Speculations on SpaceX and the moon

SpaceX: Could they fly a person around the moon?

Thinking about getting people to the moon, in an earlier post, I discussed the Space Adventures offer to send a space tourist around the moon in a Soyuz for $200 million.

There have been no takers. But who else could get anyone near the moon anytime soon?

And that made me think of SpaceX. Their space system—the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon capsule—should be capable of putting people into orbit in a very few years. How much harder would it be for that company to send an astronaut around the moon?

It wouldn’t be easy, but I think it would be doable. Some difficult adjustments would need to be made:

1. Heat shield.

Dragon’s heat shield is designed to protect the craft (and passengers) in a fiery re-entry from earth orbit. But a moon explorer would be coming in much fast, and the descent much hotter. A different heat shield would be needed. This would add weight, reducing payload. So, Dragon would carry only one or two passengers to save weight for the heavier shield.

2. Getting out of earth orbit.

Dragon is capable of rendezvous and docking. It would need to dock with another vehicle containing an engine to blast it out of earth orbit and get it moonward. That means this engine carrying vehicle needs to be developed. I feel confident SpaceX is capable of this.

3. Navigation.

Since this flight is only a loop around the moon, and not an orbital mission or a landing, a free-return trajectory would be used. That is, the flight path would simply swing the craft around the moon, and largely use the moon’s gravity to power the return home. This is a problem that has been solved long ago.

4. Tricky re-entry.

The tolerances for a re-entry from a lunar voyage are tight. If you  come in the wrong way, you burn up—or skip off the earth’s atmosphere and end up in space forever. This is another difficult problem with has been solved.

I don’t know if SpaceX is planning a lunar voyage. I don’t even know if it would be a good idea for them to do it. Financially, how would it help the company?

Still, Elon Musk (PayPal billionaire and founder of SpaceX) didn’t create his new company solely to make money. Here, he has  a chance to make history.

I’ve asked someone at SpaceX about this  possibility. She had no comment at this time.