12 replies to this topic

[Waspie_Dwarf]

New company aims to send humans back to the moon

www.spacedaily.com said:

Two former top NASA officials unveiled plans Thursday to sell manned flights to the moon by the end of the decade, in an announcement 40 years after the last human set foot there.

Spaceflight, long the province of national governments, has moved toward increased commercialization in recent years, with private companies for the first time successfully launching rockets into orbit.

Read more...

Edited by Waspie_Dwarf, 07 December 2012 - 11:33 AM.

[Simbi Laveau]

Did ya catch the price tag ?
Two people packages for 1.5 billion dollars .

Yah .

That's not a huge part of the population that can afford that price tag

http://www.japantoda...r_2012-12-09_PM

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Simbi Laveau, on 09 December 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

Yah .

That's not a huge part of the population that can afford that price tag

http://www.japantoda...r_2012-12-09_PM

Which is why they are aiming to sell to governments, not individuals.

[Simbi Laveau]

Waspie_Dwarf, on 09 December 2012 - 04:12 PM, said:

Which is why they are aiming to sell to governments, not individuals.

The Japan today article made it sound like a cosy get away for two . Lol

[DONTEATUS]

They will need to get that price point down to about  $500.00 bucks THen We shall talk about it !

[Waspie_Dwarf]

I've just re-read the company's mission statement and I was wrong, they are selling to individuals as well. However I agree with Simbi Laveau in that there is a vanishingly small number of billions that are going to want to go to the moon. It is the government and corporate markets they will have to break if they are to actually get the endeavour off the ground (literally and metaphorically).

One day there will be commercial flights to the moon, but I'll be amazed if this company survives long enough to be providing them.

[CuriousGreek]

1.5 billion?? Not many people could afford this trip...

Edited by CuriousGreek, 10 December 2012 - 02:48 PM.

[sergeantflynn]

Does that price include the morning paper ?

[TheMolePatrol]

Wow such negative comments towards something that I would say is one of the top stories of 2012! The Mars One idea is bold, but largely impractical.

This **** is doable, and people are scoffing at the logically reasonable price tag. How many of us are going to be able to afford Virgin Galactic's $200,000 price tag?

In case you've missed how quickly technology (such as computers and cellphones) has advanced, its very NORMAL and PREDICTABLE for brand new products to be out-of-reach expensive initially. The cost comes down over time due to many reasons, but I don't see why spaceflight would be any exception.

[sergeantflynn]

TheMolePatrol, on 10 December 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

Wow such negative comments towards something that I would say is one of the top stories of 2012! The Mars One idea is bold, but largely impractical.

This **** is doable, and people are scoffing at the logically reasonable price tag. How many of us are going to be able to afford Virgin Galactic's $200,000 price tag?

In case you've missed how quickly technology (such as computers and cellphones) has advanced, its very NORMAL and PREDICTABLE for brand new products to be out-of-reach expensive initially. The cost comes down over time due to many reasons, but I don't see why spaceflight would be any exception.

One of the top stories of 2012  ??  Only to those with a vested interest .

[Waspie_Dwarf]

TheMolePatrol, on 10 December 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

Wow such negative comments towards something that I would say is one of the top stories of 2012!

Not negative, realistic.

How can a price which is so high that no one can afford it be logical? Space Adventures (the company which has successfully flown several tourists to the ISS) has been offering flights around the moon since 2005. At $150 million this is one tenth the price the Golden Spike Company proposes. Space Adventures need to sell 2 seats to make the flight worthwhile, but in 7 years they have only managed to sell one.

The Golden Spike Company is, in my opinion, too far ahead of its time. I believe it will fail. That is not negativity, it is realism.

[TheMolePatrol]

It's a noteable story because we haven't had humans on the Moon for decades, and this company is involved with former NASA employees.

And honestly what did you expect the price to be? Affordable?? Haha it's never been done by a private company, big surprise it's got a large price tag. You know what, so did computers when they FIRST were lining up to be sold to the public.

I'm not saying $1.5b is affordable to individuals, but it's better than no price at all. And the hopes of this company are OBVIOUSLY banking on different world gov'ts, in case you didn't see the scene with different flags in their video.

Edited by TheMolePatrol, 10 December 2012 - 08:22 PM.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

TheMolePatrol, on 10 December 2012 - 08:20 PM, said:

I'm not saying $1.5b is affordable to individuals, but it's better than no price at all. And the hopes of this company are OBVIOUSLY banking on different world gov'ts, in case you didn't see the scene with different flags in their video.

Wrong. If the price is not affordable no one will buy the product. If no one buys the product the company will go bust. That is capitalist economics at its most basic.

As for governements, I think it highly unlikely that any will buy this product. Any government willing to spend billions on manned spaceflight is not going to want to buy it off the shelf. Spaceflight, manned or otherwise, is a huge political statement, it is an announcement to the world that a nation is developed and sophisticated. Simply buying a flight to the moon would give no such message to the world, indeed it would underline US technical superiority.

So that just leaves corporations. There is, as yet, no way for a corporation to make a profit from lunar exploration. In 50 years, if nuclear fusion pans out, there may be a market for lunar He₃, but Golden Spike isn't going to be able to wait 50 years.

The market for flights to the moon is just not there yet. Space tourism is coming. Companies like SpaceX and Bigelow will force the price of trips to low orbit down to the sort of level where the rich, rather than the super-rich, will be able to afford them. Orbital hotels will be built in the next few decades. As the price falls and the market increases it will become affordable to build hotels on the moon, THEN companies will be able to offer trips to the moon at a fraction of the price that Golden Spike is suggesting. Sadly by then Golden Spike will, I believe, be just a forgotten footnote in the history of commercial spaceflight.