To the Moon...

On Thursday, a press conference will supposedly make a significant announcement.

The announcement being that a private firm intends to launch its own manned Moon mission by the year 2020.  You can read about it here at Wired and here at io9.
They call themselves the Golden Spike Corporation, presumably a reference to the symbolic golden spike that connected the transcontinental railroad in Utah in 1869.  Oddly enough, I've been to Utah and it's remarkably similar to the surface of the Moon, at least as near as I can tell.  But I digress...

Aside from Facebook and Twitter accounts, little is known about the outfit.  The website NASASpaceflight.com reports that the organization is stocked with "high profile individuals" from both NASA and elsewhere in the aerospace industry.  The press conference is slated to reveal more information, namely who is involved, what technology will be used and/or developed, what the exact objective will be, and perhaps most importantly, where the money is coming from. 

The scuttlebutt from NASASpaceflight has a few leaked details, such as that a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket has been secured by the company and that the actual spacecraft that would carry the crew (said to be a crew of two) to the Moon would be assembled in Low Earth Orbit.  Also, Golden Spike has already begun design of its own lunar lander.

Could be good.  If nothing else it is getting people back into space, an issue I have pontificated upon numerous times upon these hallowed blog pages.  I suppose that the ultimate point is what exactly the objectives are for the mission?  Is this for a prolonged presence on the Moon?  The mining of resources?  A gateway to Mars?  All of the above?  Plus, proposing this undertaking and actually doing it are of course two different things.  Any manner of derailments (pun intended) could occur between now and 2020.  I'm not trying to sound pessimistic, I've just learned not to get my hopes up.

However, if there are any representatives of Golden Spike or their associates who happen to read this (I know, right), I would be willing to offer my services if they need a writer to go along on the mission.  I work cheap.
Very cheap.

Just send me.


My e-novella, Hound of Winter is available for only 99 cents

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