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I have a payload that is the size and density of a grain of sand.

I want to land it intact on the moon, but I am not particular about location beyond that.

What is the least expensive way to get it there?

John Shedletsky
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    Would Space Exploration be a better home for this question? – Emilio Pisanty Mar 24 '14 at 16:42
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    Is this theoretical? because if you are actually wanting to send a grain of sand to the moon, I'm intrigued! :) – Adsy Mar 24 '14 at 16:48
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    what-if.xkcd has a few columns on the Rocket Equation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_equation . Short answer: the payload is a nearly-inconsequential contributor to the total mass required to escape Earth's gravity well. //// I'm tempted to say the cheapest way is: Wait for a bigass meteor to hit the Earth, ejecting your sand grain into space :-) – Carl Witthoft Mar 24 '14 at 17:31
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    @Adsy: I'm thinking about unconventional solutions to the YouTube moon prize. – John Shedletsky Mar 24 '14 at 18:30
  • In a lot of ways this is a technology question, rather than a physics one. Also, it seems to me that you'll get vastly varying answers, most of which without much objective evidence to back themselves up, considering the complexity of the mission at hand. – David Ball Mar 24 '14 at 20:57
  • It's really an energy question. What is the theoretical minimum required. That determines cost. The Tsiolkovsky comment above was helpful in this respect. – John Shedletsky Mar 25 '14 at 01:19
  • @JohnShedletsky oh wow, I've never heard of the YouTube lunar prize. I'll keep my eye on that! – Adsy Mar 25 '14 at 08:35
  • when you say intact, does that mean operational too? If so, how durable is it? I can think of some payloads that might withstand a hard-landing on the moon. Would you be ok with it if they just fired it along a hohmann trajectory from the ISS? – Jim Mar 25 '14 at 15:46
  • Relevant question/answer: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/88145/ – Kyle Kanos Oct 29 '14 at 17:21

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