Elon Musk just reviled that Spacex will be taking 2 individuals around the moon. The plan is to use the Falcon Heavy to take the 2 customers in the Dragon 2 spaceship skimming past the moon, set a new record for farthest human traveled from the earth and hopefully return to earth.
Acording to theverge.com
It will be a private mission with two paying customers, not NASA astronauts, who approached the company. The passengers are “very serious” about the trip and have already paid a “significant deposit,” according to Musk. The trip around the Moon would take approximately one week: it would skim the surface of the Moon, go further out into deep space, and loop back to Earth — approximately 300,000 to 400,000 miles.
The article says that dragon 2 can be on autopilot for most of the trip. This is an easy way for two private "tourists" to take a trip in space. The computer will no doubt be far better at handling a simple trip around the moon. I also guess that the Dragon 2 will be designed from the start to be as simple as driving a Tesla as possible.
the system will operate autonomously for most of the flight. If there is an emergency, the passengers will need to probably step in, but “the success rate is quite high,” says Musk.
Spacex has always relied on far superior computer programs to control the landing of the first stage Falcon 9. My guess is that the two individuals will be the only ones in the dragon 2, they will need all the room in the ship for the week long trip. I really hope this is a big success for the 2 people. They will have the trip of a life time and should light a fire under the rest of us to get out and explore the last frontier.
NASA just released a statement about the "private moon venture"
3 days ago NASA said that they looking into having a crew on the first planed Space Launch System (more expensive government spaceship). I find this a weird coincidence that NASA is upping the pace on the SLS. It has long been speculated that SLS is way to expensive and the public will have a hard time dishing out more money for a ride that can be done far less and just as safe from a private company. Unfortunately, the government has been enjoying the NASA pork for way to long. They might just be trying to get one last feast on the taxpayers dime before they shut down the building of spaceships and start leasing spaceships like they do with cars and trucks.
Who do you think the two people are? my guess is that one if not both have already visited the ISS.