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Moon Express is a private company that wants to start offering trips to the moon for £8,000 a ticket.

The company was founded in 2010 by billionaire entrepreneur Naveen Jain and is planning to launch its first unmanned orbital mission next year.

Eventually, it hopes to be sending people to the moon by 2026. So far, Moon Express is the only private company to be granted permission (under US law) to leave Earth and land on the moon. It was given the go-ahead by the US Federal Aviation Administration in August in a move that could open up the space race to new levels.

(Image: Moon Express)

Moon Express says it will team up with another private company, Elon Musk's SpaceX, to send people there.

"It's very complimentary as a matter of fact…Elon will build the rocket and we do the rover," Jain said.

"Essentially, he lays the cables and we do the last mile."

SpaceX has previously explained that its mission is to colonise Mars to help humans become a multi-planet species.

But before that happens, Jain says we need to be ready to take a honeymoon for real.

"Mars is absolutely the right place to be ultimately. But (the) moon is the first training ground and the first stepping stone. At the end of the day, we would rather be a lunatic three days away than be a Martian six months away," Jain told CNBC .

"So I really believe the problems living on the moon are similar – the high radiation, vast temperatture difference – and if we can solve that problem on the moon we can easily go on living on Mars after," he said.

But, just like taking a trip on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, a holiday with Moon Express is going to be costly.

Jain reckons ticket price will be $10,000 (£7,925) and he says the flight won't be any more strenuous than taking a flight from San Francisco to Sydney.