Wednesday, 3/1

I wonder how much it's gonna cost?

The news that broke Monday about Space X flying two space tourists to the moon & back next year caught my attention, for reasons that would be obvious to anyone who's ever read these things. According to the company's head, Elon Musk, the two tourists have already paid a substantial deposit and are fully funding the first flight by humans to the moon since 1972, where they will shoot past the moon, loop around, and then (hopefully) make it back to Earth.

Uhm...if it doesn't cost too much, can I chip in for a seat?

8-)

I can't even imagine how much it's going to cost the two to make the trip, and if I'm totally honest, part of me wonders if the money wouldn't be better spent feeding people or providing safe housing for millions of refugees who currently have no home. But if you have the money and you have the desire to make the trip, I can certainly see why you'd want to go. Only (I think) 26 people have ever left Earth orbit to head to the moon, and to be the first two people to do it for a vacation would just be incredible. I mean, sure, they'll be launched on the Falcon Heavy rocket, a booster that hasn't flown yet, and travel in a Dragon spacecraft, which hasn't yet carried humans into orbit, but you'll be going to the moon.

That outweighs the risks, right?

According to the story, the company says the two private citizens are fully aware of the risks, which I would hope is the case. Going to the moon isn't like hopping onto a plane and heading to, say, Europe. Nope; at least in a plane, if you have a problem you can usually land somewhere and take care of whatever the situation is. But when you're going to the moon, you're going to the moon. You don't have any place to land if you have a problem. And even when you get back to Earth there's still that little problem of not burning up in Earth's atmosphere and landing safely in the ocean.

But other than that it's not too risky.

Now, that being said, would I go if given the chance? You bet I would. I know how risky space travel can be. But I also know that everything is done to make sure that those risks are minimized. I have to admit, the timeline of the flight might worry me—after all, the company will only be testing the Falcon Heavy booster for the first time this summer, and will launch its first crewed Dragon capsule a few months before the scheduled jaunt to the moon—but if those tests and first flights go well, I could see the allure of heading to the moon, especially as the first private citizens to do so. After all, the history books awake.

Here's my prediction--I don't think they'll fly as scheduled next fall, but I do think they will eventually make it. And I do think that this will open a whole new era in spaceflight, at least for those who can afford it. But it's a start. One day—maybe too late for my dream of making it into space, but one day-- flying into space will be as common as hopping onto a jet and flying to Europe. After all, think how exotic that concept was a century ago, and now people don't even give it a second thought.

And at the very least, we can all say we were around when space became a place for you to go on vacation.

(jim@wmqt.com), still volunteering, if anyone asks!