This article by Nick Mamatas in the Village Voice explores TransOrbital's plans to send consumers' stuff to the moon, for a fee. Some interesting commentary on the legal and ethical issues surrounding the commercialization of space. Excerpt:
The moon remained a vacant lot in a bad neighborhood—until last month, when TransOrbital Incorporated became the first private company granted government permission to explore, photograph, and land there. What's fueling this moon rush is not just a juicy balance sheet, but a pulp fantasy version of the frontier. Rather than belonging to the world, lunar soil would belong to whoever staked a claim and had the best business model.
"It is necessary for humankind to move off-planet, and in the near future, if we are not to stagnate," TransOrbital executive Paul Blase says. And if the moon isn't turned into a commercial space, "then we are limiting ourselves to an observational presence only. . . . This will be only signing a suicide pact."
TransOrbital's Trailblazer mission, slated to launch in the next nine to 12 months from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, seems to lack the cachet to save industrial civilization from imminent collapse. You can send a lock of your hair up on the ship, or a business card, for $2500. The launch vehicle has room for corporate logos on the side (think NASCAR, but faster) for $25,000 and up. TransOrbital will license high-definition footage of the moon and daily Earthrise to the movies. Baldly commercial and on a shoestring, Trailblazer replaces the old NASA goals of scientific research and military advantage with a new one of profit-seeking and, over the long term, homesteading on lunar soil.
