Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Space miles
Imagine if you were looking for a car insurance quote and received one that said £300,000.
Well, according to Elon Musk, the co-founder of PayPal and CEO of the American commercial rocket-making company SpaceX, we’ll be able to enjoy a round trip to Mars within a decade and that’s what it will cost each customer. Ok, we admit that this large sum of money will get you 280,000,000 miles of rocket travel – but how long will it take to get there? Days? Years?
And once you get to Mars, what will there be to see? We doubt being stood on the red planet will be as pleasant as experiencing the British countryside or exploring one of the UK’s many idyllic villages, welcoming towns, or vibrant cities.
One hundred and forty-one point six million miles from the Sun and only -65 degrees centigrade on average, the only ‘land mark’ available for tourists at the moment is the solar system’s largest dead volcano Olympus Mons.
Hmm, we’re not sure we’ll be saving up for a ticket. Leaving the third rock from the Sun for what is essentially a freezing wilderness doesn’t sound that attractive a proposition to us.
Photo © oliverj819 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance quote, Mars, PayPal, red plant, rocket, round trip, SpaceX, sun, tourists
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posted by Fuse @ 12:43 AM 
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