On December 6, 2012, Golden Spike has announced its plan to send astronauts to the Moon. The ultimate goal is to have regular flights over the next decade that also bring tourists on holiday on the Moon. The ticket, however, at least initially will cost $750 million per person.
The name Golden Spike is a tribute to the last of the spikes used for the First Transcontinental Railroad, which opened the American west frontier. The company was founded in 2010 by Alan Stern, a former NASA scientist who had important roles in the New Horizons and Moon Express mission and has worked with several other missions developing various scientific instruments. The company goal is to offer space flights at prices affordable at commercial level.
The Golden Spike Board of Directors includes other people who worked for NASA such as Gerry Griffin, who was also director of the Johnson Space Center, and Cindy Conrad. James French is an aerospace engineer who has worked for JPL and some NASA contractors. Instead, Max Vozoff was a manager at SpaceX, where he worked on spacecraft development.
At the press conference in which he announced the company’s business plans, Alan Stern said that initially existing rockets and infrastructure will be used, adapted to the missions. In the next few years they could also develop their own lander and their space suits. According to rumors, Golden Spike had chosen SpaceX Heavy Falcon 9 rocket for the launch but Stern denied it.
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Golden Spike plans include, after some test missions, a first step to send a lander to orbit the Moon and a second phase to send a crew to dock with the lander and then descend to the Moon. This could be achieved by 2020 and estimated costs range between $7 and 8 billion.
They have the skills, we’ll to see if Golden Spike can get sufficient funding to carry out its plans. They definitely have a lot of work to do, starting with the choice of the partner companies that will provide the equipment. However, in recent years we are getting used to seeing more and more private companies in the field of space travel so we can hope that Golden Spike will succed.
