Commercial Manned Moon Landing?

[saundby]

Near the end of a nasaspaceflight.com article cryptic mention was made of a possible commercial venture to land crews on the Moon:
Exploration Alternativesropelland Depots, Commercial Lunar Base

There appear to be some details behind the paywall there, but some things may be coming out:
Golden Spike Company to Lay Private Tracks for Human Moon Missions

It'll be interesting to see what else comes out about this.

Commercial moonbase? Any ideas on where the profits are on this?

 

[robject]

Basically a class F spaceport? i.e. a fuel depot?

 

[Dragoner]

tourism...

 

[HG_B]

Commercial moonbase? Any ideas on where the profits are on this?

Profits above costs? Don't see any right now.

 

[McPerth]

Commercial moonbase? Any ideas on where the profits are on this?

Right now, millionaire's tourism.

Aftermath... God knows (I'm only a mortal man).

 

[BytePro]

Commercial moonbase? Any ideas on where the profits are on this?

Advertising? mad

Maybe they plan on churning up the regolith to change its optical properties - making the biggest bloody billboard in the solar system... o:

(Just kidding - I think that would require processing a lot of regolith - the features we see with the naked eye are quite massive...)

[More seriously, aside from DT, I'm not sure there is any economically worthwhile resources - and near earth would seem better for low-g production values - so that just leaves tourism and bragging rights?]

 

[mike wightman]

Helium3.

Although it is a bit more science fiction than science fact, if we ever crack the fusion problem helium 3 is a much better fusion "fuel", and the moon may contain tons and tons of the stuff.

 

[McPerth]

Helium3.

Although it is a bit more science fiction than science fact, if we ever crack the fusion problem helium 3 is a much better fusion "fuel", and the moon may contain tons and tons of the stuff.

True, but this helium is nearly worthless unti we control fussion power, and that's less than a decade away (or so said my grandfather, and my father... and I hope I will not hear that from my daughters :devil

 

[BytePro]

Helium3.

Although it is a bit more science fiction than science fact, if we ever crack the fusion problem helium 3 is a much better fusion "fuel", and the moon may contain tons and tons of the stuff.

Doh - I meant He-3 not DT. o:

Yeah, its a bit of a stretch to believe a commercial venture would go to the moon for He-3, given there aren't even any first gen reactors commercial reactors.

But a manned mission to the moon would be cool for whatever reasons (and by whoever)... So I just did some googling, and...

HOLY CRAP...

S. Alan Stern, the former NASA science chief who now works for the Southwest Research Institute, is the registered agent for the company, which is identified as a foreign corporation in Colorado state records.​

I know this guy!

(I'll be making some phone calls this week!)

 

[BytePro]

BTW: Alan Stern, among many other projects, was principal investigator for LRO's LAMP instrument - which was the first to detect Helium out-gassing from the Moon's surface (it's 'atmosphere'). (So maybe there is a bit of something to the He-3 thing...)

 

[far-trader]

I know this guy!

(I'll be making some phone calls this week!)

Angling for a crew seat?

 

[BytePro]

Naw... I'd settle for being a passenger (aisle or window seat - whatever's available - I'm not too picky)

If I can share anything I find out, I will... (been a few years since I had his contact info, but I know people who worked directly for him and probably still do). Thanksgiving's a good time to reach out and touch base with folks!

 

[Timerover51]

My son, who is now 21 and a college senior, since about the age of 9 or so, had as his long term job objective to work for NASA and be onboard for a Moon or Mars landing flight. Since he has been in college, he is concluded that the likelihood of a Moon or Mars flight within his lifetime is sufficiently small so that he is no longer pursuing that idea. I do not expect to ever, in the remainder of my lifetime, see men walk on the Moon, except possibly the Chinese. From the US, I am assuming that the likelihood is nil.

 

[ShapeShifter]

I don't harbour any such pessimistic views. Another moon-landing is far more likely -- though much, much less productive or sensible -- than a manned Mars-mission in the next thirty years.

 

[saundby]

Intriguing tidbits and speculation:

Alan Stern was principal investigator on the LAMP instrument on LCROSS. LAMP detected extremely high concentrations of gold and mercury in the polar crater floor it struck. It has since been posited that with the natural electrostatic motility of dust on the Moon, cold craters form natural collecting sites for gold dust liberated from asteroids when they strike the Moon, as the continuous cold temperatures prevent the electrostatic action to move what comes in back out again.

So, separate the dust from the water ice, turn the ice into propellant, separate the conductive metals from the common dust, and you've got your return ticket and your payload.

Theory 2: Harrison Schmidt has written that lunar material will pay for itself in radioactives for PET scans compatible with children and pregnant women, which current common materials are not. I'm not up on the details on this one, I'm afraid.

Also: apparently Paragon (founded by Diamandis) is a partner with Golden Spike on this.

Edit: Owner of NASASpaceFlight.com says a reveal is coming in December...