Open Lunar Foundation Begins Plans For Permanent Open Source Lunar Colony

www.bloomberg.com...

Open Lunar began a few years ago as something of a thought exercise. A group of friends in Silicon Valley were taking stock of the dramatic improvements in aerospace technology along with the falling cost of rocket launches, thanks to companies like Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Peter Beck’s Rocket Lab. The friends came to the realization that it might soon be possible to create a small lunar settlement for about $2 billion to $3 billion. It’s a hefty sum, but a very achievable one in an era that abounds with wealthy space enthusiasts. And so, the friends decided to explore the idea of going to the moon in earnest

So... They have a group of tech individuals from Silicon Valley, and some on board consultants with NASA involved individuals. (Allegedly Chris Hadfield, not bad if true.)

They're trying to leverage a few million dollars and their connections to bolster up the $2-3 billion necessary to make their plans work... But then on top of that, they want this effort to be independent of the influence from nation states?

They have a "warchest" of $5 million.

Wow...

Looking into funding methods...

I love space exploration, so I want them to prove me wrong, but I'm calling it right now.

This group will become the Elio of Lunar colonization.

Yeah, they complain about us keeping our house warm because it causes global warming, but it is acceptable to fly to and from the moon? I think the energy used to create the viability of that would be way worse than the impact of using regular light bulbs in your house.

2-3 billion... i want some of what they are smoking. even if u could use off the shelf parts for everything there is no way thats going to come close to covering the costs of creating a lunar colony.

Ignoring the start-up capital, it is a nonprofit organization and "open source" project.

The foundation’s strategy will be to borrow from the playbook of open-source technology as it tries to accelerate the exploration and settlement of the moon. Open Lunar’s members have been discussing ways to have people from many countries come together to work on projects. And they have plans to share data and hardware designs from their missions, mirroring the development of open-source software like Linux or Android.

They should be able to produce enough to cover the overhead. Just developing a viable colony on the moon and doing scientific research and development would generate revenue.