3]

The SpaceX project, dearMoon project, is one of the most likely projects to be successful in my opinion, but is not planned to take place before 2023.

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Eugene Golovesov, Naya Shaw, Maarten van den Heuvel, Ever Cano