![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/ADQ7O65YQ72JEM7OAKHA22QWKU.jpg?quality=85&w=525)
![](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/ADQ7O65YQ72JEM7OAKHA22QWKU.jpg?quality=85&w=525)
The folks at the Movoto Real Estate blog are thinking ahead, to when we’ll be getting off of this rock and colonizing the universe–by strapping our homes to rockets and launching them into space.
Okay, that may not be how we do it. But still, it’s something fun to consider, and there’s some real math put into this graphic for “Mission: Space House,” as they call it. They picked out a viable rocket (the Falcon Heavy) and figured out an approximate weight-to-square-foot ratio (200 pounds per square foot for a single level). At the end, you can see a brief history of spaceflight costs and how they stack up to the estimated price of you shuttling your pad to space.
Some more findings on this:
- The average house in the U.S. is 2,700 square feet, according to the National Association of Home Builders. If that’s a one story, it would run you about $640 million.
- The White House is about 55,000 square feet, with six stories. Counting only three of those stories (the maximum of the graphic), that means a pricetag of more (probably a lot more, with the extra stories) than $18 billion to put into orbit.
- Bill Gates’ home is 66,000 square feet. Again, counting with the maximum three stories, that’s almost $22 billion.