Elon Musk announced SpaceX is sending two private citizens to the Moon

By Matthew Griffin Space 28th February 2017

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Man hasn’t returned to the Moon since first landing on it 45 years ago, and this will be the first time we go back

Yesterday afternoon at 4PM EST SpaceX CEO and polymath Elon Musk, who was recently in Dubai selling 200 self-driving Teslas, announced that SpaceX is planning on sending two private citizens into orbit around the Moon – six months after it plans to carry the company’s first passengers to the International Space Station (ISS).

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“I think this should be a really exciting mission that gets the world excited about sending people into deep space again,” Musk said in a teleconference.

The mission, which would mark humankind’s first return to the moon in more than 45 years, will be funded by two private individuals who approached SpaceX with the proposition. At this point those backers remain anonymous, but Musk said they’ve placed a significant deposit, and at approximately $35 million a launch you could estimate that they might have payed north of $100 million for the journey of a lifetime.

If all goes according to plan, the Falcon Heavy will lift the Crew Dragon and its two passengers into lunar orbit in late 2018. The weeklong mission would circle around the moon on an approximately 350,000 mile journey before returning to Earth. The mission could prove to be an important step between low Earth orbit and SpaceX’s goal of carrying humans to Mars within the next decade or so.

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The Falcon Heavy, SpaceX’s upcoming heavy lift rocket, is expected to have its maiden launch later this year. The Crew Dragon will already have flown humans to the ISS by the time the moon mission launches. The Crew Dragon’s main modifications would be to the communication system, Musk said, to allow for deep space communications.

While developments in rocketry often don’t go to plan – with explosions and delays fairly common, for now at least it looks like SpaceX is on track to beat NASA’s next crewed mission, which would put astronauts into lunar orbit in the 2020s or perhaps 2019. However, Musk said that if NASA is interested in using SpaceX to send a crewed mission around the moon, he would give them priority.

“I’m not sure if we’ll be before or after NASA,” said Musk, “but I’m not sure that’s really the important thing. I think what matters is the advancement of space exploration… the more the better.”

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.