[FPSPACE] Golder Spike - affordable manned flights to the Moon

[David Portree]

I wonder about the real purpose of all these "private" schemes. I also wonder what motivates NASA to subsidize some of them. 
My concern is that these schemes, if taken at face value, undermine the credibility of real space projects. By "real," I don't necessarily mean "public sector." I mean projects that have some chance of success. And, by "chance of success," I mean over a period of time, doing useful things. A partially successful mission here and there hardly counts; neither do wild claims about Mars bases and ultra-cheap moon landings. I fear that, as these shoe-string projects go down in flames (sometimes literally), it's going to harm NASA through association.

David S. F. Portree

dsfportree at hotmail.com
dportree at usgs.gov
 
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/beyondapollo/ 
 
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/people/david-portree
 



> Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:05:53 -0500
> From: drwoods at stny.rr.com
> To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
> Subject: [FPSPACE] Golder Spike - affordable manned flights to the Moon
> 
> I came across coverage for "Golden Spike" on the tube the other night. 
> According to their web site:
> http://goldenspikecompany.com/
> 
> "The Golden Spike Company is planning to transform human space 
> exploration by putting in place affordably priced lunar orbital and 
> surface expeditions to the only natural satellite of the Earth – the 
> Moon. Golden Spike will further transform human lunar exploration by 
> making these missions participatory expeditions that involve the general 
> public in ways that create exciting new ways to monetize human space 
> exploration."
> 
> They envision conducting a manned landing mission with several launches 
> of components into Earth orbit:
> http://www.space.com/images/i/000/024/261/i02/golden-spike-moon-landing-plan-121206d-02.jpg?1354833824 
> 
> 
> The lander vehicle, shown sitting on the Moon seems a little too small 
> to be feasible, but I could be wrong:
> http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/12/06/goldenspike_lander.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/original 
> 
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