What can you get for $10,000? A home theater? An exotic holiday? A new car? How about a 238,900 mile journey and back? Yes! That is the distance from Earth to the moon.
If Naveen Jain, founder of Moon Express, is to be believed as reported in Tech Times, a trip to the moon and back could be accomplished with just $10,000 in about a decade.
This seems to be too farfetched to be believed. But Jain says he has planned a series of journeys to the moon to make this happen. In 2017, he is planning to send a robotic rover to the moon to explore possibilities of mining for metals, including iron ore and rare earth minerals.
Moon Express happened as a result of an international competition for the Google Lunar XPrize, which promises a prize of $20 million to the first privately funded moon mission.
As per the Tech Times report, Jain said, "In a mission that initially cost us to go to the moon about $25 billion, our mission to the moon next year is going to be $7 million, and the year after it's going to go down to millions."
"In the next ten years, the cost of going to the moon is going to be $10,000." Jain said,
Jain's optimism is based on his belief that space tourism industry would offer very attractive pricing to lure more people to opt for space travel. Apparently, according to him it is possible to reach the moon within four hours, which is much lesser than the time required to commute between New York and London, a distance of 3,500 miles against the 238,900 miles to the moon.
Jain believes that, with affordable pricing, travel to the moon will become the first choice for romantic couples.
If Jain is right, then the first low price commercial trip to the moon could be as early as 2026, just ten years from now.
