Let’s put this in perspective. The average Manhattan apartment costs about $1.5 million. For that cash, you could buy a one-way ticket for a small robotic rover—or, if you wait for Starship, maybe a whole family’s round trip. Alternatively, you could spend the same amount on 14,000 high-end iPhones and stack them to the moon (okay, not quite—but you get the idea).
How Expensive Is It to Send Payload To The Moon? (Cost Per Tonne) - YouTube
Or think of it this way: a single Artemis launch costs roughly the same as 20 Super Bowl ads or the entire annual budget of a mid-sized city. It’s a lot of zeros—but then again, you’re going to the moon.
So, When Can You Book Your Ticket?
Realistically, a human trip to the moon for regular folks is still 5 to 10 years away—at least at a price you won’t need a billionaire’s wallet for. SpaceX’s dearMoon project (a private lunar flyby) could happen as early as 2026, but tickets are only for the ultra-rich (think Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire). Still, each milestone drops the cost for the rest of us.
And hey, even if you never go, the price tag itself is a reminder of how radically human ambition is changing. A hundred years ago, flying across the Atlantic was a pipe dream. Now, we’re haggling over the cost of a moon trip. Isn’t that just wildly cool?
So, next time you look up at the moon, just smile. Whether it costs a billion bucks or a few hundred thousand, we’re getting there. And the only question left is: what would you pack?
