| Dec 07, 2012 |
Private firm plans to offer Moon trips for $1.4billion (w/video) |
| (Nanowerk News) Golden Spike Company says it will use existing rocket and capsule technology, and will aim for a first launch before the end of the decade. |
| The firm is one of many new private firms hoping to follow the success of Space X, which has ferried cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). |
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| Artist's impression of the proposed Golden Spike lunar landing module. |
| The US became the first and only country to reach the Moon in the 1960s. |
| But costs and waning interest have prevented any other lunar mission. US President Barack Obama cancelled a planned Nasa return to the moon, saying the US had already been there. |
| The Golden Spike team, run by former Nasa associate administrator Alan Stern, says it is looking into offering voyages to the governments of other countries - such as South Africa, South Korea and Japan - expecting interest for scientific research or national prestige. |
| "It's not about being first. It's about joining the club," he said on Wednesday. "We're kind of cleaning up what Nasa did in the 1960s. We're going to make a commodity of it in the 2020s." Odds against |
| The company believes they have an addressable market of 15 to 25 customers for lunar surface missions between 2020 and 2030. |
| Watch the Golden Spike video announcement: |
| Golden Spike is full of space veterans: the board chairman is Apollo-era flight director Gerry Griffin, who once headed the Johnson Space Center. |
| However, Harvard University astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who tracks launches worldwide, told the Associated Press that many of the new space firms will fail before anything is built. |
| "This is unlikely to be the one that will pan out," Mr McDowell said, citing Golden Spike's hefty price tag. |
| Source: Golden Spike |
