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bananas

(27,509 posts)
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 03:06 PM Apr 2013

NASA Opens Door to Commercial Partnerships on the Moon

Source: Space News

NASA's head of space operations signed an agreement with Bigelow Aerospace to explore options for a lunar base and public-private orbital outposts near the ISS and at gravitationally stable Lagrange points.

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Read more: http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/34937nasa-opens-door-to-commercial-partnerships-on-the-moon



Hopefully some non-paywalled sources will follow up.
I'll be offline for the rest of the day and won't be able to update.

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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NASA Opens Door to Commercial Partnerships on the Moon (Original Post) bananas Apr 2013 OP
As long as they don't put billboards up there that can be seen from Earth. arcane1 Apr 2013 #1
my grandfather shanti Apr 2013 #2
Why would I want to be paid to be married on the moon? Evasporque Apr 2013 #3
Bigelow, NASA Explore Lunar Private-Public Partnerships bananas Apr 2013 #4
Giant steps are what you take Jefferson23 Apr 2013 #5
To the moon? Bigelow Aerospace and NASA look at private exploration bananas Apr 2013 #6
Reality catches up to SF once again Fumesucker Apr 2013 #7
Public-private daleo Apr 2013 #8

shanti

(21,670 posts)
2. my grandfather
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 03:19 PM
Apr 2013

a barber, and deceased since 1973, told us he held papers to have the first barbershop on the moon. guess i'll never know for sure...

bananas

(27,509 posts)
4. Bigelow, NASA Explore Lunar Private-Public Partnerships
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 08:07 PM
Apr 2013
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2013/04/19/bigelow-nasa-explore-lunar-private-public-partnerships/

Bigelow, NASA Explore Lunar Private-Public Partnerships
Posted by Doug Messier on April 19, 2013, at 11:08 am

Irene Klotz at Space News has the details of a new Space Act Agreement between NASA and Bigelow Aerospace to study missions beyond low Earth orbits and the exploration and settlement of the moon:

“The purpose of this agreement is to facilitate and explore, in a manner that meets both national and commercial goals and objectives, joint public-private arrangements that would continue to build the ability for humans to live and work in space through the expansion of exploration capabilities beyond low Earth orbit,” the agreement says.

“The partnership continues to foster increased commercial use and research in low Earth orbit on the ISS and with Bigelow Aerospace’s private sector near-term plans to design, develop and operate in low-Earth orbit a commercial space station capability. It is coupled with private sector long-term plans of beyond low-Earth orbit operations, including those of Bigelow Aerospace to place a lunar base on the surface of the moon,” the agreement says…

Under the new Space Act Agreement, which offers no monetary payments to Bigelow from NASA, Bigelow will assess potential options for public and private human space expeditions beyond low Earth orbit, with the goal of giving NASA some lower-cost blueprints for exploration initiatives.

For example, a lunar base that NASA buys or leases might double as a commercial outpost, Bigelow said.

Read the full story (registration required).


Jefferson23

(30,099 posts)
5. Giant steps are what you take
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 08:16 PM
Apr 2013

Walkin' on the moon
I hope my leg don't break
Walkin' on the moon.......

Da Police


K&R

bananas

(27,509 posts)
6. To the moon? Bigelow Aerospace and NASA look at private exploration
Fri Apr 19, 2013, 08:17 PM
Apr 2013
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17829546-to-the-moon-bigelow-aerospace-and-nasa-look-at-private-exploration

To the moon? Bigelow Aerospace and NASA look at private exploration

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News
32 minutes ago

Bigelow Aerospace and NASA say they've agreed to look at ways for private ventures to contribute to human exploration missions, perhaps including construction of a moon base. But the space agency emphasized that it's keeping its own focus squarely on corraling an asteroid and then going to Mars.

"As part of our broader commercial space strategy, NASA signed a Space Act Agreement with Bigelow Aerospace to foster ideas about how the private sector can contribute to future human missions," David Weaver, the space agency's associate administrator for communications, said in a statement emailed to NBC News.

"This will provide important information on possible ways to expand our exploration capabilities in partnership with the private sector," Weaver said. "The agency is intensely focused on a bold mission to identify, relocate and explore an asteroid with American astronauts by 2025 — all as we prepare for an even more ambitious human mission to Mars in the 2030s. NASA has no plans for a human mission to the moon."

Eyes on the moon

The moon, however, ranks high among the targets that Bigelow Aerospace has in mind. The Nevada-based company has been working on moonbase concepts for years. During a recent interview on the "Coast to Coast AM" radio show, billionaire founder Robert Bigelow said the potential objectives for private-sector space efforts include a lunar base as well as space stations or refueling depots placed at gravitational balance points in the Earth-moon system.

"We're making no bones about it, that's what we're out to try to accomplish," Bigelow said

<snip>


daleo

(21,317 posts)
8. Public-private
Sat Apr 20, 2013, 12:55 AM
Apr 2013

Means the public will pay 99.99 percent of the costs, and a few rich people will get a new tourist experience to boast about.

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