Dragon mission to ISS(close approximation to putting a crew capsule on a transfer vehicle) is $113M
Falcon 9X is $100-150M, figuring probably $120M for what I'm looking at
Base price of a Falcon 9 is $54M.
With modern tech, a lunar transfer vehicle with fuel should be well below the 9X's wieght to LEO. Crew goes up in a Dragon, lander gets in there, probably as a separate 9 launch.
Doing something like a Bigelow for the transfer vehicle makes it much lighter and allows a very comfortable volume. 120+113+60=$293M for launchers. Considering SpaceX's successes with Falcon, I'd say $200M would be reasonable for developing the transfer vehicle and the lander, both of which can use already existing technology. So, $500 million for a moonshot. Certainly less than $1 billion.
Money? Reality TV. This would be quite different than most shows, but with an international audience, it would most likely be able to at least offset some of the costs for the billionaire crazy enough to fund it. Also add the price paid by various universities to put their professors on flights. If the transfer vehicle and the (hopefully single stage)lunar landers are reusable, then the costs of such can be spread out over a longer period if desired. It's $16M per person to put a loaded Dragon in orbit(SpaceX's estimate of $113M per launch to ISS), possibly lower if any kind of mass production happens--that's well within the realm of the current crop of space tourists. Say, $20M to cover other costs. Still a bargain for a trip to the moon.
I'm sure there are missions such a transfer vehicle can do in orbit, or even out of orbit, but not going to the moon.
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_lol.gif)
Sound crazy?