Space firm to offer private missions to the moon
Golden Spike, a firm run by former Nasa managers, says it will be ready to fly first mission by 2020, at $1.5bn per expedition
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/dec/07/moon-mission-golden-spike
I am having troubles figuring out what could be brought back from the moon that would be worth enough more than $1.5 billion to justify the risk. Of course, this is _after_ someone else has ponyed up the ‘$7 or $8 billion’ to get the ball rolling. I am a serious space-o-phile and expect to piss away any fortune I might amass on exactly such efforts, but by funding it myself, not by asking others to gamble. I believe that if serious space stations exist (room for 100K+ full-time residents) that tourism (if the total cost can be kept below, say, $50K) will provide the initial economy that would then grow into something self sustaining. However, I just can’t see spending $1.5 billion to send two people to the moon for two days. I would much rather spend that same amount to put a rover on the moon that could last for years. What possible value can two guys for two days provide that is worth that much money? Sure, people babble about the Helium 3 isotope that is supposedly worth trillions, but that presumes that it becomes feasible to build fusion reactors to use 3He, something that is far, _far_ from proven. Absent realization of that market, the moon has very little to offer beyond tourism; as far as I know, there isn’t anything (other than the 3He) that is unique to the moon. Tourism is rather idiotic at $750,000,000 per person and for two measly days (after, of course, they find their mysterious first customer to pay 10x more than that for the exact same experience).
