Space company aims to fly customers to the Moon
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A British space-exploration company has revealed its aim to fly the public to the Moon from 2015 — providing they have £100m for a ticket.
Isle of Man-based Excalibur Almaz owns a fleet of six proven aircraft that it wishes to use for crewed space missions to the Moon and beyond.
In an address at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, Excalibur Almaz’s founder and chief executive officer, Art Dula, outlined the business case that underpins the project, which is based on independent research by the Futron Corporation on the economics of commercial space voyages and lunar missions.
‘The lunar mission costs about $150m [£96m] a seat for the first mission,’ Dula told The Engineer. ‘I expect prices will decline after this.’
The company intends to use a combined spacecraft — comprising an ‘Almaz’ capsule and a ‘Salyut-class’ spacecraft that was previously used by the Soviet Union for orbital spying operations — as a transportation system to the Moon, asteroids and deep space.
‘We can offer this service because we had access to some very well-preserved and very robust heritage equipment from the Soviet space programme,’ said Dula. ‘Specifically, we have four reusable returned vehicles that can fly 15 times each.’
Dula said the first mission will see three passengers launched from the Kazakhstan cosmodrome in 2015, providing targets are met and customers come forward.
Alex Downie, a member of the Isle of Man government’s Department of Economic Development, told The Engineer that the island is very pro-space. He believes that there are a multitude of economic benefits to be had by welcoming space companies to the island, including job creation and skills development.
Readers' comments (6)
Andy H | 20 Jun 2012 9:29 am
Lunar orbit or lunar surface?!
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Editor's comments | 20 Jun 2012 9:29 am
Lunar orbit.
The company will not be attempting to land people on the moon.
Passengers will orbit the moon's surface and then return to earth via a capsule attached to a parachute.
Kev Smithbone | 20 Jun 2012 2:07 pm
I think I'll wait until Lunar landings are in the offing - it'll give me time to save up too..........
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Tony Ruttle | 20 Jun 2012 3:10 pm
Is it me or does this seem a little too easy? I know NASA want to land people on the surface but even they talk in terms of the year 2020 and beyond.
However, I wish them well.
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alex wilson | 22 Jun 2012 3:33 am
interesting. I've followed the Russian/Soviet space program as closely as any lay person can, and I've never heard of either having a return capsule that could be reused 15 times. more to the point, how reliable will hardware developed and built in the 1760's/1970's be after all these decades in storage?
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Paolo | 23 Jun 2012 11:27 am
Weird, a "never heard of" company wants to do what all International Agencies can't. I may miss the point, but where did they find the 'reusable' vehicles and how do they plan to put them in orbit? And, the price tag for the mission seems a 'little' optimistic.
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M Holmes | 27 Jun 2012 10:29 am
I've already lost confidence just by looking at the photos and noticing that our national flag is drawn incorrectly!
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