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Private Russian Company Proposes Lunar Base

MarkWhittington writes According to an article in Sputnik, a private Russian company called Lin Industrial has announced that it is capable of building a lunar base. However, according to information contained to a recent post in Parabolic Arc, this announcement may be more the result of idle boasting than an objective assessment of actual ability. Nevertheless, Lin seems to be one of the few entrepreneurial startups in Russia in the style of much more robust enterprises in the West such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

81 comments

  1. This is what qualifies as "news" here these days.. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Random boasting from people unable to carry them out... Well, they better not build it where all those time-share lots have been sold...

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  2. OOOOhh!! Me too!! Me too!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I propose a private base on Venus!

    Look how easy that was!?

    1. Re:OOOOhh!! Me too!! Me too!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have no technical knowledge, financial means, or support from the government. In other words, you're a loser and no one cares about your proposal.

    2. Re:OOOOhh!! Me too!! Me too!!! by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      You have no technical knowledge, financial means, or support from the government. In other words, you're a loser and no one cares about your proposal.

      Exactly. And does "Lin Industrial"? Probably not.

      Who are these people? Are they more than a couple of guys looking for "venture capital" to spend for a few years? Any actual rocket know-how? Do they employ an office full of qualified Russian rocket engineers?

      I can't find anything - English or Russian - about these people, who's backing them, what their experience level is. My guess is that it's a pipe dream of flat out a way to sponge up "venture capital".

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    3. Re:OOOOhh!! Me too!! Me too!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "support from the government"??? You fool, the resources in space will pay for themselves, and, uh, the species *must* explore!

      Oh, and 3D printing. Game, changed. Booyah!

    4. Re:OOOOhh!! Me too!! Me too!!! by savuporo · · Score: 1

      One you wont hear : I propose a private mission to Uranus !
      Well, maybe in San Francisco.

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  3. With blackjack and hookers, I presume? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ridiculous.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
    1. Re:With blackjack and hookers, I presume? by tquasar · · Score: 1

      Bender? Is that you?

    2. Re:With blackjack and hookers, I presume? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uzhe skoro.

  4. Raison D'etre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A base on the moon? Why?

    I think an unmanned base with drones/bots will be much cheaper and yield greater returns.

    1. Re:Raison D'etre? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      In the polar regions? Probably to look for water. Eventual exploitation might need some local repairmen to keep it running. But yeah, the initial exploration doesn't sound like people stuff.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Raison D'etre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if we don't get robot repairmen (which I think we will), I have trouble seeing why sending a human body to do it would be advantageous. We can have robotic bodies, without the mind, and have it pupetteered by humans, where the drone will mimic their motions. Then we don't even have to think about making AI.

      This was already done in the 1980s while making the movie Short Circuit, we should be even more capable of the same not, but remotely.

    3. Re:Raison D'etre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      humans even with our many failings are still amazingly flexible, adaptable and better able to respond quickly to unknown data inputs for smell, touch, sight and sound. Currently robots are not adequate replacements even when fully built to just mirror human movement, I am sure we will get there in maybe another decade or so but currently when it comes to the unknown a human is still better able to process inputs.

    4. Re:Raison D'etre? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      I think you are forgetting the impact of communications latency.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    5. Re:Raison D'etre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, why that dead rock that has been there for a billion years, we MUST have INSTANT knowledge of the EXACT color of the dead rust on it!!

    6. Re:Raison D'etre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, was that supposed to be a coherent reply?

    7. Re:Raison D'etre? by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure it would be that big a deal. Figure it's, what, about 2 or 3 seconds? Yeah, I don't think you'll be ducking and weaving things that are coming at you. But a humanoid robot could probably walk around (slowly) and pick up stuff.

      Heck, the old Soviet lunokhod rovers were remote controlled.

    8. Re: Raison D'etre? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How's it going with the ladyboys?

  5. MAY BE more the result of idle boasting??? by Nutria · · Score: 1

    Call us back when you've at least orbited a space station or two...

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:MAY BE more the result of idle boasting??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Call us back when you've at least orbited a space station or two...

      ...says the person who forgot what country put the first human in space.

    2. Re:MAY BE more the result of idle boasting??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lin Industrial is a country now? Did the UN agree to acknowledge it too? That was unusually fast.

    3. Re:MAY BE more the result of idle boasting??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...Looks around for the Soviet Union....

      Sorry, nobody home

  6. Meh, amateurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can build a base on Mars.

    Just give me a trillion dollars....

  7. PR = Preposterous Revelations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Russian"

    Right there you lost all credibility...

    1. Re:PR = Preposterous Revelations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be honest, I couldn't care less about your petty Ukrainian disputes with Russia. Please keep your politics limited to Chernobyl or wherever you live.

    2. Re:PR = Preposterous Revelations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      More to do with Putin and his demonstration of running a country into the ground while pocketing as much money as possible off-shore and distracting the Russian people with jingoism

  8. me, too!1! by waynemcdougall · · Score: 4, Funny

    I, too, am capable of building a lunar base.

    I just need some funding. And a rocket. And a team of trained engineers/astronauts (both, not either or).

    Rocket fuel, I guess. And plans. Plans would be good.

    But I am totally capable.

    --
    Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
    1. Re:me, too!1! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      You sound like Elon Musk.

    2. Re:me, too!1! by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 1

      A lunar base would be handy too.

    3. Re:me, too!1! by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Don't forget the hookers and blackjack.

      In fact, forget the lunar base!

      --
      I stole this Sig
    4. Re:me, too!1! by delt0r · · Score: 0

      The difference is that he is actually doing it.

      --
      If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
    5. Re:me, too!1! by delt0r · · Score: 1

      For what? What would a luna base be good for? Please don't say He3....

      --
      If information wants to be free, why does my internet connection cost so much?
    6. Re:me, too!1! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These guys are doing it as well. They created two designs of light rockets. I wonder why Iran is not funding that company yet.

    7. Re:me, too!1! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sir Branson, why are wasting your time on Slashdot?

  9. I'm sure they can by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure they can build a base actually, and that they've researched thoroughly before making the claim. But the real difficulty is getting all the material and equipment into orbit, and onto the moon.

  10. I am also capable of building a lunar base. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I only need someone to fund it.

  11. until they get on Putin's bad side by swschrad · · Score: 1, Insightful

    then they are capable of bankruptcy and the modern gulag. Russian business is ebb and flow like that.

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  12. Anonymous Coward Proposes Solar Base by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    According to a comment in the Internets, an Internet entity called Anonymous Coward has announced that it is capable of building a solar base. However, according to information contained in a recent post in Slashdot, this announcement may be more the result of idle boasting than an objective assessment of actual ability. Nevertheless, Anon seems to be one of the few entrepreneurial startups in the Internets in the style of much more robust enterprises in the West such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

    Anonymous Coward is looking for politicians to take part in the first mission to colonize the Sun.

  13. Special request by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

    Whoever sets up the lunar base, do you mind also putting a Pirate Bay server up there, too? I never finished downloading the second season of Hannibal.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  14. They couldn't build a heavy booster by melted · · Score: 0

    They couldn't even build a heavy booster back when the USSR was at the peak of its military and economic might. They sure as hell aren't capable of it now, with thieves and crooks running the country.

    1. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia

      Launched two times, booster performed flawlessly each time (payload failed on first launch).

    2. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you do realise the engines that the US has been using for the last few decades for rockets are USSR/Russian designs.

    3. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by melted · · Score: 1

      Yes I do. I also realize those engines can't get humans to the moon, let alone an entire manned base.

    4. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by melted · · Score: 1

      Still smaller than Saturn-V, with less payload capacity to both LEO and the Moon. Never flown with human payload. Never flown beyond LEO. Better luck next time.

    5. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also realize those engines can't get humans to the moon

      They don't need to. In Soviet Russia, rocket lands the Moon on YOU.

    6. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by qpqp · · Score: 1

      now, with thieves and crooks running the country.

      Wow, what a remarkably naive thing to think. Pray tell, when was Ru^H^Hany country not run by "thieves and crooks?"

    7. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol, these hillbillies are getting pretty insecure now that they have to beg Russians to take them to ISS.

    8. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beg? ISS launches are one of Russia's only remaining sources of hard currency. Russia and the US are not even talking with one another at present so Russia could be selling seats at a 90% discount and the US wouldn't be buying.

    9. Re:They couldn't build a heavy booster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was the one who upvoted the AC's link to Energia. I'm as big a fan of the Saturn series of boosters as they come. I lived in Huntsville as a child and my dad worked on the Saturn V (S-IC, the first stage) there. That said, the Energia was a pretty respectable booster itself and the specs I find show it was close to the Saturn V in lift capability (220,000 lbs to LEO vs 260,000 lbs for the Saturn V). It also was had a nice high energy propulsion package -- kerosene/LOX strap-on boosters around a LH2/LOX core; no junky solid rockets or hypergolic fuels. The engines developed for it, and their successors, are considered the best kerosene/LOX engines around, better than the Saturn V's F-1s, as they should be since they were designed 20 years later. The Energia was abandoned by the Russians not for any technical reasons but for lack of a mission, cost, and the national will to continue building them (kind of the same reasons the US abandoned the Saturn V), and of course the chaos caused by the end of the Soviet Union. But it certainly was a respectable rocket and flew twice. It wasn't a Saturn V, and was not a competitor to the Saturn due to the different timeframes they flew, but it could have been a great vehicle and as with the Saturns, it is a bit of a shame it isn't still flying. As to your original assertion that the Russians couldn't build such a vehicle now, I don't know -- they are still cranking out those nice engines, but I suspect you are overall correct, though it also remains to be seen if the Americans are still capable of building a Saturn V class vehicle again.

  15. Re:This is what qualifies as "news" here these day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Random boasting from people unable to carry them out... Well, they better not build it where all those time-share lots have been sold...

    Why? If someone who has a time-share takes it to court the only thing the court will conclude is that it isn't valid.

    You have two option to enforce that time-share. Go to Russia and try to fight in court there or go to the Moon and try to hold your ground there.

  16. Lunar Command is a good old school game by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    Lunar Base is, too.

  17. Re:This is what qualifies as "news" here these day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a 19 inch penis... and it's shaped like a shark... and it shoots lasers. Also it can build a base on Mars.

    Slashdot article covering it, please.

  18. Re:This is what qualifies as "news" here these day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Whooooooosh"

  19. In the style of SpaceX, building a moon base by Suddenly_Dead · · Score: 1

    In the style of SpaceX? So I suppose they're undercutting other traditional space launch companies and are on track to developing a a heavy lifter and other technologies they hope could get them to Mars?

    Wait, you're telling me they don't even have one rocket yet, never mind having actually achieved orbit, any sort of revenue, or even the beginnings of the capability of building, launching, landing, and assembling a moon base? Slashdot, why?

  20. Russians had the most expensive olymic games by Trachman · · Score: 0

    Russians had the most expensive olympic games in the history $50 Billion, while the living standard of the average russian, if measured by GDP per capita is probably 50% lower than average western country.

    Clearly, those who were part of it, liked the taste of the money and want more "projects". In US they would start a new war, or would bring another entitlement program aka "Obamacare". In EU they are playing with the LHC. Russians want to colonize the moon now that Ukrainians kicked their teeth in East Ukraine.

    At the same token, in Russia, significant part of population still uses outhouses, average life expectancy of males is 50 years, currently interest rate is more than 10% and inflation is more than 10%. Russia has 1/6th of the world's territory, but they have 1/50th of the population and have negative birth rate.

    Yes, let them colonize the moon for their "lebensraum" is an issue #1.

    1. Re:Russians had the most expensive olymic games by qpqp · · Score: 2

      Go look in your own backyard, before trying to shit in someone else's, punk.

    2. Re:Russians had the most expensive olymic games by Kjella · · Score: 4, Informative

      At the same token, in Russia, significant part of population still uses outhouses, average life expectancy of males is 50 years

      Do I smell a troill? It's currently 65 years and the lowest it's been since 1950 is 58 years.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:Russians had the most expensive olymic games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please forgive Trachman. He was pulled out of public school and then got home-schooled by mom and dad in their trailer.

    4. Re:Russians had the most expensive olymic games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have pretty girls and they're white. Stop hating on them so much. How are they your enemy? Do you hate your cuzins too? Including your girl cuzins?

    5. Re:Russians had the most expensive olymic games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your rant contains a lot of feel-good biases that have no supporting facts.

      ... if measured by GDP per capita is probably 50% lower than average western country ...

      Other measurements of the standard of living put Finland or Fiji at the highest level. Yet Fiji has a very turbulent political system and small GDP. Finland also a low population density. But since you want to use money as a yardstick, let's look at the USA: It has the largest GDP and is declining rapidly in standards of health, average education, infant mortality and other indicators.

      ... liked the 'taste' of the money ...

      And you don't? By your subsequent statements I surmise you are referring to cronyism. How this leads space exploration isn't mentioned unless you're implying all mega-projects are driven by pork-barreling.

      ... Russians want to colonize the moon now that Ukrainians kicked their teeth in East Ukraine.

      From war and oil reserves to moon colonies: That's stretching unsubstantiated casualty beyond belief. The cost of the Russian Olympiad doesn't support an argument about moon colonies. Talk about non sequiturs.

      ... significant part of population still uses outhouses ...

      Doesn't really lead to a conclusion but linking to your opening paragraph I surmise you are calling Russia incapable of high-technology mega-projects. That argument ignores the Mir space station and that Russia sent robots to other planets.

  21. I have one question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are they going to pay for it with?

    1. Re:I have one question. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      What are they going to pay for it with?

      Maybe they can fuel it with vodka, the price of which has dropped significan;y in Russia: http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/3...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  22. Scamming investors can be profitable by billstewart · · Score: 2

    There are two kinds of people who announce they can do something like that - the ones who don't have a clue how hard it is, and the ones who don't care because their objective is to scam investors. (Seasteading's a lot easier, but most of the proposals I've seen for that have been the scammer types.)

    Yes, getting enough equipment up to the moon to build a moon base is something you can do if you've got enough cash. Doing it as a private industry (rather than a government doing it) means you also need a revenue model once you've built it, and if you've done due diligence you won't find much revenue up there, even if you manage to get rid of inconvenient UN treaties that ban owning the moon.

    But building an ecosystem that can sustain your moon colony is really hard; we don't know how to keep small pilot projects like Biosphere II running for very long without cheating and restocking the atmosphere, or how to build dirt without a ready supply of nitrogen and phosphate to grow plants with. It's a lot easier to deal with that on a moon base than on Mars, because you can send an occasional care package, but it's not like the convenience of restocking the International Space Station (which doesn't recycle most of its resources either.)

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
    1. Re:Scamming investors can be profitable by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      There are two kinds of people who announce they can do something like that - the ones who don't have a clue how hard it is, and the ones who don't care because their objective is to scam investors.

      So which one is Elon Musk? (I'm voting for Type I myself.)
       

      But building an ecosystem that can sustain your moon colony is really hard; we don't know how to keep small pilot projects like Biosphere II running for very long without cheating and restocking the atmosphere, or how to build dirt without a ready supply of nitrogen and phosphate to grow plants with.

      You're correct in that we don't know how to do those things... but please don't use Biosphere II as an example. It never was a serious scientific experiment, even though the ecological mystics in charge of the project managed to sell it as such.

    2. Re:Scamming investors can be profitable by itzly · · Score: 1

      don't use Biosphere II as an example. It never was a serious scientific experiment

      That has always made me wonder why nobody followed up on these projects with a rigorous scientific version. It seems we can learn plenty from it.

    3. Re:Scamming investors can be profitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The system was not capable of generating enough oxygen for the inhabitants, one of the people inside stated in an interview that it was painful to breath because there was so much CO2 in the atmosphere

      It was taken over by Columbia University in 1995, and they changed from an air tight system to a flow through system in 1996
      They continued to make studies on CO2 levels etc for a few years and it has recently been turned over to the University of Arizona who will continue to perform similar studies

      Any long term human habitation off Earth will probably have to rely on chemical scrubbers and industrial O2 production since the amount of space that has to be dedicated to plants for O2 generation is prohibitive

    4. Re:Scamming investors can be profitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For bootstrap: nuclear reactor + water. As much water as you can possibly get in one place. There's your coolant, oxygen, hydrogen for WGSR (although you'll probably need to import more hydrogen or mine water/hydrocarbons). Nitrogen is tricky--we'll need to include quite a bit of that as well, if for no reason other than to support plants and various odd jobs needing an inert atmosphere. Should keep pretty well in space, although arrival is going to be interesting. Perhaps a solid source of nitrogen would have a favorable density.

      Eventually, the reactor will run out. Hopefully, by that point, you have a functioning mining colony, because you'll need enough fuel to keep supplying enough power to run your basic reactions just to breathe.

      I'm sure they've thought of all this, but I'm killing time on Slashdot.

      IANAE (I Am Not An Expert). Caveat emptor.

    5. Re:Scamming investors can be profitable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Addendum: as for that whole inert atmosphere business, you don't want to be living in a bubble of pure oxidizer. Breathing some of that nitrogen yourself is probably safer than breathing straight O2. Luckily, nitrogen is cheap to release from solid sources, and you can even bring a good chunk of oxygen with it.

    6. Re:Scamming investors can be profitable by Optali · · Score: 1

      You forget that there is a third type of people doing such announcements:

      A bunch of Russian oligarchs during a Vodka orgy.

      --
      -- 29A the number of the Beast
  23. Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Talk about lots of hope and with little change, considering it's rather impossible for people to survive on the moon, let alone safely travel beyond a 1000 miles from Earth's orbit. Real scientists know this, as do the Russians, regardless of the NASA actors. The truth apparently still hurts.

    1. Re:Hah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, you're crazy. The Russians would have been the first to expose the "actors" if they had even a shred of evidence.

      Apparently it still hurts you that we went to the Moon.

      Why?

  24. MOD PARENT UP TO INFINITY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Elon Musk had to be the one who downvoted you, that wolf in sheep's clothing.

  25. Re:This is what qualifies as "news" here these day by davester666 · · Score: 1

    I'll bet there a bunch of companies capable of building a lunar base [as in, a facility capable of supporting life for a non-trivial amount of time on the surface of the moon]. Of course, none of them have any chance of actually getting the base to the moon.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  26. How do they make money? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clearly it's boasting because it seems more like a Nigerian Prince scam. So what if they can make a lunar base? NASA can make a lunar base. SpaceX could easily make a lunar base considering their talent. What we need is a reason to do so, one that involves the formula:

    value extracted > value invested.

    Until someone comes up with a reason to go based on that formula, no one's building a lunar base.

  27. private Russian company (hahaha) by user.aaaaa · · Score: 0

    there is no such thing as "private Russian company"/ they all KGB decorations

  28. In Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Russia all your base belong to us

  29. Science V. Media by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

    don't use Biosphere II as an example. It never was a serious scientific experiment

    That has always made me wonder why nobody followed up on these projects with a rigorous scientific version.

    There's been a variety of related and rigorous work - but unlike Biosphere II, they haven't been large and gaudy and thus haven't captured the media and the public's attention. That the more rigorous research has only lead to the conclusion that we don't currently actually know all that much rather than making sexy headlines hasn't helped much.

  30. Fuck yeah, moonbase! by SpaceManFlip · · Score: 1
    Why do we not have a moonbase yet, I want to know? I mean the Earth collectively.

    Robert Heinlein provided much of the philosophical legwork for how to make it work: Don't worry about building large reinforced airtight structures above ground, but instead bore into the ground and/or use caves that can be sealed up and fortified.

    i.e., live IN the moon not ON the moon

    So first you send up rockets with tunnel-boring moon machines, then you build hatches over the holes, then you seal up the leaks in the tunnels, then you build whatever you want inside there, with a pressurized atmosphere.

    1. Re:Fuck yeah, moonbase! by space_jake · · Score: 1

      Moonquakes could be a serious concern for underground bases. http://science.nasa.gov/scienc...