Posted on 07/25/2003 9:30:48 AM PDT by RightWhale
SpaceDev to Design Lunar Dish Observatory Mission
Poway - Jul 25, 2003
SpaceDev has been awarded a contract by Lunar Enterprise of California (LEC) for a first phase project to begin developing a conceptual mission and spacecraft design for a lunar lander program. The unmanned mission will be designed to put a small dish antenna near the south pole of the Moon. From that location it will be in near-constant sunlight for solar power generation, and should be able to perform multi-wavelength astronomy while communicating with ground stations on Earth.
"We are excited about this project because it is in keeping with the original goal of SpaceDev to design, build and fly commercial deep space science missions, and should result in our development of additional transformational space technology," said Jim Benson, founder, chairman and chief executive of SpaceDev. "This study picks up where we left off from our original 1997 Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) mission design, our 1999 Mars MicroMission design for NASA's JPL, and our work in 2001 with Boeing on possible commercial lunar orbiter missions."
SpaceDev will analyze launch opportunities, spacecraft design, trajectory possibilities, potential landing areas, available technologies for a small radio astronomy system, and communications and data handling requirements. The lunar mission will be designed with the same philosophy as the highly successful CHIPSat Earth orbiting science spacecraft SpaceDev built for UC Berkley. SpaceDev's approach is to make systems as small, low-cost and as practical as possible while minimizing risks, in order to successfully demonstrate the performance of science on the surface of the Moon.
"Lunar Enterprise Corporation (LEC) has funded this study to be a catalyst to other individuals, companies and countries to join together in a return to the Moon," said Steve Durst, founder and director of LEC. "Many organizations around the world are planning various lunar missions. Corporate and national leaders, and the world's leading lunar scientists, will be discussing these projects at the International Lunar Conference 2003 in Hawaii this November. We hope this seedling project will help bring all those parties together to discuss cooperation and identification of resources for concerted lunar activities."
Lunar Enterprise Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Space Age Publishing Company of Hawai'i Island, Hawaii, and Palo Alto, California. LEC and Space Age support a wide variety of enterprises and activities consistent with near-term, human, permanent operations on the Moon and with the founding of Space Age Publishing Company's next office.
Which one? I know a little about SpaceDev, they incorporated a few years ago and have been bidding on any space-related work they can find, and winning some of their bids now and then. It's some private sector business and some direct gov't, although the great amount of funding comes ultimately from gov't. SpaceDev was incorporated to mine asteroids, although their incorporation statement of purpose is considerably wider in intent.
Although one would have to think in terms of decades rather than fiscal years, asteroid mining is not a new idea or much different than most other deep sea exploitation schemes. Get a license or permit, identify the plum, pick the plum, retire to a Greek island.
Back burner, no doubt. They won't talk about getting licenses and permits, nor about the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty. Claim it won't affect them. It will, though.
Hard to imagine a scenario where anything mined on an asteroid can be as lucrative of a proposition as mining the same things here on earth.
So it has to be that what they will find on the asteroid is useful and not available here on earth... or that we have run out of and have no more of the same substance here on earth.
I see a lot of R&D up front to make that happen.
Why does it have to be that? Could it be the environment and processes that provide the economic advantage?
Well $400 of it SpaceDev got from me. SpaceDev is a publically traded company.
It seems to me it would be awhile before something like this turns any kind of profit.
Don't I know it. I've been waiting nearly 4 years for my SpaceDev stock to rise back to the price I paid for it. I'm still waiting.
I guess that leads me to the question of what advantage there would be in mining asteroids that can't come from mining the moon?
It's moving! At long last it's moving upward. Try to contain your excitement.
And what's the problem with them being too big? Even on the largest of them, gravity's going to be pretty miniscule, right?
-Jane Applegate
The whole asteroid, processed, will be delivered to market. Scheduling has its own requirements.
Of course, and it should be fascinating to watch. Not to mention getting zoning permits through the planning commissions.
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