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SpaceX’s mission to the Moon highlights the huge economic expense of Apollo 17
Its been more than 50 years since the last successful US-led Moon landing mission but now, a vessel built by SpaceX and Intuitive Machines has blasted off in the hope of reaching the lunar surface as part of a mission that will be costing NASA a tiny fraction of what the space agency spent on the Apollo missions.
Should it succeed, the historic mission will lead to the first lunar landing under NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program through which the space agency has contracted aerospace company Intuitive Machines to deliver a series of scientific payloads to the Moons surface in what is hoped to be the first American Moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972, 52 years ago.
Americas first Moon landing mission in 52 years
The mission, dubbed IM-1, began on February 15 at 1:05am EST when a Falcon 9 rocket built by Elon Musks SpaceX launched, carrying Intuitive Machines Nova-C lunar lander, named Odysseus, into space.
Following the launch, the crafts journey to the Moon is expected to take five to six days and the lander will spend one more Earth-day in orbit around the Moon before attempting to land, with an estimated lunar landing date scheduled for February 22.
The IM-1 mission will carry a selection of scientific instruments to the lunar surface, including equipment made by NASA as well as the International Lunar Observatory, Louisiana State University, University of Colorado Boulder and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
A total of three lunar landing missions are planned for the coming months, with the IM-2 mission scheduled to launch in March and the IM-3 mission scheduled for June.
The missions cost compared to Apollo 17
To commission Intuitive Machines for its CLPS program, NASA contracted the company for a reported $118 million.
While this is obviously not a small sum, its a fraction of the cost of the Apollo 17 mission which cost NASA a whopping $450 million in 1972.
That figure is ballooned dramatically when adjusted for inflation which shows that the cost of the final Apollo mission would have been a staggering $3.25 billion in todays money.
This means that the $118 million that NASA has spent to contract Intuitive Machines for its Moon landing mission is just 3.6% of the cost of Apollo 17 when inflation is factored in.
The colossal expense of space travel is laid bare when we take a look at the total cost of the Apollo program which came to $25.8 billion. When adjusted for inflation, this figure amounts to approximately $300.85 billion.
