Russia to offer $100-million lunar tour

[wvbraun]

Interesting<br /><br /><i>The Russian space-shuttle maker Energia has submitted a proposal for would-be space tourists to the Federal Space Agency Roskosmos to charter a flight to the moon, the daily newspaper Izvestia reported.<br /><br />Spacecraft have already been selected, a flight route worked out and a business plan compiled. All that is left to do is find someone wanting to take a 2-week trip to the Moon for $100 million.<br /><br />The game tourist will spend the first seven days aboard the International Space Station (ISS). After that, a Soyuz TMA spacecraft will carry a mission commander and the tourist for a flyby of the Moon, subsequently returning to the Earth. It will take 18 months or two years to manufacture all the required equipment and to implement the project as soon as the money is received.<br /><br />Roskosmos Director Anatoly Perminov has already negotiated with Energia President Nikolai Sevastyanov, who was recently elected amidst workers' protests of what they called his poor aptitude as an engineer. Consequently, Sevastyanov is now forced to look for sensational projects that will win him acclaim and provide Energia with money.</i>

 

[ehs40]

i think i'll wait till its a little less inexpensive

 

[dragon04]

For a hundred million bucks, I want moon dust on my boots. Not to mention complimentary Continental breakfasts. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[askold]

If Russia continues to use the ISS for money-making stunts, I think the US should pull out of this venture.<br /><br />I don't think that the US taxpayer signed up to support space tours for rich people.

 

[arconin]

If Russia can send someone out to and around the moon for $100M with a prep time of 2 to 2.5 years from the time they get the money then WTF is NASA doing spending Billions and Billions on the same venture...<br /><br />I understand the different complexities of landing vs orbiting...but still....what am I missing?<br /><br />

 

[tap_sa]

Russia has every right to use their parts of the station as they see fit. If it includes moneymaking, good for them!

 

[syndroma]

Technical aspects:<br />After undocking from ISS, a Soyuz will dock to a Block DM booster launched by a Proton or Zenit. Then Block DM will place it on a flyby trajectory.<br />It seems, the most expensive part is a Proton launch.

 

[shoogerbrugge]

hmmm<br /><br />Intresting indeed, maybe hot air, but its nice to think about it.<br /><br />I'de be more comfortable with a Breeze then a Block DM, the latter has failed one to many times. Usually the payload of a Proton to LEO would be 20 tonnes including a Block DM upperstage, maybe they just include a second block DM as payload.<br /><br />Can the Soyuz TMA support life for 3 passengers for such a long time, Maybe they'll create a special Soyuz, TMB, with larger windows and some more comfy chairs.<br /><br />Does make you wonder about the costs. Say they can include 2 paying customers. One RSA pilot, one tourist trained as flight engineer, and one free wheeling. That would bring in 200 million USD. From this revenue you'd have to launch a Soyuz, A Proton and train 3 men extencivly.

 

[soyuztma]

The idea has allready been proposed by Constellation Services International: Lunar express mission. There is more information and some pictures in this presentation:http://www.constellationservices.com/Lunar_ExpressSM_Transportation_System.pdf. I hope for CSI that the Russians didn't just steal their idea. <br />I wonder where they are going to find a tourist who wants to cough up 100 million for flying around the moon. And they will have some difficult technical problems. I also hope they will fly an unmanned test mission, because the last Russian missions which did a moon flyby (Zond) had a lot of problematic missions before they had a really succesfull mission. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[john_316]

<br />it wont happen unless klipper is also used as the ferry to and from the moon.<br /><br />they have to invest in it now before they even take part of that 100 million for launch and rocket....<br />

 

[arconin]

Bill Gates, Paul Allen...some super rich Arab Oil Prince...there are super rich who have the money and may spend it for that kind of a trip. Especially the older ones who know they may not be around in 2030 or 2040 when we might hope to have regualr commercial visits to the moon for less.

 

[strandedonearth]

$100 million for 1 week crammed in a Soyuz tin can, regolith on my boots not included? Nice closeup view and all, but no thanks. $20mill to the ISS, sure, assuming I had the cash to spare.

 

[cyrostir]

the coldwar-era soviet moon mission was a failure......

 

[radarredux]

> <i><font color="yellow">Russia has every right to use their parts of the station as they see fit. If it includes moneymaking, good for them!</font>/i><br /><br />There is a certain amount of irony in the fact that Russia has been much more aggressive at promoting commercialization of Space than the US has.<br /><br />Regarding "tourists" to the ISS, I think they are now called "Flight Participants", and by Marc Shuttleworth's trip an agreement had been reached between Russia and the other ISS members.<br /><br />Misc. factoids:<br /><br />1990 - Japanese journalist Toyohiro Akiyama was sent to Mir by his employer, the TV station TBS.<br /><br />1991 - Helen Sharman, the first British citizen in space, went into orbit on a Soyuz and was sponsored by a Soviet bank that was (in part) trying to generate pro-Soviet publicity.<br /><br />2000 - Critical ISS component Zvezda was launched on a Russian rocket carrying the Pizza Hut logo.<br /><br />2001 - American Dennis Tito flew to the ISS for $20 million<br /><br />2002 - Marc Shuttleworth was the first South African into space.</i>

 

[mikejz]

Of course if you lower the cost of the Proton launch you would bring the cost to maybe $65 million<br /><br />Sealaunch might be the perfect LV for the job, In addition, maybe take advantage of a demo launch (Atlas V Heavy, the new Russian launcher, etc.) <br />

 

[john_316]

If they were to launch an inflatable habitat to the ISS and an extra Soyuz then I can see more tourists paying the $20 million to visit.<br /><br />But until the ISS can sustain a larger crew dont expect more that what Russia offers now. <br />

 

[syndroma]

Shoogerbrugge,<br /><br /> /> <i>I'de be more comfortable with a Breeze then a Block DM</i><br /><br />Yes, Breeze has a lot of advantages, but one serious disadvantage - it's being made by Khrunichev, not Energia. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /> /> <i>Maybe they'll create a special Soyuz</i><br /><br />I think this is the way to go. Larger life support, larger TPS.

 

[mattblack]

Although there often isn't such a thing as an original idea, I posted this very idea on this forum five years ago!! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>

 

[shoogerbrugge]

Yup, I suspected that the different manufacturer would be the reason to go with the Block DM instead of the Breeze. Its a shame they keep the Block DM around so long.<br /><br />I guess this kind of flight does need some innovation though. The Soyuz TMA has to dock with a fully loaded Block DM. Which means the Soyuz has to have some sort of docking mechanism on its propulsion module. WHich would make the Soyuz heavier. I guess the actual docking won't be that much of a problem with Pirs or a well flown Soyuz. <br />But if the Soyuz is heavier, something has to give. And when weight is concerned there isn't much spare capacity. So I wonder how they are going to pull that off<br /><br />

 

[spacefire]

for 100 million, the accopmanying cosmonaut better be a 25 year old redhead top-model with a lot of stick time <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[gunsandrockets]

"I guess this kind of flight does need some innovation though. The Soyuz TMA has to dock with a fully loaded Block DM. Which means the Soyuz has to have some sort of docking mechanism on its propulsion module. WHich would make the Soyuz heavier. "<br /><br />Why? There's no reason the standard orbital module of the Soyuz can't be used to dock with a lunar propulsion stage. There's no need for the Soyuz equipment module to dock.<br /><br />Is your concern the Soyuz passengers would be facing 'the wrong way' and experiencing some negative gees during the TLI burn? Facing the wrong way didn't give the Gemini astronauts any trouble when docked with the Agena propulsion stage.

 

[davf]

The program to land a man on the moon was a failure. But they had pretty well worked out the issues for a flyby and even completed it succesfully unmanned. The hardware (Soyuz 7K L1) was launched on a Proton. The lack of reliability of the Proton (at the time) was a big issue in their failing to conduct a manned flight. Also, they spacecraft was 'man rated' after the Apollo 11 landing so political support for a simple fly-by had waned.<br /><br />One of the interesting features of the 7K L1 flights were the polar re-entries. South pole reentry to land on Soviet soil and north pole reentry to land in ocean (but with better tracking because of the path over the Soviet Union at the start of re-entry). It would be interesting to see what they select this time.<br /><br />http://www.astronautix.com/craft/soyz7kl1.htm