Well, maybe it is not your time yet to be on the next scheduled flight around the moon, but two unnamed persons have signified their interests to be taken round the moon late next year by SpaceX. According to SpaceX's CEO and founder, Elon Musk, the two private individuals have paid significant deposits for the trip and are currently undergoing health tests to ensure their fitness for the lunar mission. These two persons will however lose their seats for the flight to the moon where NASA decides to send its own astronauts, Musk said.
This lunar mission is a precursor to make humans inhabit Mars
The two persons that will be transported round the moon and beyond will mark a milestone in the initial objectives of SpaceX to make humans live on Mars. According to Musk, the main goal for SpaceX since its establishment in 2002 is to bring human populations to Mars via accelerated space exploration. He said his company intends to make humans multi-planetary with the ability to establish self-sustaining civilizations on Mars, Space reported.
The two persons to navigate round the moon will also go a little farther out into deeper space before returning back to Earth, Musk announced. According to him, the distance to be covered will be between 300,000 to 400,000 miles or 500,000 to 650,000 kilometers. He said the two passengers won't have to do anything since the spacecraft will pilot itself and operate largely autonomously, The Washington Post wrote.
How much will the two men pay to go round the moon and farther out into deep space?
This is one question Musk is not ready to answer with a straight face, saying it is confidential. He said the two men approached SpaceX and offered to travel out into lunar space and deeper into space - paying significant deposits to secure their seats. Musk however revealed that the travel cost for the two men is comparable to what NASA pays for a crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Investigations however reveal that with the three-person Russian Soyuz-U spacecraft, NASA pays about $80 million per seat for its astronauts to visit the ISS.
