DIY Moon Probe: Is It Possible with a Small Budget?

[harkkam]

With a small budget would it be possible to make a rocket capable of delivering a small probe to the moon?

A rocket that puts the probe into Earth orbit and them Hoffman transfer to the moon and guides itself to the surface?

I am talking very small, maybe the size of a baseball, that transmits back to Earth and uses a pre-programmed landing routine with smallish thrusters.

Would it be possible?

 

[D H]

If by a small budget you mean only fifty million dollars or so, then yes, it's possible. That is an incredibly small figure. None of the serious contenders in the Google Lunar X Prize contest expect the $30 million award (if they win it) to offset the costs. If your definition of small is less than a million, then no, it's not possible.

 

[harkkam]

But what about a balloon that takes a rocket up to a very high altitude and then fires the rocket away from earth?

Should be less than $10k

 

[berkeman]

But what about a balloon that takes a rocket up to a very high altitude and then fires the rocket away from earth?

Should be less than $10k

The rocket will go up a little bit, and then fall back to Earth. Quiz question -- why?

 

[berkeman]

Quiz question -- why?

Hint: https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=355705

 

[tfr000]

You might investigate the minimum it would take to get, say 1 kg into Earth orbit before you worry about going to the Moon.

I did this a few years ago and came up with a 4-stage liquid fueled rocket weighing 3300 kg, about 11 m long, with a first stage thrust of about 40000 Newtons. Non-trivial.

 

[cjl]

Honestly, for $10k, you'd be hard pressed to even design a sounding rocket that could make it into space (>100km altitude). Orbit is significantly harder, and a lunar trajectory is harder still. I would expect any viable attempt to cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, even with a pretty small payload.