MOSCOW, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - There are many people in the world who are anxious to circumnavigate the Moon for $100 million, deputy head of the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos Nikolai Moiseyev said Wednesday.
Moiseyev was commenting on a new project, proposed by the Russian Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, seeking to send space tourists to orbit the Moon.
He said the project, the company's most financially successful undertaking, cost tourists $25,000 per minute in zero gravity.
"Now you can compare how much a two-week trip to the Moon's orbit and back to the Earth could cost. A person who would risk going on this tour would be able to compensate for such expenses simply by giving out interviews and autographs," Moiseyev said.
He said he sees no technical problems with the project.
Moiseyev said there are plans in the works to use carrier rockets to put a Soyuz-piloted spacecraft and a separate acceleration unit into orbit. The Soyuz and the acceleration unit will dock in orbit. This spacecraft will accelerate to a required speed to fly around the Moon and come back to the Earth under the ellipsis trajectory.
Moiseyev said there are still issues to be resolved, in particular, the return to the Earth.
"It is obvious that it is necessary to enhance thermal protection because the Soyuz will have to dive into the atmosphere twice: first, to reduce speed to the first space speed (7.9 kilometers per second) and, secondly, to land in a nominal regime. Also, a system has to be developed to control the return to the Earth," Moiseyev said.
