Moon For Sale

by Jeff Pollard

  The two passengers will be the first space tourists to leave low-Earth-orbit. While a flyby of the Moon seems like nothing in comparison to even just a lunar orbiting mission, let alone walking on the Moon, this mission is timed so that the flyby occurs during a new Moon. This means that the tourists will be flying around the fully lit far-side of the Moon. Apollo missions always landed on near-side locations, which meant they always went when the near-side was lit. Even on Apollo 8 when they weren't landing, the mission still occurred when the near-side was half-full. This Soyuz flight will be the first time that humans see the far-side of the Moon fully-lit with their own eyes. They'll get a view of a completely different full Moon than any other human has ever laid eyes on, and from quite a close vantage point to boot.

  One passenger is Mikhail Fridman, 58, a Russian tycoon with his hands in oil, banking, and telecommunications, who is worth in excess of 25 billion dollars and is quite friendly with Vladimir Putin. The second passenger is Mikhail Prokorov, 55, a Russian tycoon with his hands in gold, palladium, nickel and the Brooklyn Nets who is worth about 15 billion dollars. They are joined by the pilot and commander Mikhail Tyurin, who was selected partially as a joke (since the two passengers were both named Mikhail). Though the idea of a third Mikhail began as a bit of a joke, he may have actually been selected anyway if his name wasn't Mikhail. Tyurin, 60, had just retired from Roscosmos and is a veteran of three spaceflights, all to the ISS, one on a shuttle and two on a Soyuz. In fact, his one shuttle mission was a launch in Discovery and a landing in Endeavour, thus he has flown in two shuttles. His experience and impending retirement made him an ideal candidate for leaving Roscosmos to join Space Adventures for a one-off mission before really retiring.

  While the crew of what the media has come to call Mikhail-3 waits for their KVTK upper stage to launch, the lunar space tourism industry isn't waiting around. At Cape Canaveral's SLC-37 (Space Launch Complex-37), a Delta-V Heavy, featuring three of the larger common booster cores with two RS-68s per core, prepares to launch the Boeing Lunar Lander toward the Moon. The Delta-V Heavy heads out over the Atlantic, dropping the two boosters shortly into the flight and continuing on the center booster. ULA has drawn up extensive plans for reusing the Delta-V cores as part of their future plans that they claim will bring costs down and keep them from falling too far behind SpacEx, however they have yet to implement any of this and the boosters simply fall into the ocean at terminal velocity. The ACES-121 upper stage uses up just about half of its fuel to finish placing itself and the BLL into LEO. A check-out orbit later and the ACES-121 fires back up, using nearly all of its fuel to send the stack out to the Moon. The BLL separates from the ACES-121 just after the trans-lunar-injection burn, then has about a three-day transit to the Moon before the lander will burn to slow itself into a high-polar-lunar-orbit and there it will wait for the Orion and the crew of Luna 100.

  Just hours after the launch of the Delta-V, an Eagle Heavy launches from the new SpacEx launch facility in Texas. This is the first ever flight of an Eagle Heavy using any reused Eagle 9 cores, and it just so happens that all three are being re-used. The core has been used only once, to launch a Dream Chaser to the ISS. The boosters are both seeing their third launches. The second stage is a new piece of hardware and it will insert the Aquila upper stage into LEO.

  Kingsley brings Jim and Marilyn Lovell to the launch site, which happens to be only a few hours from their home. They watch together as the Heavy heads east, out over the Gulf of Mexico. It's a tense launch as thousands of people had worked for years in order to realize the vision of re-using rockets like this. The first Eagle Heavy with all used Eagle 9 cores reaches orbit without a hitch. The Aquila does a single check-out orbit before heading off toward the Moon. So on May 22nd, there are three spacecraft heading from the Earth to the Moon. The Aquila is last to reach lunar orbit as it stops off in an Earth-Moon Lagrangian point for a few days before proceeding to lunar-polar-orbit, a maneuver required by the precession of the lunar station's orbit.

  On May 25th, the world watches out the window of the Soyuz's orbital module as the three Mikhail's fly over a full lunar far-side at an altitude of just over 3,000 km and a velocity of over 2 km/s relative to the Moon. They spend less than two hours beyond the Moon before beginning the long fall back toward Earth. Unlike during Apollo, they don't lose contact with Earth because they are able to relay their radio signals through a deep-space satellite at the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrangian point.

  While the three Mikhails are doing their flyby, the Boeing Lunar Lander is preparing for lunar orbital insertion, the first of three Aquilas is closing in on the Moon, and the rover, nicknamed Wally, continues its 75 kilometer traverse from the Pegasus 2 landing site in Sasserides to the target landing site for Pegasus 3 near the rim of Tycho Crater. Wally is in the middle of the 14-day long lunar night. While the area spends roughly 14 days in sunlight followed by 14 long days of shade, it's actually not that dark. Since it's a new Moon, that means the dark near-side of the Moon bears witness to the beauty of a full Earth. A full Earth can be anywhere from 40 to 100 times brighter than a full Moon appears from Earth and casts the lunar landscape in a blue-gray hue.The robotics team in control of Wally have excellent low-light vision from their cameras and when combined with the brightness of a full Earth, this makes for a great opportunity to cover long distances and still explore the surface along the way. The temperature sensors on Wally register at negative 220 degrees Fahrenheit, and may drop as low as negative 290 before the Sun rises again. Then in the lunar day, the temperature can rise above 200 degrees Fahrenheit, making surviving a lunar day-night cycle more than a walk in the park.

  ~

  Moon For Sale

  By Hank Collins

  The lunar gold rush has begun. No, they haven't discovered gold on the Moon. The gold is right here on Earth, and tons of it can be yours if you can provide a safe journey and an exciting destination. The pair of billionaire Mikhails are the first tourists to see the far-side of the Moon, but we won't have to wait long for two more tourists to get their chance.

  China is preparing for the launch of Shenzhou 19 an Apollo 10 style mission to lunar orbit to checkout their lander, landing it unmanned in Copernicus Crater on June 3rd. We were all shocked by ULA's announcement that they would forgo their unmanned test landing and skip right to putting people on the surface. They've seemingly won this new space race. Kingsley Pretorius immediately declared that he would beat ULA back to the Moon, but Mr. Pretorius evidently didn't pay attention in Orbital Mechanics class. His orbiting lunar fuel depot, the pretentiously named SS Marie Juliette, orbits in such a way that it's impossible for his team to land on the Moon before June 9th. But ULA has no such constraint and will be able to land on June 6th. Yet Mr. Pretorius has not backed down on his declaration despite the fact that he cannot beat ULA's announced date. Perhaps he's waiting and hoping for ULA to slip up so he can say I told you so, and hope that everyone forgets his declaration if he happens to lose.

  So while ULA takes center stage and seems to have the race all sewn up, there have to be some folks in China thinking of pulling a ULA and skipping the Apollo 10 test mission and going for the landing. It might be more dangerous, but imagine the PR coup it would create if China beats ULA and SpacEx to the Moon. It seems to me that China's space program exists to give the nation prestige. That's why they didn't want to be some small partner in the ISS, like a little sister allowed to make a small contribution. They built their own space station. Now they're doing their own Apollo. Not for the science. For the prestige. And with goals like that, why wouldn't they take the risk and try setting Shenzhou 19's lander down?

  While they haven't said a word publicly, China has to be considering this possibility.

  If China were to beat both American companies, that has to help the Republican's chances at taking back the White House and inheriting a Democrat's plan to build a lunar base in and around Shackleton Crater. Who knows if that plan will survive at all. />
  So while ULA and SpacEx don't know what kind of contract will be coming their way with the political landscape so unsure, one thing is certain: lunar vacations are a gold mine.

  If the Russians could dig up two guys willing to spend 120 million dollars each for a week long trip in a spacecraft the size of a van that includes less than two hours of a good view of the Moon, what will people pay for the chance at a 4-day stay on the Moon, plus moonwalks, plus a couple of days in lunar orbit, plus another week of transit time in zero-G? If they are telling the truth, SpacEx can turn a profit on a lunar mission if they have two passengers paying 160 million each. If they were to squeeze in three passengers and reduce the crew to one, which may not be as crazy as it sounds since the spacecraft can all be operated from the ground anyway, then the price drops to 110 million. And with the latest Eagle Heavy launch proving that Eagle 9s can be reused for Eagle Heavy flights, then those price figures have to see some kind of decrease.

  SpacEx is still a long way from truly proving reusability is viable. They reused the Space Shuttle, but that never made it cheaper. We'll check back in on their finances when they've actually reused a rocket ten times and haven't spent a fortune on maintenance.

  But the real lesson here is that the Moon is now for sale. And I don't just mean trips. Robert Bigelow of Bigelow aerospace, when he isn't overseeing the development of the inflatable habitats and modules that are going to create the first lunar colony, is busy arguing for lunar property rights.

  Right now, the UN's 1967 “Outer Space Treaty” is the international law of the “land.” The treaty declares that all outer space is the province of mankind and forbids nations from claiming any territory. So while the Apollo astronauts may have planted Old Glory in the regolith and saluted, they were not claiming this regolith in the name of Richard Nixon.

  It might seem a little crazy now, to think that any nation or company or person would need to own a piece of the Moon or Mars, but imagine what it was like when the Europeans discovered the New World. It's not as easy to settle the Moon as it was to settle Newfoundland, but in two hundred years, when Shackleton Crater Colony tries to become the 54th state, it won't seem like such a useless thought experiment anymore.

  Mr. Bigelow is arguing that we should open up space for claim-stakers like himself. He claims this isn't a selfish desire to grab up all the best land, but rather, he claims that this would incentivize nations, corporations, and wealthy individuals to stake their claims. Of course, you can't just put a pin in a lunar globe and claim it, Bigelow's plan basically says you have to have a base or some hardware set up on the surface, and then you get to stake your claim on a small section of land around your lunar presence. Bigelow says this would lead to a boom in space exploration, in which nations like Canada, the U.K., Russia, Japan, France, Germany, and others would quickly become incentivized to get their men and machines to prime lunar real estate.

  Then again, there's a lot of real estate on the Moon, and is any of it prime? Let's all hope they don't find oil. But seriously, there really isn't a good economic driver. Even if they found a pile of processed gold bars on the Moon, it wouldn't lead to a gold rush. Moon rocks cost more per pound to retrieve than gold does. So if you're just spending millions on spacecraft to go and retrieve lunar gold bars, you'll be running a deficit. So what prime real estate? What would Canada be afraid of missing out on?

  Perhaps Bigelow just wants to be the main provider of inflatable habitats and make a fortune playing on the fear of missing out.

  Rather than a lunar real estate war like the colonization of the New World, I think we're more likely to see a lunar vacation boon. After all, we're projected to have more than 2,500 billionaires on Earth by 2025. That's a population that can fit in just three 747s (a 747 once carried 1,122 passengers at once), and yet controls literally 15 trillion dollars (that we know about, *cough* tax havens, *cough*).

  I think we should be asking ourselves if we want to live in a future where the Moon and Mars have been turned into country clubs and the rest of the billions of us aren't welcome. If you're fine with that, then this is an exciting time for you. We've got Sir Richard Branson and Duchess Caroline of Monaco, the face of a tax haven, getting ready to plant their own personal flags in the lunar soil while on vacation.

  Personally I'd rather see China beat them to it.

  “Does this guy work for China?” K asks.

  “That's it, I'm gonna go talk to him,” Caroline says.

  “Cause it worked so well the last time,” K replies. The two of them are seated at the back of Mission Control in Hawthorne, watching the countdown to the launch of the second Aquila atop another reused Eagle Heavy.

  “But...he's wrong, and on the internet,” Caroline says, exasperated.

  “Then you don't want to read this article,” K says, pointing to his tablet.

  “Why?”

  “It seems to be pro-ULA propaganda. Apparently it's important that they beat us because we at SpacEx are risk-takers and will kill astronauts if we get a big contract. So they're celebrating ULA's alleged win...which they would get by taking a big risk. Makes perfect sense. Remember when 60 Minutes did a review of the Tezla S and added in a bunch of engine noise that made it sound like a gas-guzzler? It's kinda like that. Check out this electric car, vrooom.”

  “Is there any pro-us propaganda?” Caroline asks.

  “You want to read an article that tells you what you want to hear?” K asks.

  “Maybe.”

  “Here's one that says that whoever does it will actually be the first ever to land on the Moon,” K says. “Apollo was a fake.”

  “That's like anti-brain-cell propaganda,” Caroline replies.

  “Here's one that says Jim Lovell's gonna die during launch,” K adds.

  “Why would you joke about that?” Caroline asks.

  “They're not joking, they're calling me a reckless madman,” K replies. “You can't let this stuff get under your skin.”

  “I don't mind the TMZ crap, the celebrity gossip. But this is different, this is calling me a worthless debutante that hasn't earned anything and I'm the embodiment of the world's inequality.”

  “You're a duchess from a tax haven,” K replies.

  “And I've spent my life giving to charity and helping people. I'm not spending a billion dollars on a house. I don't bathe in champagne or eat nothing but veal.”

  “You should,” K replies.

  “Eat nothing but veal?”

  “Bathe in champagne,” K stares into the distance for a moment, imagining that sight.

  “Abort, abort,” Caroline jokes.

  “Don't say that too loud in here,” K replies. “Maybe when we get back you should adopt a whole orphanage of Romanian kids or something. Hard to call you an out of touch elitist if you adopt a bunch of poor kids.”

  “You want to fill the house with kids?” Caroline asks earnestly.

  “Hell no,” K says immediately. The instant reaction seems to affect Caroline. “I'm just kidding. If anything, if you adopt a bunch of kids they'll just say you're pretending to be a mom while you have nannies do all the work. Like they're your pets. Just look at all the shit Brad and Angelia got.”

  “So you're not saying I should fill the house with Romanian orphans.”

  “No thank you. I'll give them some money, but I don't want an orphanage in my basement,” K replies. Caroline stares at him. He feels her eyes. “What?”

  “Heartless,” Caroline replies.

  “What? I don't want an orphanage in my house, so sue me. I'll give them money, why do they have to live in my house?”

  “You said basement. You're gonna stick them in the basement?”

  “That was a metaphor,” K says defensively.

  “For what?”

  “Okay, not a metaphor.”

  “Freudian slip?” Caroline replies.

  “That doesn't help me either.”

  “Filling y
our basement with orphans. Can't let them upstairs, they might see the Sun,” Caroline says.

  “Hey, my basement is awesome.”

  “A basement is a basement.”

  “Yeah, because all basements have a dozen motion-control simulators,” K replies.

  “You two sure you're not married?” Jim Lovell asks as he drives his wheel chair in and parks alongside them.

  “Jim!” Marilyn Lovell says, following after him, carrying two cups of black coffee.

  “What?”

  “Don't pester them,” Marilyn says. She gives Jim his coffee and then sits next to Caroline. “He's like this with all the grand kids too. When are you getting married, when are the babies coming? What do you need all these great grand kids for?”

  “I'm just trying to get a full baseball team,” Jim replies. “So why don't you two have kids?”

  “Jim!”

  “What?”

  “That's not polite,” Marilyn scolds.

  “I'm 92, I don't have to be polite anymore,” Jim says.

  “We've been trying,” Kingsley says. “Hasn't worked yet.”

  “You sure you're doing it right?” Jim asks. Marilyn is too shocked to say anything. “Honey, it's a joke, relax. She can't take a joke. You see that?”

  “I'm sorry about him,” Marilyn says to Caroline.

  “I hear about this a lot these days,” Jim says, “people wait longer to have kids, sometimes it takes a lot of trying, if you know what I mean.”

  “Is that a sex joke?” Marilyn asks.

  “It sure is fun every time we try,” K says. “Gotta call up Wendy and have her deliver some sperm.”

  “Say what now?” Jim asks. He turns to his wife and says, “I think maybe they aren't doing it right. Give them the birdy-bees talk.” Marilyn, embarrassed, puts her head in her hands.

  Caroline gets up and bends down next to Jim's wheelchair. Caroline whispers in his ear for a moment. Jim's eyes light up, then look suspiciously to K. Caroline stands up proudly. “And don't tell K.”