The dream of sending humans back to the moon could become a reality for the relatively low price of $10 billion — only about 10 percent of one previous cost
estimate — as long as NASA is willing to buy from private spaceflight companies, a new report shows.
In 2005, NASA estimated that returning humans to the moon would cost $100 billion (approximately $122 billion in today's dollars). But if the success of private spaceflight companies like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences continues, NASA could send humans back to the lunar surface in as little as five to seven years, at a highly reduced cost, the new report shows.