Thailand to launch first mission to the moon

An entire lunar orbital mission with a spacecraft (manned or unmanned?) for 3 billion baht? That's about 100 million dollars, while an Apollo orbital flight (there were 13 in total if I remember correctly) cost 1.5 billion dollars each, or 45 billion baht each, and that was 50 years ago! The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 (the moon landing) cost 2.3 billion dollars at the time (today it would cost over 20 billion dollars!). Even using a conservative estimate, launching a rocket carrying a spacecraft into orbit around the moon can be "reasonably" estimated at 10 billion dollars, or 300 billion baht! Currently, virtually nothing is known about the development of this "very low-cost" space program (will the launch site be built or will a launch site in the United States or China be used? Will the personnel assigned to this program be trained? Will the unmanned spacecraft return to Earth or disintegrate upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, or be sent into intergalactic space as a junkyard?). Perhaps we will know more in January when Minister Anek (who may no longer be in office in 4 to 7 years) makes an official announcement, with more credible figures on the estimated overall cost, which will have to be adjusted to account for rising costs over the next 7 years. But the figure of 3 billion baht for this space mission is ridiculously low and impossible to meet. That's currently the price to launch a small telecommunications satellite weighing between 3 and 6 tons into Earth orbit. (between $60,000 and $100,000 to launch the satellite with SpaceX's Falcon rocket or NASA's rocket). It is also remarkable that Minister Alek is announcing a 300 kg spacecraft (which looks very much like a manned space shuttle in the science-fiction illustration accompanying your article), while a "small" weather satellite, for example, weighs between 1,800 and 3,600 kg! How can we take seriously the terms of this declaration of international prestige during this period of global economic depression, which has plunged more than 30 percent of Thailand's population into dramatic poverty and which desperately needs these 3 billion baht to survive!

Yes, as Eric's comment above ironically points out, there must also be a Thai/English/French translation error regarding the propulsion speeds required to escape Earth's gravity and for spaceflight, on the one hand, and the orbital speed around the Moon, on the other. The speeds are around 11 km/s for the propulsion system and approximately 2 km/s for an orbit around the Moon without risk of being drawn in and crashing onto its surface. For satellites orbiting Earth, and given our planet's greater mass, this speed must be around 8 km/s to escape Earth's gravity and remain in orbit. Mr. Alek must have miscopied the technical specifications of the Apollo mission propulsion systems and capsules to produce these figures of 11 and 2 km/s instead of per hour! Or the translation went wrong somewhere...
But that doesn't fundamentally change the ridiculously low cost of 3 billion baht announced for a spacecraft launch program to orbit the moon… I wish I could live until 2027 to see that!

This kind of news is a bit like if Laos announced tomorrow that they're sending satellites to Pluto; it's the same kind of thing. They're jumping the gun a bit, aren't they? The leaders here are some pretty megalomaniacal types…

Thailand's space conquest, I've heard it all now... while the world is dealing with a crisis that's going to last a very, very, very long time, they want to send spacecraft to the moon. To do what?

Megalomaniac delusions, they'll grow out of it…

If they manage to make Bangkok more livable and fight pollution, there's enough work for a good century already...

We'll deal with space later, guys.