How many years-

[UnwantedLinks]

This MAY be a dumb question, but using your estimates, how many years will it take to be actually able to travel to the moon as a citizen?

 

 

my estimate: 30-50 years

[minibois]

Depends on how you look at it.

For example, the first normal flights there will probably be 15 years away, but flights there like we have flights to Spain or Italy now.. That's probably some more years away.

That is assuming it's even interesting to go to the Moon, which I doubt it would be for most.

 

Source: my crystal ball.

[Dedayog]

I think the interest level vs investment is the issue.  Unlike Mars, the moon doesn't have the draw of water and potential life to create enough interest to make establishing a base on the moon viable.

 

Maybe when space travel becomes common place in 100+ years it'll be a stopping point for a jump ship or something.

[Princess Luna]

What would you even do on the moon?

[GoldenLag]

2 minutes ago, Vegas Pro said:

how many years will it take to be actually able to travel to the moon as a citizen?

Probably "never". The Delta v requirements, training, and so many more issues hinder anyone from even getting to LEO.

7 minutes ago, Vegas Pro said:

my estimate: 30-50 years

Way to optimistic. Keep in mind that 30 years from now is the estimation and planning of the first commercial thorium reactor. 

[GoldenLag]

3 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

yeah I think that's it. if anything, the moon might do better as a spaceport or an interstellar vehicle factory, just because of its low gravity and not needing much energy to get a complete giant ship out in one piece

And most material would probably be gathered on the moon. 

 

You would still need to drop the periapsis low earth orbit to get efficient interplanetary transfers (yes, dropping the orbit and then burning is more efficient than directly burning)

[emosun]

mankind will exhaust most energy options before recreational moon travel is a thing.

We will waste all of our rocket fuel and natural resources doing dumb crap and learn a valuable lesson that it should have been used sparingly for the sake of science.

[GoldenLag]

1 minute ago, VegetableStu said:

I'm more on the practically building a Starship on earth and launching it (good luck with that, we already have problems with skyscrapers), as compared to assembling (maybe forging materials too?) an launching on the moon

Moon os noce as it has Helium 3 which is neat for fusion at some point in the future. So just setting up a base of operations would work out. 

 

You can use aluminium oxides (aluminium something at least) to create throttlable solid rocket boosters of sorts. Would work perfectly for transporting stuff from the lunar surface to lunar orbit (not much more tho).

[DumbAsshole32]

.

[Beef Boss]

And the moons a pain to be on anyway, the moon dust chews through Kevlar and mechanical doodads. It's been an issue and probably a huge reason why we don't even bother with it anymore. 

[Princess Luna]

31 minutes ago, -Kriss- said:

Obviously to make the rarest grilled cheese in the world out of moon cheese duh

That's how Cave Johnson died!

 

Bad poisonous moon cheese is bad.

[mariushm]

100 ...

 

There's nothing worth seeing on the moon... it's dead rock. Holds little commercial interest, and tourists won't pay tens of thousands of dollars just to go around the moon and land back on earth.

 

You may travel to the moon as a sort of in-between station .... use some type of rocket engine that can escape Earth gravity in an easy way, then from moon use other space ships to travel towards Mars or other planets that are more interesting, on space ships that don't have to carry TONS of fuel just to break out of gravity.

 

My thoughts...

 

We may have in 20 years or so intelligent enough artificial intelligence and miniaturization in robots and fast enough communication (to control and update software to robots and get the robots talk between them and coordinate with minimal human intervention) that a company could ship a rocket full of robots (or a bunch of robots and crates of parts that can be built into robots by the few robots) and these robots could dig underground in the moon rock and basically build a moon station.

Once that's done, in theory further rockets could send all the components needed to build things... solar panels can catch energy needed to power the robots and to refine rocks and shit and obtain metals and stuff needed for human survival. 

The only problem is water ... but i suppose robots again could be sent towards some ice comets or meteors and get them to deviate the course of such things and get them in orbit around the moon or crash them into the moon.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, VegetableStu said:

an interstellar vehicle factory

AH! Now everything is clear as crystal! WE finally KNOW why China is interested in the Moon! They want to move their factories up there!

 

Edit: And they'll finally be able to legimitately write on the boxes "TRUE Moon Cakes!!!"

What a blast! O_o

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by Guest

[harryk]

Space travel is expensive. Some costs may come down but without some marvelous discovery(e.g. warp drive) it will always be expensive. It takes a generous amount of energy to leave Earth's surface and even if you reduce the hardware and support costs to zero, energy will always have value.

 

Space travel is unpleasant. In any case it will always involve putting multiple humans in a confined space for an extended period of time. Humans, like all animals, are not clean and constantly shed and produce waste. Via astronaut Scott Kelly, "the ISS smells like jail, citing the similarities in their 'combinations of antiseptic, garbage, and body odor".

 

There's a very small number of people in the world who could afford to charter a flight into space, and an even smaller slice of them who would genuinely be interested in going despite the downsides. One day there will probably be a private flight or two to the moon but only on a limited scale for the couple of people with the money and desire to go. Probably 30-50 years after moon missions become 'commonplace'.

[Crunchy Dragon]

12 hours ago, Princess Luna said:

That's how Cave Johnson died!

Technically he died from moon rock dust, not necessarily moon cheese....