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Does SpaceX currently operate anything that can make a round trip to the moon and back? LEO for sure, but Luna? They’ve definitely done an impressive job of bri

Does SpaceX currently operate anything that can make a round trip to the moon and back? LEO for sure, but Luna? They’ve definitely done an impressive job of bringing the price per kilo launched into LEO down, but that may not translate to a journey of many orders of magnitude beyond that.

gpm 8y ago
If your round trip includes landing on the moon, not even close. Otherwise yes. The current vehicles would also be capable of putting a theoretical third party lander on the moon that could return, but not one is developing such a lander (and it would be fairly weight constrained, ~2/3rds the mass of Apollo). The really exciting thing for the moon/mars isn't what SpaceX has already has finished hardware doing though (lowering launch costs by, optimistically, an order of magnitude), but what they are actively in the process of doing. Developing a ship and rocket that they claim will be able to put on the order of 100 tons on the moon... lowering launch costs by multiple orders of magnitude. Given their track record, the money they are (visibly) spending on this goal, and the fact that what they say they are going to do seems possible, it is reasonable to think that there is a good chance they will succeed.
- GW150914 8y ago
  That really is exciting, and I agree with your assessment of their ability to deliver. Maybe we’ll really see some developing industry in space in the next few decades... amazing. Even if it’s just vacuum industry, welding and such, it could open the way for solar power collection in space, light-sail probes, more advanced telescopes, and down the road, asteroid mining.
- AngryData 8y ago
  100 tons is fucking massive! Even my kerbals have trouble launching such payloads, when we can do that I see no problem colonizing the solar system.
  - rbanffy 8y ago
    100 tons is a factory. Even if all you do is to refine metals from regolith and stash them in piles outside, you'll have raw materials for a colony that don't need to be shipped from Earth, which drives costs down to, perhaps, the point of making it viable. Again, a local chemistry for the industrial processes will need to be developed.

gpm 8y ago

If your round trip includes landing on the moon, not even close. Otherwise yes. The current vehicles would also be capable of putting a theoretical third party lander on the moon that could return, but not one is developing such a lander (and it would be fairly weight constrained, ~2/3rds the mass of Apollo). The really exciting thing for the moon/mars isn't what SpaceX has already has finished hardware doing though (lowering launch costs by, optimistically, an order of magnitude), but what they are actively in the process of doing. Developing a ship and rocket that they claim will be able to put on the order of 100 tons on the moon... lowering launch costs by multiple orders of magnitude. Given their track record, the money they are (visibly) spending on this goal, and the fact that what they say they are going to do seems possible, it is reasonable to think that there is a good chance they will succeed.

GW150914 8y ago
That really is exciting, and I agree with your assessment of their ability to deliver. Maybe we’ll really see some developing industry in space in the next few decades... amazing. Even if it’s just vacuum industry, welding and such, it could open the way for solar power collection in space, light-sail probes, more advanced telescopes, and down the road, asteroid mining.
AngryData 8y ago
100 tons is fucking massive! Even my kerbals have trouble launching such payloads, when we can do that I see no problem colonizing the solar system.
- rbanffy 8y ago
  100 tons is a factory. Even if all you do is to refine metals from regolith and stash them in piles outside, you'll have raw materials for a colony that don't need to be shipped from Earth, which drives costs down to, perhaps, the point of making it viable. Again, a local chemistry for the industrial processes will need to be developed.