Nicole R Murphy
on Monday, July 27, 2009 9:02 AM
Hubby and I were watching a documentary on the moon last night, dealing first with the Apollo missions, and then with the new race to the moon, with a number of different commercial and non-government groups working to get there.
I was taken with the Moon Society, that had gotten to the stage of building a prototype moon base in the desert in Nevada or Utah or somewhere and were experimenting with suits and machinery and so on. Now, if only they had a rocket...
One group that did have a rocket was TransOrbital, who have gotten their hands on an ex-cold war nuclear missile. They are going to take out the nuclear material, remove the warhead and instead fill the cargo space with a commercial payload. People are paying $1000 a gram (I'm guessing that's US) to send their stuff up. There was a rocket shaped lipstick, some original artwork and cremated remains. These are put into a specially designed container and into the rocket. The rocket will then be fired at the moon and deliver the container ten metres below the lunar surface.
During the interview, the thought popped into my mind - um, there's no landing equipment on this missile. And I was right. "We're going to crash into the moon, and then the container will fire and deliver the payload ten metres below the lunar surface" the man from TransOrbital said cheerfully.
Crash into the moon, for the sole purpose of burying stuff like lipstick? I looked at my husband and said "If someone tried to write this as a story, they'd be told it's just not realistic."
But it is. In fact, the Trailblazer mission is due to be launched in October. Here's the link.
Crashing into the moon. *sigh*