saundby
SOC-14 1K
I mentioned the rumblings about an nasaspaceflight.com stating that an unidentified company was planning a lunar landing here: http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=27630
Now the news has come out. The Golden Spike Company says they can do a 100% commercial crewed lunar landing for US$7-8 Billion, and that the users will pay the tab.
They're using what they call a "maximally pragmatic" approach, planning to use existing hardware for every job where it exists. New hardware will only be developed where it doesn't exist, like the lunar lander.
The overall design of the system allows for lots of substitutions, such as either Atlas V or Falcon Heavy as the launch vehicle, presumably so that they have as much flexibility as possible in putting the final mission together, negotiating prices and dealing with availability.
The team is a list of "space superstars" including Alan Stern and Wayne Hale, so they've got the credentials they need to convince people to put up the dough, I'd say.
It also looks like they may be planning a crowdsourcing effort sometime in the new year:
http://goldenspikecompany.com/get-involved/
More here:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/12/golden-spike-phase-a-commercial-lunar-landing-missions/
Now the news has come out. The Golden Spike Company says they can do a 100% commercial crewed lunar landing for US$7-8 Billion, and that the users will pay the tab.
They're using what they call a "maximally pragmatic" approach, planning to use existing hardware for every job where it exists. New hardware will only be developed where it doesn't exist, like the lunar lander.
The overall design of the system allows for lots of substitutions, such as either Atlas V or Falcon Heavy as the launch vehicle, presumably so that they have as much flexibility as possible in putting the final mission together, negotiating prices and dealing with availability.
The team is a list of "space superstars" including Alan Stern and Wayne Hale, so they've got the credentials they need to convince people to put up the dough, I'd say.
It also looks like they may be planning a crowdsourcing effort sometime in the new year:
http://goldenspikecompany.com/get-involved/
More here:
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2012/12/golden-spike-phase-a-commercial-lunar-landing-missions/
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