Golden Spike Announces Commercial Lunar Travel

 Commercialization Of Space

Last week, on the day before the anniversary of Apollo 17’s launch, a new company called Golden Spike announced at the National Press Club that it would be sending commercial exploration missions to the Moon within a decade with a ticket price of US$750 million.

Forty years ago this month that Apollo 17 took astronauts to the Moon for the last time. Since then, the satellite has only been visited periodically by unmanned probes, but that may change if one start-up venture is successful. Last week, on the day before the anniversary of Apollo 17’s launch, a new company called Golden Spike announced at the National Press Club that it would be sending commercial exploration missions to the Moon within a decade with an estimated ticket price of US$750 million.

Rumors of the company, which is named after the last spike in the transcontinental railroad, were swirling ahead of the announcement. It is led by former Apollo Flight Director and NASA Johnson Space Center Director, Gerry Griffin, and planetary scientist and former NASA science chief, Dr. Alan Stern.  Also prominent on Golden Spike's board of advisors are former U.S. Speaker of the House and U.S. presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich who is well known for his intentions on the moon, and former U.N. Ambassador, Bill Richardson.

Gerry Griffin announcing the Golden Spike Company's lunar goals 

The company plans to build on NASA technology, calling their approach a "’head start’ architecture.

According to their website,

The Golden Spike Company has been formed to monetize
the exploration of the Moon through sales of expeditions
and their surrounding media and merchandizing revenues.

Two years in the making, it will maximize use of existing rocket technology and current developments by commercial spacecraft companies to build manned flight and landing systems. A series of studies has already begun and work is underway by various aerospace companies on a lunar lander, lunar space suits, and lunar surface experiment packages to be used on Golden Spike missions. The company will also sponsor an international conference for the scientific community in 2013 on science projects for the Golden Spike lunar expeditions.

Golden Spike sees its market as anyone from individuals to nations who want to go to the Moon for reasons spanning the range from scientific exploration and discovery to entertainment or personal achievement. With the cost of the first landing for a two-person mission set at US$1.4 billion, that will set “personal achievement” at a premium, but Golden Spike is confident that the market will support up to 20 expeditions in the decade following a first landing.

 

Golden Spike Press Release



SOURCE  Golden Spike

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