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Golden Spike Company CEO

Moon is of interest to both scientists and corporations

Lunar exploration is just beginning

Found a suite of lunar architectures that can allow us to do this affordably at $7 to $8 billion

Adapt crew capsules already in development, use existing infrastructure and launchers, only develop things that do not exist already (lunar suits, landers)

Two launches of two sets of existing launch vehicles

First pair of launches pre-positions lunar lander in lunar orbit

Second set of launches sends the crew

Dock with the lunar lander and leave crew and return module in orbit

A simpler and cheaper architecture is also available

Price at which we can offer repeated expeditions: $1.5 billion category can recoup development costs, run the mission and make a healthy profit

Per seat prices that are not much higher than some recent robotic lunar missions that have been flown

Will offset costs with spaceship naming rights, media rights, etc.

Bring public along as an integral part of the mission

“We realize this is science fiction. We intent to make it science fact.”

Very experience team in both spaceflight and business with international stature

“We did our homework. We did it again and again.”

Presented a detailed paper to AIAA journal — recently accepted for publication


15 to 20 nations that can afford to send people to the moon

Have had conversations with some national space agencies that are interested

By 2020s, will be space tourists and mining companies interested in moon trips

Will people tire of waiting in line — no if you look at the people signing up for suborbital flights — 550th person is as happy as the 1st….

Team includes (among others): Esther Dyson, Peter Banks, Taber MacCallum, Doug Griffith, Max Vozoff (former SpaceX), Wayne Hale, Chuck Dietrich (former NASA), Jeff Greason (CEO, XCOR), Andy Chaiken

Advisory board includes Bobby Block, Nancy Conrad, Homer Hickam, Chris Kemp (Silicon Valley entrepreneur), Michael Mikuda (former Star Trek designer), Bob Walker (former Congressman), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Series of contracts and agreements to begin design of lunar lander and surface suits

Golden Spike involved in study to Apollo surface experiment package

International conference set for next year to look at site selection, science, etc.
ULA, Zero Point Frontiers Corporation, Masten Space Systems, Armadillo Aerospace, Paragon Space Development Corporation,

In Phase A — we’ve got a long way to go….

The opportunities for profit are enormous– $20 to $30 billion lunar expedition market

Will require persistence and will experience setbacks — with New Horizons mission to Pluto, began in 1989 and suffered through five mission cancellations before finally getting mission off the ground

Will need to raise hundreds of millions of dollars

Would not be possible without NASA’s forward looking space policy nor NASA’s many discoveries and achievements

Q. How could you possibly make any money at 7.5 billion with the first flight and then down to $1.5 billion? You would still be in the read at $1.5 billion? There seems to be no financial reality to this plan.

Stern: We’ve been over this very carefully. You only know what our prices are, not what our costs are. You have ignored the entire media stream: advertising, naming rights, etc. Naming rights for the Denver Broncos stadium sold for $120 million. A lot of merchandising. A very important part of the business. This can be a money-making business if we sell enough expeditions. If we sell only 3 or 4 missions, it’s underwater. But, 15 to 25 nations are interested in doing expeditions.

Q: Who are the backers and how much have you raised?

Stern: Will not go into that yet. Boeing doesn’t ask billionaires to back new airplane. They go out and get enough orders they then go to the bank and get financing to start the project. We follow the same approach.

Q: Why would nations that do space for prestige come to Golden Spike?

Stern: We can make it affordable to mid-sized companies — South Korea or South Africa, Malaysia, etc. Most countries don’t build their own airplanes, they go to Boeing or Airbus.

Q. Smaller ventures like Google Lunar X Prize teams have struggled to raise tens of millions for robotic missions. Why would it be easier to raise hundreds of millions for human missions?

Griffin: Apples and oranges