§ 8 Mission Plans and Concepts

This section covers specific organizations and individuals that have been putting forth proposals or concepts, or trying to develop plans, or attempting to raise capital for projects which would directly benefit the thrust for utilization of asteroidal and/or lunar material.

Before you read any of the following project concepts, it may be better if you read the PERMANENT discussion of a near-term first mission and how it would be profitable. Think about how the following companies could make money if they considered and developed the concepts in that article.

Jim Benson / SpaceDev - asteroid prospecting mission, the Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP)

Space Studies Institute (SSI) - basic R&D to enable private ventures

Applied Space Resources, Inc. (ASR) is a newcomer to this field, with an announcement in January 1998 that they are planning to launch a private lunar sample return mission, and are looking into potential near-Earth asteroid missions.

Shimizu Corp. - Japanese blue chip engineering and construction company doing work on lunar materials utilization and large scale space construction.

Obayashi Corp. - competitor to Shimizu, another giant Japanese engineering and construction company interested in getting involved in space construction

Comments on the statements by the two Japanese construction companies.

Artemis Project, and Lunar Resources Company - space tourism to support a lunar colony

Asteroid Enterprises - sample return mission to enable asteroid mining

General Space Corp. - working with the Russians and Russian hardware for lunar missions

Space stations from throw-away fuel tanks

Other significant efforts by the government, both major and minor, together with certain small private efforts which could help indirectly.

I believe that a new space race is about to ensue, between multinationals, and would like to help in networking the best people in this field (e.g., for joint ventures), bringing new people up to speed quickly, and marketing the projects of the best entities.

This section is closely related to the previous section, legal, economic and political history and issues.

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