When astronaut James Irwin made his moonwalks on the Apollo 15 mission, he didn't know a 6" x 12" patch from his dusty spacesuit would someday sell for over $300,000, top price at a recent Christie's auction of nearly 300 space collectibles.
And whoever paid three times the pre-sale estimated price for smudges of moondust last Saturday may not have known he was helping prove the business model of a New York company planning the world's first commercial lunar mission.
"Lunar material is selling for thousands of dollars a milligram-on the rare occasion it goes on sale," says Denise Norris, CEO of Applied Space Resources.
"We're going to make it possible to own your own collectible piece of the Moon for no more than you would spend on a special Christmas gift for your child," added Norris.
"ASR is leveraging public interest in space science to pay for space science," says Norris. "Think about how many Americans remember the excitement and suspense of the Apollo program, and how many people of all ages identify with the heroes of Star Trek and Star Wars. Their fascination with space can pay for the next wave of exploration, and reward them with the opportunity to hold a piece of another world in their own hands."
ASR's robotic Lunar Retriever I mission is designed to return over 10 kilograms of lunar rock for sale to scientists and consumers alike in 2002. These will be the first new lunar samples available on Earth in over a quarter century, and will come from a previously unexplored region of the Moon, Mare Nectaris (Sea of Nectar).
ASR plans to allow qualified researchers to select their own samples at a steep discount, then to wholesale the majority of the payload to gem dealers and manufacturers of collectibles.
Norris and ASR Vice President for Research & Development Jay Manifold will each be making presentations on how privately-funded companies like ASR will expand humankind's reach into space at this weekend's Space Frontier Conference in Los Angeles.
By co-sponsoring this and other scientific conferences and symposia, ASR team members keep scientists and space enthusiasts up to date on mission development, and contribute to the building of a space exploration philosophy for the 21st century.
With its Lunar Retriever I mission, Applied Space Resources is developing a core competency in the use of existing technologies for the development of resources in near-Earth space.
ASR is focused on delivering spacecraft to any destination with precision, and returning resources and information with equal precision, for a profit.
