Fly to the moon for £100 million

[russ_a]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9342210/F...

Might buy a euro millions ticket this weekend.

Not sure if this is just publicity seeking or the real thing. Sounds very cheap and I'm not sure if I have the balls to fly it myself.

[pwrc]

sounds way too cheap to be plausible. one of those things that's worth spending more on, you know. like condoms, or parachutes

[s3fella]

All looks legit, company based on that aerospace centre of excellence, the isle of man.

[davepoth]

Russian rockets are certainly cheap enough. A couple of Soyuz, an old space laboratory, and an ion engine. What can possibly go wrong?

[jmorgan]

Bit more along the lines of Apollo 8. Thought there was another firm trying this as well.


Edit. The more I read it, the more I would not touch it with a barge pole.

Edited by jmorgan on Tuesday 19th June 21:12

[Simpo Two]

'The company has acquired a fleet of former Soviet shuttles and space stations'

Crikey!

'The flight, which would last four months and fly past the moon at a distance of 1000km...'

Apollo did it in about four days and landed. Taking four months and missing by 1000km isn't quite the same... and how do they carry enough food and oxygen for four months?

[TheTurbonator]

Simpo Two said:

'The company has acquired a fleet of former Soviet shuttles and space stations'

If it looks anything like this when you turn up, run away... run away fast.

[Brother D]

TheTurbonator said:

If it looks anything like this when you turn up, run away... run away fast.

What are you on about? That looks awesome!

[TheTurbonator]

Totally agree it does look awesome but all 4 of the N1 rockets catastrophically exploded on launch or on take off. The longest one flew, was a minute and forty seconds.

The fuel lines and system were massivly complicated due to its 30 engines and due to its size, it had to be dismantled and re-built again on the launch site, which led to imperfections afterwards.

[Eric Mc]

On the other hand, if it looks like these, then perhaps it's feasable -







The first two (Proton and Soyuz) were all originally designed with lunar missions in mind. The Energia shown at the bottom has the same lifting capacity as a Saturn V.

[annodomini2]

davepoth said:

Russian rockets are certainly cheap enough. A couple of Soyuz, an old space laboratory, and an ion engine. What can possibly go wrong?

With a basic Ion engine they'd probably run out of air before they reached the moon.

[jmorgan]

Brother D said:

TheTurbonator said:

If it looks anything like this when you turn up, run away... run away fast.

What are you on about? That looks awesome!

Yeah, went of with a bang.....

[Blackpuddin]

I agree that we should rate rockets on their awesomeness rather than their technical excellence. There's far too much dull professionalism in space travel for my liking.

I gather this particular outfit is following up on its earlier success with the Beagle project.

[Blackpuddin]

Eric Mc said:

On the other hand, if it looks like these, then perhaps it's feasable -

I'm no expert but I think I'd want the angle adjusting on that one before starting off.

[jmorgan]

N1 info
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/n1.htm
Lots of other stuff in there.

[Eric Mc]

Blackpuddin said:

Eric Mc said:

On the other hand, if it looks like these, then perhaps it's feasable -

I'm no expert but I think I'd want the angle adjusting on that one before starting off.

That's the low flying version.

[scubadude]

Its easy to laugh at Russian kit but think of this- Western stuff is designed/made by the lowest bidder, Russian stuff was designed by people who where afraid of being shot in the head if they got things wrong and embarrassed Mother Russia :-)

The 100million moon shot (from the IOM company) does sound sbit unlikely but the kit they are suggesting using was solid when it was made, the Alama stations formed the basis of Mir and the first section of the ISS and its still in orbit 12yrs on... you could choose worse hardware as a basis IMO.

[annodomini2]

Apparently it will take a few months to go from Leo to Lunar orbit.

No landing BTW, just lunar orbit and back again.

You'd have to be nuts to want to do it, can't see their business plan standing up to much scrutiny.

[Buzz word]

"But any space enthusiast wishing to make the trip would have to be willing to fly the craft themself because no trained astronauts would accompany them on their odyssey, the company said"

I wonder If they will wear P plates just so other space stuff gives them a wide berth?

[qube_TA]

jmorgan said:

N1 info
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/n1.htm
Lots of other stuff in there.

I know we've been conditioned by successful US designs of rockets but the N1 always looked wrong to me.

If the engineering quality had been better could it have worked or was it the design that was to blame?