Illegal land occupation

[webfact]

SpaceX to send first space tourists around moon next year

By Irene Klotz

REUTERS

 

File Photo: The cabin of the Dragon V2 spacecraft is pictured after it was unveiled in Hawthorne, California May 29, 2014. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni/File Photo

 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies plans to launch two paying customers on a tourist trip around the moon next year using a spaceship under development for NASA astronauts and a heavy-lift rocket yet to be flown, Chief Executive Elon Musk told reporters on Monday.

 

The launch of the first privately funded tourist flight beyond the orbit of the International Space Station is tentatively targeted for late 2018, Musk told reporters on a conference call.

 

Musk declined to identify the customers or say how much they would pay to fly on the week-long mission, except to say that it’s "nobody from Hollywood." He also said the two prospective space tourists know each other.

 

"We would expect to do more than one mission of this nature," he added. "This should be incredibly exciting."

 

Musk also said that if NASA decides it wants to be first in line for a lunar flyby mission, the U.S. space agency would take priority.

At the behest of the Trump administration, NASA is conducting a study to assess safety risks, costs and potential benefits of letting astronauts fly on the debut test flight of its heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule.

 

That mission is currently planned to be uncrewed and scheduled to launch in late 2018.

 

"If NASA decides that they want to do the first lunar orbit mission, we would obviously give them priority," Musk said.

 

Musk said the privately funded moon expedition would take place after his California-based company, known as SpaceX, begins flying crew to the International Space Station for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

 

NASA is hoping those crew-ferrying flights begin by late 2018.

 

SpaceX’s own Falcon Heavy rocket, which Musk wants to use for his own lunar tourist mission, is scheduled to make a debut test flight later this year.

 

Plans call for SpaceX's two-person lunar venture to fly some 300,000 to 400,000 miles from Earth past the moon before Earth's gravity pulls the spacecraft back into the atmosphere for a parachute landing.

 

That trajectory would be similar to NASA's 1968 Apollo 8 mission beyond the moon and back.

 

(Reporting by Irene Klotz at Cape Canaveral, Florida; editing by Steve Gorman and Jonathan Oatis, Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-28

[ddavidovsky]

Did they tell them about re-entry?

[Andaman Al]

This is an absolutely awesome step in space exploration. I am fascinated to see all the tech specs on  Van Allen Radiation belt and everything else to see how they technically propose to do this. If Elon Musk were in charge of NASA 15 years ago we would already have colonised Mars and be on our way to Europa already.

 

Great adventure. I wonder how much the ticket is? I need a few more deals to close I think 

[3NUMBAS]

Aliens are apparently living round on the dark side and mining diamonds so something to look at as the fly by overhead

[modafinil]

Well done Elon Musk. He's a visionary engineer and businessman. Let's hope that he achieves some of his many extremely ambitious goals in our lifetimes. Colonising Mars, superbatteries, electric self-driving cars, Hyperloop high-speed transport, giant tunnel-boring machines ... some think he is a fantasist, but he is extremely successful already with his SpaceX and Tesla businesses.

[daveAustin]

8 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

This is an absolutely awesome step in space exploration. I am fascinated to see all the tech specs on  Van Allen Radiation belt and everything else to see how they technically propose to do this. If Elon Musk were in charge of NASA 15 years ago we would already have colonised Mars and be on our way to Europa already.

 

Great adventure. I wonder how much the ticket is? I need a few more deals to close I think 

Indeed, what an opportunity. Buzzing around the 'dark' side of the moon.

 

Emily Calandrelli‏Verified account 
@TheSpaceGal
Emily Calandrelli Retweeted William Harwood
Musk is telling reporters that the moon flight would cost about the same as a ticket to ISS. Last flight to ISS cost $35 million.

[daveAustin]

10 hours ago, Andaman Al said:

This is an absolutely awesome step in space exploration.

It is. Quite mind blowing really! The boring detractors will say it's a waste of money etc, funds that should be spent on other 'wordly' things, but I say screw that. I would happily give whatever monies I had plus my left nut to be given the opportunity. Risk of death! So what? We risk our lives every day by simply going out on the roads.

[ddavidovsky]

1 hour ago, daveAustin said:

It is. Quite mind blowing really! The boring detractors will say it's a waste of money etc, funds that should be spent on other 'wordly' things, but I say screw that. I would happily give whatever monies I had plus my left nut to be given the opportunity. Risk of death! So what? We risk our lives every day by simply going out on the roads.

Boring detractor here. We know this is technically possible, and - if enough money is poured into it - practically possible, so there's no real sense of wonder or achievement here, just a sense of super-rich people at play, and I would say that (unless the rocket explodes, which one day it will) the nature of their experience is going to be entirely predictable, which can't be said for a visit to a Mexican brothel.

I say use the money to make air travel safer here on earth first - that's a much bigger challenge.

[daveAustin]

Wow, you didn’t default to curing cancer like most other boring detractors. Air travel is already pretty darn safe to be fair; throwing more money at it wouldn’t make much difference and why would one even call such a thing a challenge? Ultimately, travel is risk and the only way is to take the human element out of the equation. But, to what end, it’s not furthering anything really and has nothing to do with people wanting to fly around the moon. If rich people want to spend their money this or that way, let them at it, it is not for another to question. If someone told me to spend my money on whatever over visiting a Mexican brothel, I would tell them to go and F themselves. Anyone with half a brain would do the same, but as soon as the rich do their thing, people have a hissy-fit.

 

Flying around another body in the solar system a predictable experience?  After planning them, are holidays not predictable from the point of view of what you will see, and with that mindset, why bother going anywhere? As I say, boring detractors with no handle on the universe will always justify not plowing funds into it. Where would we be right now without previous exploratory efforts? I have friends with a similar outlook and squirm whenever they reveal their limited field of view. Very little concept or care for where we came from and how everything is put together etc, but can talk all day on their narrow sphere and probably what’s on the box tonight. Never mind, whatever floats their boat.

 

Apologies for mini-rant. I’m sure you mean well. 

[ddavidovsky]

4 hours ago, daveAustin said:

 

Flying around another body in the solar system a predictable experience?

You mean peering out of a porthole at the moon? It's hardly going to be like To Infinity and Beyond in 2001. Every second will be meticulously planned and will happen exactly as predicted. They'll be trained for every eventuality, and everything that happens will be out of their personal control - I don't think they'll be steering the spacecraft or going on spacewalks. And there won't be any encounter with a giant floating foetus - only masses of space garbage to dodge.

[ilostmypassword]

10 hours ago, ddavidovsky said:

Boring detractor here. We know this is technically possible, and - if enough money is poured into it - practically possible, so there's no real sense of wonder or achievement here, just a sense of super-rich people at play, and I would say that (unless the rocket explodes, which one day it will) the nature of their experience is going to be entirely predictable, which can't be said for a visit to a Mexican brothel.

I say use the money to make air travel safer here on earth first - that's a much bigger challenge.

You think air travel is unsafe? Really? How much safer could it be? You'd be throwing a lot of money at a very tiny problem. Ever hear of the Law of Diminishing Returns?

Edited March 1, 2017 by ilostmypassword

[ddavidovsky]

13 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

You think air travel is unsafe? Really? How much safer could it be? You'd be throwing a lot of money at a very tiny problem. Ever hear of the Law of Diminishing Returns?

You say that in order to justify vanity trips in space? Hundreds of people could be saved every year in plane crashes by better technology. Priorities?

 

On a recent flight to Bandung the plane came out of a low stormcloud and almost clipped the trees on the approach. The landing was aborted at the very last moment. Then we went round and round in the thunderstorm with horrible turbulence for 80 minutes - until the fuel tanks must have been almost empty - while the pilot presumably plucked up enough courage to try again. I'd like it to be somewhat safer than that.

 

[ballpoint]

When pressed for technical details, Mr Musk referred to his operational manual, in which a cow, a cat and a fiddle played a prominent part, before asking for his spoon back.

[ilostmypassword]

10 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

You say that in order to justify vanity trips in space? Hundreds of people could be saved every year in plane crashes by better technology. Priorities?

 

On a recent flight to Bandung the plane came out of a low stormcloud and almost clipped the trees on the approach. The landing was aborted at the very last moment. Then we went round and round in the thunderstorm with horrible turbulence for 80 minutes - until the fuel tanks must have been almost empty - while the pilot presumably plucked up enough courage to try again. I'd like it to be somewhat safer than that.

 

I guess you don't really get the concept of statistics do you?

International aviation firm To70 found that fatal accidents occurred in just 0.18 per million flights, which equates to around one in every five million flights.

Dutch-based To70 said that a large percentage of fatal journeys arise from unlawful interference, with two of the incidents appearing to be acts of terrorism.

These flights include the Egyptair plane crash in May, when an Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea close to Cyprus, killing 66 passengers.

 It would have made more sense for you to say put that money into providing clean water for impoverished communities or something similar where the effects would be much more dramatic.  But that is or should be what governments do. Not private industry.

[ddavidovsky]

2 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

I guess you don't really get the concept of statistics do you?

International aviation firm To70 found that fatal accidents occurred in just 0.18 per million flights, which equates to around one in every five million flights.

Dutch-based To70 said that a large percentage of fatal journeys arise from unlawful interference, with two of the incidents appearing to be acts of terrorism.

These flights include the Egyptair plane crash in May, when an Airbus A320 plummeted into the sea close to Cyprus, killing 66 passengers.

 It would have made more sense for you to say put that money into providing clean water for impoverished communities or something similar where the effects would be much more dramatic.  But that is or should be what governments do. Not private industry.

How many preventable deaths do you think are acceptable? Better technology would prevent deaths by several means, such as predicting and dealing with engine failure.

 

You went to all the trouble to dig out some statistics to justify vanity trips in space? You must be desperate to see those happen.

 

How about this: tax these space trips extremely hard, so that only the mega-rich can afford them (there will still be plenty of demand) and pump those funds directly into civil airline R&D. Then at least they might be able to design a black box that does more than ping for a few days and can actually be found in the ocean.