SpaceX Will Fly to the Moon Next Year

www.yahoo.com...

Nobody from Earth has been to the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, but now SpaceX says it’s time for that to change. The company, led by visionary Elon Musk, has a track record for achieving challenging goals—it was the first to safely retrieve rockets after use, and it’s working under contract with NASA to deliver supplies, and eventually crew, to the International Space Station. Now SpaceX says it has been approached by two private citizens who are ready to fly to the Moon and back late next year. The unnamed astronauts won’t make a landing, but will take an aerial tour and then return to Earth.

“They have already paid a significant deposit to do a Moon mission,” the company said. “Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration.” The space travelers will undergo health and fitness tests, and start initial training later this year. The company declined to reveal any more details about the plan, but since the lunar trip was completed nine times using technology available in the 1960s and ’70s, it seems reasonable that it could be done safely today.

SpaceX already is working on the Crew Dragon spacecraft to deliver astronauts to the ISS, and it plans to use this vehicle for next year’s Moon trip. The Crew Dragon will be fully autonomous, the company said, so the space travelers won’t have to be trained astronauts—their voyage can be monitored and controlled by SpaceX mission specialists on the ground in Hawthorne, Calif. Lift-off will be from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Pad 39A near Cape Canaveral—the same launch pad used by the Apollo astronauts. The travelers will enjoy an unprecedented view from four big windows, snugly encased in their carbon-fiber seats.

SpaceX hasn’t revealed a price for the trip, but said other flight teams already have expressed interest in later bookings. “We expect more to follow,” the company said.

Interesting news and I hope they can do it. There definitely is a push in space exploration lately. Next is Mars which will be even more interesting since Trump want's it done within his Term. Hopefully it will be a success and we learn a lot, although in my opinion, we have been there since, in secret I would think. Exciting times!

That's fantastic news!

This is really a first step towards true citizen-based space travel. With the exponential advancement of technology and the exponential cost reduction of it, it looks like we'll see affordable space travel very soon

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Wonder what commercialization has in store for the last frontier...

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to use space for advertising, but who knows what kind of loop-holes there will be (or wormholes )

Now, to my oldtime ats-ers;

Who wants to bet there will be a critical failure or something else that stops civilians from seeing the moon? From seeing the fact there is no US Flag there?

I cant put my mind around this.

Basically two 'private citizen' with a #load of money will sit in a sophisticated drone travel about 230000 miles, go around the moon and come back.

Next year.

Even if fully autonomous, still a year and a half training for such a travel seems very little?

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

The company, led by visionary Elon Musk, has a track record for achieving challenging goals—

It also has an impressive track record of blowing stuff up.

Even if it doesn't blow up, there's every chance that some glitch will mean that what comes back are 2 freeze-dried corpses, or the rocket spends the rest of eternity in a loose orbit around Earth.

If your Tesla breaks down, you can get out and walk. The consequences of a failure in space are exponentially more dire.

originally posted by: AstralAvenger
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

The company, led by visionary Elon Musk, has a track record for achieving challenging goals—

It also has an impressive track record of blowing stuff up.

What do you mean? In testing? Whatever issues they may have had seem to have been overcome.

originally posted by: iTruthSeeker

originally posted by: AstralAvenger

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

The company, led by visionary Elon Musk, has a track record for achieving challenging goals—

It also has an impressive track record of blowing stuff up.

What do you mean? In testing? Whatever issues they may have had seem to have been overcome.

Two SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicles have blown up over the past 2 years (June 2015 and September 2016). They were not test vehicles, but working rockets (or I should say "not" working) that were meant to deliver satellites.

Prior to the second one blowing up, SpaceX felt that they had overcome all of the issues that may have led to the 2015 explosion -- although it seems they missed at least one issue.

A version of the Falcon 9 will be what sends the SpaceX manned capsule around the Moon.

SpaceX gets me excited.

Elon Musk gets a lot of flak (not sure why), but I think most like this program of his. Hard to see SpaceX as some sort of dystopian horror no matter how hard you try to twist it.


I just wonder how you get to the fake moon given the world is flat. Wouldn't it be better just to climb up the rail holding the moon in place?

originally posted by: SaturnFX

Elon Musk gets a lot of flak (not sure why), but I think most like this program of his. Hard to see SpaceX as some sort of dystopian horror no matter how hard you try to twist it.

I give a lot of credit to Musk/SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and Blue Origin for their work in creating these spacecrfta.

But I doubt Musk or anyone would have gotten this far this quickly (or some at all) if NASA wasn't paying them to create these launch, supply, and crew transportation services, first through NASA's "Commercial Orbital Transportation Services" Program (or "COTS") and later through NASA's "Commercial Crew Development" Program.

NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program

NASA Commercial Crew Development Program:
NASA CCDev Program - Wikipedia

It would not surprise me if Musk and the leadership at Orbital Sciences and Blue Origin went to NASA and suggested these programs in the first place (i.e., Musk telling NASA that he wants to build rockets and spacecraft, but needs assurances that NASA will buy the services he will provide with rockets and spacecraft), and that's where the COTS and CCDev Programs came from....

...However, as I said, it's possible that these Musk's Falcon 9/Dragon capsule and other commercial space ventures (Orbital Sciences and Blue Origin) would not have happened this quickly without that promise of money from NASA via these Public-Private Partnerships.

SpaceX is so awesome. I can't wait to live stream this entire trip! Private citizens going to the moon!!!! Private citizens won't be under any kind of NDA clearance issue. If the see some cool 'stuff' on their journey they should be able to tell us all about it! I would imagine there is going to be high definition video of the entire thing, anyway! Hopefully as the date approaches for the launch we are introduced to the two individuals who are going. Would be a lot more meaningful if they didn't want to remain anonymous for the whole thing.

SpaceX has blown a couple test shots up, sure. They have a better record than the government, tho. LOL. And all of their most recent shots have been totally successful. This is going to be rad!

The Moon, huh? I'd rather see them try to put a satellite in a LaGrange Point instead of go back to that dead end.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
The Moon, huh? I'd rather see them try to put a satellite in a LaGrange Point instead of go back to that dead end.

Think of it like this: If there actually is bases up there, the owners of them won't be able to hide any more.

This will be completely different than the Apollo missions in one major aspect: TV and Internet broadcasting. It's going to be a lot more difficult to fake anything with millions of people watching live streams and analyzing every last detail of the footage being shot. This is super exciting!

originally posted by: AnonyMason
This will be completely different than the Apollo missions in one major aspect: TV and Internet broadcasting. It's going to be a lot more difficult to fake anything with millions of people watching live streams and analyzing every last detail of the footage being shot. This is super exciting!

So if they manage to actually make it to the Moon, and it shows exactly the same stuff the Apollo folks found (a whole lot of nuthin'), then you'll finally believe NASA was telling the truth?

Yeah, right.

originally posted by: AnonyMason

SpaceX has blown a couple test shots up, sure. They have a better record than the government, tho. LOL. And all of their most recent shots have been totally successful. This is going to be rad!

No. As I mentioned above, they blew up two actual (non-test) Falcon 9 rockets in the past two years, the first destroying a cargo craft headed to the International Space Station, and the second destroying the commercial satellites on board.

NASA's Atlas and Delta, Plus the ESA's Arianne, have better overall track records than the Falcon 9, as does Russia's Proton-M.

The current workhorses for NASA is the Delta II, Delta IV, and Atlas V. The Delta II was first launched in 1990, with 151 successes, 1 partial failure, and 1 total failure. The Delta IV has had 35 successful launches and on partial failure. Atlas V has had 27 launches in the past 15 years with one failure.

The Falcon 9 family has had 29 success, 1 partial failure, and 2 total failures in 7 years of operation, with the 2 total failures coming in the past 2 years.

That's not to say that what SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp have done is not remarkable, but they still have had several failures (Orbital also had a failure of one of it's launches, also destroying a cargo ship headed to the Space Station).

better save now for booking that flight...ahahahha!

I'll believe it when I see it...

There is no thrust or combustion in the vacuum of space .... so? .. good luck.

originally posted by: Iconic
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Wonder what commercialization has in store for the last frontier...

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to use space for advertising, but who knows what kind of loop-holes there will be (or wormholes

)

Now, to my oldtime ats-ers;

Who wants to bet there will be a critical failure or something else that stops civilians from seeing the moon? From seeing the fact there is no US Flag there?

I have a vision..... The moon used as a giant billboard. EAT AT JOES

originally posted by: PuRe EnErGy
I'll believe it when I see it...

There is no thrust or combustion in the vacuum of space .... so? .. good luck.

No combustion in space?
The fuel has its own oxidizer, so it burns in space.

I have seen both black powder in a vacuum and a gun (with blacks) fire in a vacuum myself, so I can't tell you with certainty why this guy couldn't get his gunpowder to burn in a vacuum. HOWEVER, my guess would be that he probably did not heat the potassium nitrate to its ignition point (and ignition is different than combustion) with that laser lighter of his. The potassium nitrate needs to be heated up to it ignition temperature before it gives off its oxygen (oxidizer). In a bullet, the primer chemical (which heats up upon a concussive force) which in turn heats up the potassium nitrate to its ignition temperature, which then releases the oxygen chemically bound to it.

The difference between that an d the one with air in it may be due to the laser also heating up the air around the black powder, which got the potassium nitrate to the ignition point faster.


No thrust in space?
Why would the laws of physics be different in space? That is to say, the principle of physics that states "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" would also applies to things in space. Why wouldn't it?

If, for example, an astronaut floating in space pushes a massive medicine ball, but then uses both arms to push that ball away from their chest, the ball will move one direction, but the astronaut will also move slowly in the opposite direction (backward) because of the force of the astronaut pushing against the ball

The same thing applies to a rocket. Inside the combustion chamber, burning hot gasses are pushed out through the engine exhaust. That force causes also pushes in an opposite and equal reaction on the front end of the combustion chamber, causing a force in a direction opposite the exhaust (forward).

Another example would be a gun recoil. Obviously the recoil is NOT caused by the bullet pushing on the atmosphere (air) in front of it. No, the recoil is all about the "opposite and equal reaction". Similarly, rocket thrust is NOT due to the burning fuel pushing against the air in an atmosphere, but due to the opposite and equal reaction of the exhaust.

"SpaceX Will Fly to the Moon Next Year"

Wanna bet? It's a good goal to have, but I highly doubt it happens by next year, or even in the next couple of years. I hope I'm wrong, but our space traveling skills have been pretty pathetic, I certainly wouldn't bank on this actually occurring.