Last December , a society by the name of Golden Spikeannounced it would launch commercial exploration military mission to the Moon begin in 2020 . Today , they ’re having trouble cram up public support in the shape of a crowdsourced ad drive .
One of the latest in craw of newly announce blank transport startups , the individual group plan to charge $ 1.4 - billion ( or more ) per lunar ocean trip , money that shroud a there - and - back head trip for two expeditious astronauts from any country willing and able to pony up the dough . But they ’ve draw into a bit of a trouble .
Universe Today ’s Jason Major explains :
Recently Golden Spike started acrowdfunding campaign on Indiegogowith the goal of raising $ 240,000 for international outreach ( that ’s a dollar for every knot to the Moon ! ) but , with only 16 days leave in the campaign , only $ 9,400 has been contributed . While dollar - for - international mile that ’s still farther than any humans have travel into infinite since Apollo , it ’s unfortunately quite short of their goal .
CEO and famed planetary scientistAlan Sternblames himself .
“ Simply put , we did n’t put the right-hand people and resource on this Indiegogo campaign , ” Stern compose in anannouncementon the Indiegogo site today , April 9 .
But despite the small amount of time remaining , he ’s not generate up .
“ We ’re go away to take reward of the press of time pass on — just 16 days — to extend to out to the broader world about hoi polloi they can be a part of a historic new era of human lunar exploration , ” Stern writes .
“ To do that , you ’ll be seeing Golden Spike in the press quite a bit more the next two weeks . ”
To be exculpated : Golden Spike does n’t really postulate 240 grand in publicly raised monetary resource ( the sarcasm of the situation – that a ship’s company planning to lodge $ 700 - million a question to natter the Moon is ask the public to fund its ad campaign – is lost on precisely nobody ) , but it sure would go a long way in demonstrating the world ’s support for and opinion in post homo back to the Moon ( or , perhaps more accurately , its support for and belief in Golden Spike ) ; the crowdsourced money , in this situation , is largely symbolic . Stern says so himself inan op - ed published yesterday over at SPACE.com – no doubt the first in a serial of Golden Spike related to piece to be release in the coming fortnight :
By establish the populace a chance to directly fund these commercial-grade blank efforts , we go for to create a gravid sense of public participation in space geographic expedition . But the money we want to raise is also meaningful and will help us start our business concern .
In my world — the space world — it ’s often been said that if there are no Pearl Buck , there wo n’t be any Buck Rogers . No doubt .
But what I ’ve now learned through my crowdfunding experience is that there is a corollary to that famous byword : You ca n’t expect Star Trek unless you also make the effort to cultivate its Trekkies .
We ’re not saying Golden Spike ’s aims are n’t desirable of your attention , or even your money . To be dependable , the initiative shows passel of promise . It ’s break away by a cluster of space program stager like Stern ( a former NASA executive ) and Gerry Griffen ( former Apollo flight director ) . The Agency even gave Golden Spike a formal nod of approval back in December , calling the endeavor “ further grounds of the timeliness and wiseness of the Obama Administration ’s overall infinite policy - to create an environment where commercial blank companies can work up upon NASA ’s past successes , allowing the agency to sharpen on the novel challenges of sending humans to an asteroid and finally Mars . ” It ’s a passably safe bet these people know what they ’re doing . They can overstretch this off . And that ’s significant , especially because NASA has declare it has no intentions of head up any more manned Moon landings :
“ NASA will not take the lead on a human lunar mission,”NASA chief Charles Bolden told SpacePolitics.com last week . “ NASA is not going to the lunation with a homo as a primary project in all likelihood in my lifetime . And the rationality is , we can only do so many things . ”
So permit ’s get real here . $ 9400 bring up on a $ 240,000 fundraising movement to send humans back to the Moon ? Somehow “ we did n’t put the right multitude and imagination on this Indiegogo campaign ” does n’t begin to delineate the ridiculousness of this situation . We ’re have a knockout time believe there are n’t enough people out there excited about lunar missions to raise up more than $ 9,400 in startup capital letter – so what ’s the deal ? Did Golden Spike really shed the ball this badly ? Do people doubt its mission , or its ability to deliver ? Are they put off by the $ 1.4 - billion+ Leontyne Price tag ? Do they even have intercourse Golden Spike exist ? Something tells us they do n’t – so we ’re doing our part to get the discussion out .
Check out the company ’s Indie Gogo websiteand resolve for yourself whether to chip or at least drum up support – if not for Golden Spike , then for somebody .
AstronomyNASAScienceSpace
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