We're certainly trying. Keep your eye on http://www.transorbital.net for announcements. The key is to start small and build up. TrailBlazer is, to some extent, our effort to find the minimal commercially viable mission. Once it's in place, we can start to grow, building on proven technology and capabilities.
If things had kept on their original track, we might have been living on Mars. Although Apollo was a great achievement - and TransOrbital's planned missions certainly would not be possible without NASA's technological developments - Apollo mucked up the works so far as an orderly progress into space is concerned. The original concepts, as noted by Von Braun and others, was to incrementally work from sub-orbital, to orbital, to space station, to Moon, to Mars. Apollo sunk a lot of money into getting to the Moon without building any infrastructure to enable us to keep going there: SSTO's, long duration space stations, lunar shuttles, etc.
Currently, the Electra lander has been pushed back till at least 2002. Our initial mission will be the TrailBlazer lunar imaging probe, designed to return HDTV quality video of the trip, the Earth, and the Moon. We were hoping to launch in December of this year, and have signed agreements with the launch company, but the ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) permit - the export license from the State Department, required for taking any spacecraft out of the country - has taken much longer than necessary.
As for proving that we're actually carrying the biz card, well we'll post pictures of them in the spacecraft prior to launch, and pictures from the spacecraft during the mission. Don't know what more could be done.
Yup, test, retest, and test again. Of course, since we're not carrying people on TrailBlazer it's not quite that overwhelming. (Note, the launch vehicle is another matter, but then we're not making that).
Well, the main mapping orbit will be higher than that, but for getting "tire tracks" we're planning on lowering the orbit considerably. It'll be risky, which is why that will be done at the end of the mission after the surface map is done.
1) There's stuff out there that is, or could be, worth a lot of money.
2) Consider the plight of the Native Americans from the other side. For what may be legitimate technological reasons, they didn't think that there was anything or anybody beyond the Atlantic or Pacific. They didn't explore, they didn't prepare - and they were wrong.
Consider also the fate of the Chinese. Circa 1400 they had great exploration fleets out exploring the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and had almost rounded the Horn of Africa. Another 20 years or so and we would have had junks sailing into the Thames. But, due to a political upset, they recalled and burnt the ships, destroyed the shipyards, and decided to sit in their borders and contemplate their navels - decreeing that the outside world could come to them. Less than a century later, the British fleet sailed in and started taking over.
Re downsides: 1) I can only speak for TransOrbital, of course in saying that we won't, but in general: no. There will be the same requirements for public opinion and government rules as here on Earth. Of course, A) since the lunar surface is so much wasteland anyways, it doesn't make _that_ much difference, and B) stuff is so expensive that recycling is far more attractive than here on Earth. 2) Killing customers is bad for business. 3) Well, if you look carefully, often the scientists aren't funded by NASA - they get their grants from such agencies as the NSF. NASA just runs the spacecraft. There's no reason why private companies won't take the same money - that's precisely what TransOrbital and SpaceDev are doing. (TransOrbital has up to 4 kg of instrumentation space available, if anyone is interested).
Well, A) Corporations can almost never do whatever they want - especially when they're as small as TransOrbital. They can do what makes money and what the government(s) allow them to do. Also, generating bad PR is bad for business. B) Most spacecraft _are_ international efforts. E.g TrailBlazer: Americal integration and parts, British parts, Canadian parts, Russian launch vehicle. What makes this whole thing possible is that so much stuff is available off the shelf!
Nope, although I wouldn't put it past _some_ people. However, the only way to get up there and _stay_ up there is to let people make a profit at it. Otherwise it's only at the whims of government programs, which will change as the political environment changes.
Well, business cards are a personal part of modern life, they represent who and what you are. And, of course, you're free to write on it what you will. What would you like to send? We're offering messages too, and we can send _anything_ inert for a fairly reasonable price. (see the website products page).
Well, we'd hope that they'd end up in a museum eventually. And there won't be _that_ many, maybe 50 or so. (unless we're really lucky). I do hear the arguements about trash heaps, and believe me we're going to avoid that. As others have pointed out, when you're in space, recycling and "ecologically friendly" behavior is not optional, it's a matter of life and death. Small, closed ecosystems don't take kindly to pollution of any kind. On the other hand, since the surface is basically a barren wasteland anyways.... I will be more than happy to personally go EVA and pick up TransOrbital's messes. Once we get there in person, of course!
TransOrbital is auctioning off the first business card slot in our TrailBlazer mission on E-Bay. Go to e-bay to participate. See our website at http://www.transorbital.net for further information. We cleaned things up a bit, comments invited.
>I'm really wondering what the point of TransOrbital is. Isn't there enough photography of the moon for current purposes? The point of TransOrbital is to build inexpensive spacecraft, and to provide tools and resources for other people who want to do missions outside of Low-Earth-Orbit. As for lunar photography, there are never enough photos, isn't that Kodak's basic theme? For the TrailBlazer mission, we're planning on taking lunar surface imagery at a resolution not previously available, and high-res video of other targets of opportunity. Paul Blase Chief Technical Officer TransOrbital, Inc.
Actually, the big deal here is the nature of the sensor. It's a solid-state CMOS camera, an array of UV sensitive photodiodes attached to a CMOS readout. Single chip camera.
Slashdot Mirror
Cool, but remember: TransOrbital isn't building a launch vehicle. We could, possibly, use his engines.
We're certainly trying. Keep your eye on http://www.transorbital.net for announcements. The key is to start small and build up. TrailBlazer is, to some extent, our effort to find the minimal commercially viable mission. Once it's in place, we can start to grow, building on proven technology and capabilities.
If things had kept on their original track, we might have been living on Mars. Although Apollo was a great achievement - and TransOrbital's planned missions certainly would not be possible without NASA's technological developments - Apollo mucked up the works so far as an orderly progress into space is concerned. The original concepts, as noted by Von Braun and others, was to incrementally work from sub-orbital, to orbital, to space station, to Moon, to Mars. Apollo sunk a lot of money into getting to the Moon without building any infrastructure to enable us to keep going there: SSTO's, long duration space stations, lunar shuttles, etc.
Currently, the Electra lander has been pushed back till at least 2002. Our initial mission will be the TrailBlazer lunar imaging probe, designed to return HDTV quality video of the trip, the Earth, and the Moon. We were hoping to launch in December of this year, and have signed agreements with the launch company, but the ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) permit - the export license from the State Department, required for taking any spacecraft out of the country - has taken much longer than necessary.
As for proving that we're actually carrying the biz card, well we'll post pictures of them in the spacecraft prior to launch, and pictures from the spacecraft during the mission. Don't know what more could be done.
Paul Blase
If you want to bring a goat, we'll fit in a goat. You'll have to pay extra for the custom space suit, though.
Yup, test, retest, and test again. Of course, since we're not carrying people on TrailBlazer it's not quite that overwhelming. (Note, the launch vehicle is another matter, but then we're not making that).
Well, the main mapping orbit will be higher than that, but for getting "tire tracks" we're planning on lowering the orbit considerably. It'll be risky, which is why that will be done at the end of the mission after the surface map is done.
We will _definitely_ try to dodge anything that NASA, the Russians, or anybody else left up there. Of course if we don't know about it, that's tough.
1) There's stuff out there that is, or could be, worth a lot of money.
2) Consider the plight of the Native Americans from the other side. For what may be legitimate technological reasons, they didn't think that there was anything or anybody beyond the Atlantic or Pacific. They didn't explore, they didn't prepare - and they were wrong.
Consider also the fate of the Chinese. Circa 1400 they had great exploration fleets out exploring the China Sea and the Indian Ocean, and had almost rounded the Horn of Africa. Another 20 years or so and we would have had junks sailing into the Thames. But, due to a political upset, they recalled and burnt the ships, destroyed the shipyards, and decided to sit in their borders and contemplate their navels - decreeing that the outside world could come to them. Less than a century later, the British fleet sailed in and started taking over.
What you don't know can kill you.
Sponsorship opportunities are available. (read: "your logo here")
We're planning imagery down to the point of impact, if possible.
We're sending the actual business card; the paper will be scanned, micro-reduced, and printed on a carrier.
Re downsides: 1) I can only speak for TransOrbital, of course in saying that we won't, but in general: no. There will be the same requirements for public opinion and government rules as here on Earth. Of course, A) since the lunar surface is so much wasteland anyways, it doesn't make _that_ much difference, and B) stuff is so expensive that recycling is far more attractive than here on Earth. 2) Killing customers is bad for business. 3) Well, if you look carefully, often the scientists aren't funded by NASA - they get their grants from such agencies as the NSF. NASA just runs the spacecraft. There's no reason why private companies won't take the same money - that's precisely what TransOrbital and SpaceDev are doing. (TransOrbital has up to 4 kg of instrumentation space available, if anyone is interested).
Well, A) Corporations can almost never do whatever they want - especially when they're as small as TransOrbital. They can do what makes money and what the government(s) allow them to do. Also, generating bad PR is bad for business. B) Most spacecraft _are_ international efforts. E.g TrailBlazer: Americal integration and parts, British parts, Canadian parts, Russian launch vehicle. What makes this whole thing possible is that so much stuff is available off the shelf!
Nope, although I wouldn't put it past _some_ people. However, the only way to get up there and _stay_ up there is to let people make a profit at it. Otherwise it's only at the whims of government programs, which will change as the political environment changes.
Well, business cards are a personal part of modern life, they represent who and what you are. And, of course, you're free to write on it what you will. What would you like to send? We're offering messages too, and we can send _anything_ inert for a fairly reasonable price. (see the website products page).
Well, we'd hope that they'd end up in a museum eventually. And there won't be _that_ many, maybe 50 or so. (unless we're really lucky). I do hear the arguements about trash heaps, and believe me we're going to avoid that. As others have pointed out, when you're in space, recycling and "ecologically friendly" behavior is not optional, it's a matter of life and death. Small, closed ecosystems don't take kindly to pollution of any kind. On the other hand, since the surface is basically a barren wasteland anyways.... I will be more than happy to personally go EVA and pick up TransOrbital's messes. Once we get there in person, of course!
TransOrbital is auctioning off the first business card slot in our TrailBlazer mission on E-Bay. Go to e-bay to participate. See our website at http://www.transorbital.net for further information. We cleaned things up a bit, comments invited.
>I'm really wondering what the point of TransOrbital is. Isn't there enough photography of the moon for current purposes? The point of TransOrbital is to build inexpensive spacecraft, and to provide tools and resources for other people who want to do missions outside of Low-Earth-Orbit. As for lunar photography, there are never enough photos, isn't that Kodak's basic theme? For the TrailBlazer mission, we're planning on taking lunar surface imagery at a resolution not previously available, and high-res video of other targets of opportunity. Paul Blase Chief Technical Officer TransOrbital, Inc.
Actually, the big deal here is the nature of the sensor. It's a solid-state CMOS camera, an array of UV sensitive photodiodes attached to a CMOS readout. Single chip camera.