Author Topic: Private Moon Landing in the works?  (Read 152800 times)

Offline Nelson Bridwell

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #280 on: 12/01/2012 05:46 am »
"Galactic Suites space hotel is on course for a 2012 debut"

http://dvice.com/archives/2009/11/galactic-suites.php

Offline Nelson Bridwell

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #281 on: 12/01/2012 03:54 pm »
Don't expect any coverage of [whatever this is] outside of enthusiast circles.

Simply by dropping a few names, it is possible to make the most unlikely and outlandish proposals sound respectable and newsworthy.

That is the real reason for the Planetary Resoruces announcement.  After several years of having to do battle with snickering and ridicule, they had finally had enough.

Offline Jim

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #282 on: 12/01/2012 03:56 pm »
Ever since the nonsense flexible path "Missions to Nowhere" proposal I have been waiting for someone to wake up and realize that NASA needs a LANDER. 

NASA does not need one

Offline 2552

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #283 on: 12/01/2012 07:13 pm »
Golden Spike News Conference - Dec. 6th

Quote from: Clark Lindsey
The mysterious company Golden Spike, which is said to be planning a privately financed expedition to the Moon (see previous posts here and here), will have a coming out press conference next Thursday at the National Press Club: Golden Spike Company Debut | The National Press Club -

    Golden Spike Company Debut

    December 6, 2012 2:00 PM
    News conferences

    Location: Bloomberg Room

I see that Bobby Block is their press contact person. He was a space reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and then left to work for SpaceX for awhile and was most recently with the CASIS organization, which organizes research projects for the ISS.
« Last Edit: 12/01/2012 07:18 pm by 2552 »

Offline edkyle99

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #284 on: 12/01/2012 08:13 pm »
Quote from: Clark Lindsey

I see that Bobby Block is their press contact person. He was a space reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and then left to work for SpaceX for awhile and was most recently with the CASIS organization, which organizes research projects for the ISS.

If so, I will enjoy watching this enterprise fail.  While Mr. Block was at the Orlando Sentinel the newspaper waged war against NASA's plans to return astronauts to the Moon.  The Sentinel won, which is why there are no plans for a U.S. lunar return.

 - Ed Kyle

Offline ugordan

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #285 on: 12/01/2012 08:23 pm »
If so, I will enjoy watching this enterprise fail.

That's the spirit!

Offline joek

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #286 on: 12/01/2012 08:59 pm »
Quote from: Clark Lindsey

I see that Bobby Block is their press contact person. He was a space reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and then left to work for SpaceX for awhile and was most recently with the CASIS organization, which organizes research projects for the ISS.
If so, I will enjoy watching this enterprise fail.  While Mr. Block was at the Orlando Sentinel the newspaper waged war against NASA's plans to return astronauts to the Moon.  The Sentinel won, which is why there are no plans for a U.S. lunar return.

I thought Block was pro-commercial (?) which would seem a good fit.  Was it that Block was "against NASA's plans to return astronauts to the Moon", or how NASA planned (or not) to do so?  Seems to me that you could be pro-return-to-moon, but not necessarily supportive of how-when-if NASA return-to-moon plans?

Offline RocketmanUS

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #287 on: 12/01/2012 10:26 pm »
Ever since the nonsense flexible path "Missions to Nowhere" proposal I have been waiting for someone to wake up and realize that NASA needs a LANDER. 

NASA does not need one
Why not? Many American's want to see the U.S. go back to the moon and that means they will need a lander for that. If commercial does make a human rated lander then NASA could possible by one or pay to send it's crew on it.

Offline Lars_J

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #288 on: 12/01/2012 11:31 pm »
Quote from: Clark Lindsey

I see that Bobby Block is their press contact person. He was a space reporter for the Orlando Sentinel and then left to work for SpaceX for awhile and was most recently with the CASIS organization, which organizes research projects for the ISS.

If so, I will enjoy watching this enterprise fail.  While Mr. Block was at the Orlando Sentinel the newspaper waged war against NASA's plans to return astronauts to the Moon.  The Sentinel won, which is why there are no plans for a U.S. lunar return.

 - Ed Kyle

Ed, I think you know that CxP had a weeee more problems than an annoying newspaper.

Offline joek

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #289 on: 12/02/2012 01:11 am »
But I have to agree that keeping the ISS alive for a few more years at the price of scrapping real missions to the Moon and then Mars, was a colossal blunder.

Who said anything about ISS?  But since you mentioned it... *POOF* ISS is dead and you now have ~$3.2B/yr for the foreseeable future (maybe, if the funds don't disappear off the "fiscal cliff").  As far as I can tell, that's still not going to get you very far towards "real missions to the Moon and then Mars" any time soon unless you also scrap NASA's DRM's.

Offline Nelson Bridwell

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #290 on: 12/02/2012 02:40 am »
[But since you mentioned it... *POOF* ISS is dead and you now have ~$3.2B/yr for the foreseeable future (maybe, if the funds don't disappear off the "fiscal cliff").  As far as I can tell, that's still not going to get you very far towards "real missions to the Moon and then Mars" any time soon unless you also scrap NASA's DRM's.

Where do you think the Augustine request for an additional $3B per year for NASA came from?  Someone correct me if my numbers are slightly off, but the ISS was not in the NASA budget beyond 2015, so they killed Constellation in order to have money to keep ISS alive long enought to provide a justification for CCDev.  In addition, shuttle budget overruns also cut into Constellation's very limited development budget.  At least that is the way Wayne Hale tells it:

http://waynehale.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/6/

(I can fully empathize with anyone who thinks it is foolish to spend all that money on the ISS and only use it for a few years.  Even so, I am not sure that LEO is a meaningful objective for NASA.  To quote our great leader, "We've been there before." )
« Last Edit: 12/02/2012 02:48 am by Nelson Bridwell »

Offline HappyMartian

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #291 on: 12/02/2012 03:36 am »
Do we have high hopes for a Private Moon Landing, yet have very low expectations for NASA to get humans on the Moon?

What an odd world.

Are the folks in Congress and other supporters of PUBLIC LAW 111–267—OCT. 11, 2010 happy about NASA's obvious and entrenched lack of planning for a human Lunar Lander?

I wish both the Golden Spike Company and the folks at Spaceworks the best of luck and offer a big "Thank you" for stimulating and contributing to the national and international discussion about Lunar Landers.


Cheers!


Edited.     
« Last Edit: 12/02/2012 12:30 pm by HappyMartian »
"The Moon is the most accessible destination for realizing commercial, exploration and scientific objectives beyond low Earth orbit." - LEAG

Offline go4mars

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #292 on: 12/02/2012 04:17 am »
Simply by dropping a few names, it is possible to make the most unlikely and outlandish proposals sound respectable and newsworthy.
Someone should send Freeman Dyson a text message. 
Elasmotherium; hurlyburly Doggerlandic Jentilak steeds insouciantly gallop in viridescent taiga, eluding deluginal Burckle's abyssal excavation.

Offline simonbp

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #293 on: 12/02/2012 06:01 am »
Why, is Golden Spike planning on disassembling the Moon and building a Dyson sphere with it?

Offline jabe

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #294 on: 12/02/2012 11:06 am »
well
Golden spike is official.  They are on facebook and twitter ;)
https://twitter.com/GoldenSpikeCo

https://www.facebook.com/pages/GoldenSpikeCo/158553877504750?ref=hl

cheers
jb
edit:and another little story about it
« Last Edit: 12/02/2012 11:09 am by jabe »

Offline Nelson Bridwell

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #295 on: 12/02/2012 02:34 pm »
Simply by dropping a few names, it is possible to make the most unlikely and outlandish proposals sound respectable and newsworthy.
Someone should send Freeman Dyson a text message. 

For the Planetary Resources PR event they named investors but refused to provide any budget figures, which can lead one to wonder if a few ultra-wealthy people gave them a token donation just for fun, or in order to get them to go away.  That their total headcount is only something like two dozen and they need to find peripheral sources of revenue to keep the lights turned on suggests that they could be operating on a shoestring.

Just a few years ago, in 2008, there was the announcement by Galactic Suites that they would have a space hotel in LEO by 2012, with the modules constructed by EADS Astrium.  However, that was total news to Astrium, which denied any knowledge of the project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Suite_Design
 
If Golden Spike can priovide real budget figures then it could be an indication that they are real, which would be a welcome change from the usual snake oil cures for futuritis.

Offline Chris Bergin

Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #296 on: 12/02/2012 03:30 pm »
I don't want this thread ruined by silly comments (too late, I know), but a bit of a trim is required as it really does get past the realm of nonsense when people think the Orlando Sentinel cancelled CxP.

Anyway, at least we'll have a new thread for Thursday.
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Offline go4mars

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #297 on: 12/02/2012 04:59 pm »
Why, is Golden Spike planning on disassembling the Moon and building a Dyson sphere with it?
Apparently almost no one believe project Orion was realistic until a credible and brilliant celebrity physicist said it was possible. 
Elasmotherium; hurlyburly Doggerlandic Jentilak steeds insouciantly gallop in viridescent taiga, eluding deluginal Burckle's abyssal excavation.

Offline aquanaut99

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #298 on: 12/02/2012 05:58 pm »
Apparently almost no one believe project Orion was realistic until a credible and brilliant celebrity physicist said it was possible. 

You're talking about the 1950s Project Orion? AKA "old Bang-Bang"?

And if that credible and brilliant scientist said it was realisitic, then how come we don't have Orions blasting off to Mars and Saturn every day?

Seriously, your example is an ominous one, for I have this disctinctive feeling that this "Private Moon Landing" project is about as likely to come to fruition as Project Orion. And more or less for the same reason: High-flying dreams crashing into the hard wall of reality...
« Last Edit: 12/02/2012 06:01 pm by aquanaut99 »

Offline edkyle99

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Re: Private Moon Landing in the works?
« Reply #299 on: 12/02/2012 06:28 pm »
Ed, I think you know that CxP had a weeee more problems than an annoying newspaper.
It had challenges like any big ambitious program.  It's biggest problem was weak political support, which meant insufficient funding. 

Orlando Sentinel is a "hometown" paper in NASA's Kennedy Space Center neighborhood.  Its anti-CxP bias helped undermine political support.  Of course it didn't bring down CxP by itself, but it piled on at critical moments.  It is undeniably one part of the reason that the United States now has no plans or program to return to the Moon.

Golden Spike and Mr. Block will now face the same problem - namely the ability to retain committed funding of many billions of dollars over the long term in the face of development challenges.  I'll be reading the Sentinel very closely, to see if it asks the same hard questions, because nothing this big will avoid being supported somehow by tax breaks, etc.

 - Ed Kyle
« Last Edit: 12/02/2012 06:30 pm by edkyle99 »

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