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SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

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Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#21

Post by strictnein »

ktta wrote: post #12

I wonder if it is going to be only two people who are going to go. Will they add more people if they come forward with significant amount of money too? Seems to me like the cost of taking in another person will be negligible in comparison to the funding they could contribute. This is literally a one-in-a-lifetime experience

Others will likely follow, per SpaceX, but I think this is a two person ride.

> "Other flight teams have also expressed strong interest and we expect more to follow."

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#22

Post by _ph_ »

This is exciting news. Some time ago, looking at the F9 Heavy, it seemed to me that SpaceX could fly to the moon with it anytime they decided to. Of course their focus is the Mars. But in the day and age of multi-billionaires and the commercial availability of space flights via SpaceX, this makes absolutely sense. Private funding could push space flights much quicker ahead.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#24

Post by [deleted] »

jansen wrote: post #3

A quote from an article on the Verge says "Musk declined to comment on the exact cost of the trip, but said it was “comparable” or a little more than the cost of a crewed mission to the International Space Station." Does anyone have a rough estimate how much a manned mission to the ISS currently costs?

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#25

Post by agildehaus »

Udik wrote: post #13

So, hmm, we wants to send people around the moon, a year and a half from now, with a rocket he never tested and with a capsule that never flew? I expect half of the directors of SpaceX to resign in the next two days...

Not sure how this differs from Apollo.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#26

Post by davidklemke »

Absolutely incredible. This will be the furthest that humanity has journeyed away from Earth in a very long time.

However it is worth noting that there hasn't been a single crewed Dragon flight yet. There are demonstator flights scheduled for this year though with the first NASA crewed mission slated for May 2018. That's an incredibly aggressive timeline but if anyone can achieve it, SpaceX can.

The long duration flight beyond the moon will be a fantastic proving ground, however.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#27

Post by berberous »

c-slice wrote: post #19

I wonder what NASA is thinking about this? The NASA Commercial Crew program which helped fund the development of the Dragon was funded for manned flight to the ISS. I'm curious if they see this as part of the project scope?

Read the article: "By also flying privately crewed missions, which NASA has encouraged, long-term costs to the government decline and more flight reliability history is gained, benefiting both government and private missions."

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#28

Post by dwringer »

suprgeek wrote: post #15

While this feat depends on hitting a lot of intermediate milestones - Falcon Heavy Test, Crew Dragon Unmanned to ISS, Crew Dragon manned to ISS, etc, there is no "show-stopper" that is apparent right now. I like how they have avoided committing to the much harder "landing on the Moon and then return" scenario.

We choose to not go to the moon, but do the other things, not because they are hard, but because they are relatively easy, and we can make a quick buck.

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#29

Post by bobsky »

jansen wrote: post #3

A quote from an article on the Verge says "Musk declined to comment on the exact cost of the trip, but said it was “comparable” or a little more than the cost of a crewed mission to the International Space Station." Does anyone have a rough estimate how much a manned mission to the ISS currently costs?

Appears to be around $80M per seat. Great graph of how it increase from $20M in 2008 to $80M today after NASA permanently grounded its space shuttles:

http://www.businessinsider.com/space-travel-per-seat-cost-so...

Re: SpaceX to Send Privately Crewed Dragon Spacecraft Beyond the Moon Next Year

#30

Post by soheil »

Who are the two "private citizens"? Seems to be mere urge of "universal human exploration" to go around the moon and not landing on it, etc. isn't doing much exploring, but rather taking a lot of risk on a manned spacecraft that has never been tested with people.
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