Most of us know what SpaceX and who Elon Musk is, but let's say few words for the ones who do not know.
Elon Musk is a business magnate and investor. He is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, Hyperloop, The Boring Company, PayPal and many more. In 2016, he was ranked 21st on the Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People and in 2018, he has a net worth of $19.8 billion which listed him as the 46th-richest person in the world. That should more or less illustrate you who he is.
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What is SpaceX then? Space Exploration Technologies Corporation is a privately held rocket and spacecraft company founded in 2002. What makes it great is that SpaceX has been a disruptive force in the worldwide launch industry because its launch services are less expensive than many of its competitors. SpaceX has been able to lower the cost of space travel, largely by manufacturing some of its own parts and making rockets reusable rather than discarding them at take-off.
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One of the most recent Musk’s ideas is to create first private passenger to fly around the Moon. The mission is planned for 2023 and would be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972. Only 24 humans have visited the Moon - all of them Americans; 12 of them landed on the moon. Nasa's Apollo 17 in 1972 marked the last time humans landed on the moon or went beyond low Earth orbit. So how they want to get there? The company said the flight on board the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) - a launch system that was unveiled by Mr. Musk in 2016 - represented "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of travelling to space". The BFR has never flown, but Mr. Musk has released some technical details about it.
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The rocket is expected to stand 118m high and have a diameter of 9m. By comparison, the Falcon Heavy is 70m tall and consists of a central rocket core surrounded by two boosters, each with a diameter of 3.66m. Elon Musk unveiled new artist impressions of the BFR and the spaceship which will carry passengers around the Moon. It appeared to confirm some design changes to the spaceship, including three large fins near the back and a black heat-shield on the craft's underside. Eventually, the BFR should be able to lift a whopping 150 tones into low-Earth orbit - that is more than the US Saturn V rockets that lofted the Apollo spacecraft.
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In 2017, Elon Musk announced that he would be sending two paying passengers on a loop around the Moon - which was to have launched as early as this year. Earlier on Twitter, Musk had already hinted that the passenger would be from Japan. Finally, Japanese billionaire and online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 42, announced: "I choose to go to the Moon.". Mr. Yusaku made headlines last year after paying $110.5m for a painting by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at an auction in New York. The art enthusiast said on Monday he would invite six to eight artists from around the world to join him on the trip. "They will be asked to create something after they return to Earth. These masterpieces will inspire the dreamer within all of us," he told reporters. Maezawa will not land on the moon. He will travel on what is called a "free return trajectory", which will bring his BFR ship back to Earth after it has gone around the far side of the satellite.
Questions:
1. What do you think about this move? Is sending tourists to the moon profitable for the SpaceX?
2. Would you like to go with Mr. Maezawa to the moon? How much would you do to participate?
3. Do you think travels to the moon will become more common and in 10 years anyone could stand on our satellite?
3. Do you think travels to the moon will become more common and in 10 years anyone could stand on our satellite?
Comments
I would love to to be on board. I guess I could stop eating snacks to weigh less during the flight. It's a huge effort.
Not unless there is good profitable reason to go there back and forth. I've heard about theories how to use the Moon as a base for further exploration.
Of course that I’d like to go to the moon! On the other side, my soul have nothing to do with art so…
For sure, travels to the moon will become more common but I think that not in 10 years but 50 seems enough.
I would love to go to the moon! However, it's impossible for me to join Mr. Maezawa due to lack of skills in art. Maybe sometime in the future, I will be as much rich to afford to buy a ticket for myself.
I believe we will be able to stand on the moon, but not each of us. Those trips will be extremely expensive...
I would like to go on the moon with my friends or famili and earn myself for a ticket. I don't like to compete in sort of that things.
I think travelling through space, to the moon or other planets will get more popular when it will get cheaper so if scientists and engineers will find a way of fast and cheap way to travel through space it will get a lot more popular because for now 90% of people can't afford it
2. I do not want to fly to the moon, I am a completely non-creative person. Most likely, when this idea become in life - I will already have a family and children, I guess I would not dare.
3. I believe that we need to add the medical testimony to this idea, as I understand it, that people with a sick heart, lungs, low pressure will not withstand this flight unless of course, they don't want to go on their last journey! Therefore, the theory is quite utopian for earthlings, with our ecology and health, not many will be able to take advantage of this opportunity. My idea is to create favorable conditions on Earth for humans and launch robots into orbit.
I would love to go with Mr. Maezawa to the moon! I think this experience would change my perspective forever. Probably in next 10 years those kind of travels will get more popular however they are extremely expensive so scientists would need to find a way how to make them cheaper first.
I would like to flight with Mr. Maezawa, I think that would be outstanding experience. However, in my opinion, I am not well suited for such events, I am not an artist neither I have millions of dollars. Maybe in a future when space travels will be more common there will be need for programmers on space stations.
Unfortunately I am not so optimistic about idea that anyone will be able to visit the moon in 10 years. Currently, in order to transport relatively light cargo to the orbit rockets consumes enormous amount of fuel . As long as there will be no alternative technology, common people have very small chances to visit the moon.
The development of science is also driven by the needs of people. If people want to travel to the moon, it is possible that there will be more investors, and thus the space and technologies that allow such travel will develop more.
Like travels on ships, and then planes used to be an exquisite and super expensive affair, but now are a common thing to do, space travels will become cheap and available to every willing participant but i cannot be sure about time that would be needed for such transformation.
I don’t think that it will be non profitable move because the company wouldn’t work otherwise and Elon is rather not interested in paying for someone. Also, as was mentioned above, Elon probably makes this move in order to gain popularity so in the end this move will be profitable.
Yes, I would like to go to the moon. At least I would make sure that the Earth is not flat, but seriously it’s unbelievable experience.
Definitely such travels will become more common but 10 years seems like just not enough. I bet for at least 20-30.
Myself, however, I would definitely like to visit the moon, however, the prices will most likely be significantly too high for me for a long time to come, since I would be willing to spend at most 1-2 thousand PLN on it.
I do think that travels to the moon will become more common over time, however 10 years is, in my opinion, definitely not enough to make travel to the moon available to everyone. I'd personally go with a more conservative estimate of 20 to 50 years.
To go with Mr. Maezawa to the moon? Well it would be once in a lifetime event but i guess it would be awkward as hell. Dont get me wrong i would do many thins to go (if im fit to) but it would ruin his and mine experience i feel.
Yes and no they are more common now already one private moon travel is more than zero but will they become even more common in 10 years ? Well maybe if the first one goes well i can see other rich ppl signing up.
I would like to go with Mr. Maezawa. I would be handy when it comes to the technological side of the whole trip and in this way I would pay for my ticket.
I don’t think travels to the moon will become more common and I’m sure, even in 10 years, not everyone would be able to stand on our satellite. This kind of journey requires a lot of money and only a small percentage of society would be able to afford it.
Sending people to the moon was once a sign of the power and strength of the country. Today it is showing that people have no limits in pursuing a goal.
I know that I will not be able to fly to the moon at the moment but I know that maybe someday it will be so popular that we can be on the moon once a week, so I'll wait.
First of all, I am not waiting for a trip around the moon, but I am looking forward to the flight to Mars, which is already in the plans of Spacex. This event will be recorded in history and we will be its witnesses!
I love my life so I’m not sure am I that much interested in going to the moon. But I’ll watch the live-stream from mr Maezawa’s flight, because there’s definitely be one, I think?
Travels to the moon definitely will become more common, but it won’t be that much cheap so that anyone can afford it. I think it’ll become a new way for rich people to show how rich they are. So they could say “I’m tired of Bahamas so I’ll go to the moon, I think” :)
Elon Musk is a great innovator, but on the same time financial dreamers.
Project Tesla is bringing 785.000 mln of loss annually.
No, i am not a big fan of travelling into space or exploring the cosmos.
I think that travels to the moon will never be common and available for every person, but can more accesable.
2. I would like to but not over everything. I could probably take part in a competition but certainly nine as global as it is now
3. 10 years is rather too small, but 50? who knows
I love space very much and everything connected with it. Seeing my home from the moon is one of my desires. I would be happy to take part in the project, in exchange for a ticket to the moon.
I think that over time this type of tourism will be trendy. It will be more accessible to anyone, like a trip to the Maldives. I think that in ten years we will see us all on the moon.
As for me, I don’t think that I would like to participate. Of course, it sounds great but in reality, you have to face serious physical overloads to reach orbit and then space. Your body should be prepared for a great stress it will be under during the launch. And then again, in the begging it will cost a fortune which I, unfortunately, do not possess.
I would love to go with Mr. Maezawa to the moon, such an event can happen once in a lifetime. No doubt, it will be a life changing experience. I would do anything to participate in it, of course, within a reasonable.
To be honest, I don't know, I am not sure about 10 years, but in 20 maybe. But, it will be costly, very costly. Everything changes rapidly nowadays, you don't even know what will happen next year.
I'm glad, that people again dream about space exploration and interstellar journeys. Space journeys never was profitable, but from space x's perspective, it's just a small step on the way to moon and Mars colonization.
2. Would you like to go with Mr. Maezawa to the moon? How much would you do to participate?
Probably not. I want to reach the stars and distant planets, but I'm not an artist and even if I personally would like the journey, I will not be able to express my feelings to other people.
3. Do you think travels to the moon will become more common and in 10 years anyone could stand on our satellite?
I think not anyone. Because even when costs of space tourism will decrease it will not mean that they become too available, but I think if moon will become a base for farther exploration, trips to the moon will become a common events.
I'm not a fan of space travel at all. If I would like to go, I would have to sacrifice too much, it's totally not for me.
Finally, I think that in the next 10 years technology won't evolve so quickly that space traveling becomes cheaper and easier.
SpaceX has a lot of high-value contracts with many agencies and corporations. Their goal has always been to reduce the cost of space exploration. I think they wouldn’t offer an opportunity to go around the Moon if it wasn’t affordable for them.
Thanks to companies like SpaceX and visionary minds like the one of Elon Musk, I believe we are getting closer to affordable space travels with every year. I don’t think that such journeys will become a common holiday plan for families in 2028, but I still think it will happen during our lifespan.
I wouldn't like to join Mr. Maezawa. I feel like it's too risky. Many people can say now: "You can die in a plane crash...", "A car can hit you on a walk...", but these are situations that we can't predict and secure us against them.
Space exploration is still a topic which seems a bit science-fiction. I'm sure that more and more people will be able to stand on the moon, but I think that 10 years still too short period of time.
Moon tourism is a great idea. I believe if exist a person, able to realize this project, this is Elon Musk. But for the prospect of space colonization, this is a huge leap forward.
Answering your second question I’d rather not to fly on the moon with Mr Maezawa because I think people like him are too unkind ( nicely speaking ).
I hope that we will could visit the moon very fast but in my opinion after 10 years it will be still too expensive for most of people to do it.
Nowadays when space travels requires high tech which cost a lot , it's not a profitable section.
Of course I would like top go to the moon, but I know that dream probably never come true, to be a valuable crew member you need to have specific skills along with good condition to mantain harsh conditions in space.
Maybe not in 10 years but near future probably this will be common way to spend time I am not saying it would be the same as going to the seaside but it will be more accessible. for common people.
I would like to join Mr. Maezawa. I think it will be a historic moment for humanity so it will be awesome to have a chance to save my last name in such a historical event.
Definitely in the next ten years traveling to the moon will be much more common and affordable. It's worth to mention that in the next five years SpaceX is going to send people to Mars, so if we can send people so far away whe won't we explore some of other close planets?
For now there are just few way to get into the space. One of them is to became an astronaut which is not what I would chose. Another one is money. I guess I would spend a hundred thousands dollars to make this happened. Unfortunately right now I don't have such amount of money and still it would not be enough.
However, I'm sure as science goes further and further in 10 - 20 years it will be much chipper. Also even in such expensive and complicated area there is a competence. So I hope in the nearest future my dream come true.
2. Going to the moon still sounds so abstract to me thatI have never considered it seriously. But of course, given a chance to do so I will go with Mr. Maezawa.
3. I think that after successful journey of Mr. Maezawa flying to the moon will become one of the hobbies of multimillionaires form all over the world