Ticket to the Moon

Singsong, merry-go-round, Here we go off to the moon-oh.

The price of a ticket to the moon, in the children's nursery rhyme, was a single foundling penny and the method of transportation a kite. For the rocket-borne commercial space traveler of the future, the tab will be considerably higher--but still astonishingly low. In a detailed cost analysis presented to last week's international space symposium in Stockholm, three Douglas Aircraft Co. engineers estimated that a scant $500 should one day cover basic costs of one passenger's round-trip transportation, by nuclear spaceship, to the moon. The price to Mars: $4,000 during a two-month "tourist season"--the period when the Red Planet's orbit brings it closest to the earth.

The analysis does not include "indirect costs" of operating a commercial space line--maintenance, administration, advertising, ticketing and profit--but its authors insist these charges should parallel standard airline operating expenses. All costs included, the estimated price of a round-trip ticket to the moon would be $900--about $40 less than the current first-class jet fare from New York to Paris and back.

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