The head of the Moon Express company, Naveen Jane, shared the impressive news with the public – he is confident that the first space tourists will be able to visit the Moon in 2026. In an interview with CNBC published on Thursday December 1, Jane noted that after just a decade, all of this will be possible.
Moon Express is the first non-governmental organization to receive approval from the US government for a lunar landing. In 2017, the company plans to send its lunar rover to the lunar surface and conduct a survey in order to find the best deposits of iron ore, metals, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, rare minerals and helium-3. This company, which today plans tourist routes to the moon, was formed as a result of winning the international Google Lunar Xprize competition and receiving a grant of $ 30 million for a soft landing on the surface of an Earth satellite.
“Initially, a mission to the moon cost about $ 25 billion, next year our mission to the moon will cost us $ 7 million, and a year after it will be even cheaper,” Jane said. “Just ten years later, the cost of a weekend on the moon will be around $ 10,000.”
According to Jane, more competitive prices in the space tourism industry will have a positive effect on the development of space travel, and travel to the moon, in particular, should not cost more than a few thousand dollars.
It is noteworthy that another American company, Virgin Galactic, plans to organize space flights for tourists in the near future. The price for such a flight is still prohibitively high – $ 250,000 per seat. Only really rich people can afford such costs.
