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Jeff Bezos turns down offer to do a Lunar flyby


Spaceception

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13 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

What would've launched it?

Proton with Blok-D stage and Soyuz on a Soyuz, a few days apart-hence the relatively high risk.

 

14 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

Also, the article mentions the Soyuz was designed with a lunar flyby in mind. How so? Like, what can the Soyuz do that other LEO ferries can't? 

Although Soyuz was ultimately approved for lunar missions, the design was descended from concepts for military craft for earth orbit. The only real difference between current versions of Soyuz and e.g. Dragon for this application is Soyuz has more interior volume because of the orbit module.

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1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

Why. The. Hell. Would. ANYONE. Turn down an offer to do a Lunar flyby!?

http://www.space.com/32576-jeff-bezos-skipped-moon-trip-soyuz.html?cmpid=514648

“When you enter moon orbit we also want you to read off the temperature of this thermometer, and study the goo in this container,” said project leader Yevgeni Kermanovitch with a big smile.

 

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On 4/14/2016 at 2:07 PM, Kerbart said:

“When you enter moon orbit we also want you to read off the temperature of this thermometer, and study the goo in this container,” said project leader Yevgeni Kermanovitch with a big smile.

 

I don't get it.

But Soyuz's provisions for Lunar Missions were deleted long ago. It'd have to be modified yet again for that.

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1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

I wouldn't care, at least it'd be fast.

Blast is a definite possibility. So is asphyxiation or an electrical fire. And all of these are more likely to happen on the way to the Moon than on the return leg. I guess, the best possible catastrophic scenario would be a re-entry mishap, but Russians haven't had one of these in a very long time.

You might still think it's worth the risk, but people who start multiple multi-billion corporations tend to know when not to take them.

 

P.S. To be fair, the odds are much better than 50/50 here. We're probably not even talking Russian Roulette odds. I would estimate something on the order of 10% is the real risk. But it's not the sort of odds you let your life ride on.

Edited by K^2
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There would be significant financial risk involved here. I really doubt it would cost them only $200 million to develop and build the fancy docking rig for the Blok D, the mission module for Soyuz, et.c.

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27 minutes ago, K^2 said:

Blast is a definite possibility. So is asphyxiation or an electrical fire. And all of these are more likely to happen on the way to the Moon than on the return leg. I guess, the best possible catastrophic scenario would be a re-entry mishap, but Russians haven't had one of these in a very long time.

You might still think it's worth the risk, but people who start multiple multi-billion corporations tend to know when not to take them.

 

P.S. To be fair, the odds are much better than 50/50 here. We're probably not even talking Russian Roulette odds. I would estimate something on the order of 10% is the real risk. But it's not the sort of odds you let your life ride on.

I think I'd prefer detonation on the pad to a re-entry failure, myself.

But yeah... I wouldn't waste 200 million simply to be the first civilian to do it. I'll wait another ten years, pay less, and do it in more comfort.

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9 minutes ago, Stargate525 said:

I think I'd prefer detonation on the pad to a re-entry failure, myself.

But then you die without even seeing the Moon up close. The only reason I'm calling re-entry mishap a best scenario is because you'd be dying with your trip complete, and not just blowing yourself up on the launch pad for no good reason.

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1 hour ago, K^2 said:

But then you die without even seeing the Moon up close. The only reason I'm calling re-entry mishap a best scenario is because you'd be dying with your trip complete, and not just blowing yourself up on the launch pad for no good reason.

On a launch failure, you will survive if you have a LES. Not in a reentry failure.

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Quote

Roscosmos also offered Bezos the chance to do a flyby of the moona capability that the Soyuz was built for but that has not been tested. The lunar mission would cost Bezos about $200 million, he said. The high price tag was an issue, as was the fact that the Soyuz hasn't yet been tested on a lunar flyby.

Being involved in a corporation that doubtless employs test pilots, he's probably acutely aware that generally you are expected to pay your test pilots, not the other way around.  That's my theory anyway.

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