• Question: how long do you think it will be intill we have commercial filghts to the moon or space?

    Asked by bigbellychimp to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by britishbeef.
    • Photo: Lily Asquith

      Lily Asquith answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Maybe 25 years. Depends on what happens in the world really. There are so many problems looming on the planet: the population will soon be too large to sustain, we are in danger of running out of water, species are going extinct, crazy wars are being raged.

      If we fix up and look sharp then we could do it really soon.

      I found myself deeply saddened yesterday by the realisation that I will never go to the moon :'(. I guess this is just something I am going to have to come to terms with.

    • Photo: Mark Roberts

      Mark Roberts answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Relatively soon – I know virgin galactic are planning to do commercial flights into space in the next few years

      As for the moon I’m guessing thats a long way off as there is no human presence on the moon at the moment so we’ll have to wait for that before commercial flights – that’s probably quite a long way off

    • Photo: Sarah Bardsley

      Sarah Bardsley answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Commercial flights to the lower atmosphere and higher are already happening. Albeit a little over priced. Have you got a spare $200,000 (for Virgin Galactic)?? One guy is planning to build a hotel in space for tourists by 2016 so not long to go! Most efforts to generate a significant space tourism industry are behind schedule. As for visiting the moon, we would perhaps first have to build a base with its own energy, food & water supply. One guy is developing a 3D printer that would build structures out of moon dust. Pretty crazy stuff!

    • Photo: Paul Roche

      Paul Roche answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      I’d love to think it will happen within the next 20 years, so maybe I’d be around to experience it (without having to sell my house to afford it…) – but realistically, I think it will be another 30-40 years before we see commercial flights that are not restricted to the super-rich. Richard Branson is selling tickets on his Virgin Galactic flights (a few minutes in space) for £100,000, so I think it will be a long time before we will be able to book tickets to actually travel anywhere (e.g. Australia or across the Atlantic), as opposed to just going up and then coming back down again.

      But it will happen, and hopefully before you are too old to enjoy it!

    • Photo: Laura Maliszewski

      Laura Maliszewski answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think we’ll have the technology in the next 5-10 years, but I don’t know that it’ll ever be a successful business.

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