"Elon Musk is sending a two people to the moon and back, not “by the end of the decade”, but about a year from now. There will be no moon landing, but still, this will be the first time people will make the more than half a million kilometers journey to the moon and back, in 45 years." @orenshani7 via "Fly Me To The Moon"

--> DragonX2 Video <--

SPACEX TO SEND PRIVATELY CREWED DRAGON SPACECRAFT BEYOND THE MOON NEXT YEAR

"Once operational Crew Dragon missions are underway for NASA, SpaceX will launch the private mission on a journey to circumnavigate the moon and return to Earth."

"Falcon Heavy missions will deliver large payloads to orbit inside a composite fairing, but the rocket can also carry the Dragon spacecraft."

"Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost."

NASA seems iffy about it...

SpaceX to fly two private individuals on a Dragon 2 lunar mission - February 27, 2017
by Chris Bergin. In a hastily arranged announcement, Elon Musk has revealed a plan to launch a Dragon 2 spacecraft on a circumlunar mission, with two paying customers. The launch, which will be conducted by a Falcon Heavy rocket in late 2018, is being seen as a major statement of intent by SpaceX, especially when NASA is conducting a study to launch a similar mission at least a year later.

The announcement came as a surprise. Mr. Musk tweeted about the upcoming reveal with less than 24 hours notice.

The lack of additional specifics resulted in mass speculation within the space flight community, fostering rumors that ranged from some sort of financial announcement through to the much-anticipated reveal of the SpaceX Space Suit, hot on the heels of Boeing’s Starliner suit announcement. Numerous SpaceX employees said they had not been informed of what the announcement was about during Monday.

The two unnamed passengers have already made a “significant deposit” to fly on the mission that will be a free trajectory flight profile that will take the Dragon 2 close to the surface of the Moon before reaching out up to 400,000 miles into deep space before returning to Earth.

That's 784,400km out, and another 784,400km back. 1,568,800km

"It is likely to end with a water landing, with Dragon 2 utilizing its parachutes during its early life before refining its SuperDraco propulsive landing technology.

It's a long way to the moon and back.

---

On the opposite end of the scale, Mars and Earth can be 401 million km apart (249 million miles) when they are in opposition and both are at aphelion. The average distance between the two is 225 million km. When Mars and Earth are at their closest, you have your launch window. Aug 28, 2016

But how can we go to Mars without

The next Mars Close Approach is Jul. 31, 2018.

Olympus Mons is the largest Volcano in the solar system

Olympus Mons is a shield volcano 624 km in diameter (approximately the same size as the state of Arizona), 25 km high, and is rimmed by a 6 km high scarp.

Sept. 28, 2015 [RELEASE 15-195]

NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars

These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks called recurring slope lineae flowing downhill on Mars are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater, corroborating their original hypothesis that the streaks are indeed formed by liquid water. The blue color seen upslope of the dark streaks are thought not to be related to their formation, but instead are from the presence of the mineral pyroxene. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (Infrared-Red-Blue/Green(IRB)) false color image (ESP_030570_1440) on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (University of Arizona). Vertical exaggeration is 1.5. Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

---

Are we close to a Lunar Hilton?

Barron was elected as vice-president of Hilton Hotels in 1954, serving behind his father. Just four years later the Suburbanite Economist article appeared – the earliest reference to the idea I can find. I expect it will be difficult to find anything much earlier. That was the beginning of space fever in the United States, as the Russians had launched Sputnik in October of 1957, kicking off the Space Age - a period of tremendous fear and wide-eyed hope for what was to come.
Throughout later years, the idea appears again and again in popular culture. In the 28 October 1962 episode of The Jetsons, The Good Little Scouts, George brings Elroy’s scout troop to the Moon and in a quick, fleeting shot we see the Moonhattan Tilton, a clear reference to the Manhattan Hilton hotel. And in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey” there is an office marked “Hilton Space Station 5” on the glass exterior, where people could presumably make reservations for the Hilton hotel on the film’s orbiting space station.

(This post was composed late February but was saved by Steemit as a draft, a feature I am grateful for and impressed by.)