Printable Version of Topic

Click here to view this topic in its original format

Unmanned Spaceflight.com _ Private Missions _ Benson Strikes Again

Posted by: tedstryk Jul 14 2005, 01:55 PM

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-05zf.html

Posted by: MiniTES Jul 14 2005, 02:30 PM

Whatever happened to NEAP? As crazy as he may sound, he did sucessfully lead the development of the famous laughing gas and tire rubber engine for SS1.

Posted by: Bob Shaw Jul 14 2005, 02:32 PM

QUOTE (MiniTES @ Jul 14 2005, 03:30 PM)

Whatever happened to NEAP? As crazy as he may sound, he did sucessfully lead the development of the famous laughing gas and tire rubber engine for SS1.

Haha Boinggggggg!

Posted by: Phil Stooke Jul 14 2005, 03:43 PM

Spacedev bought up a company that made hybrid rockets, and successfully powered SS1, so it has done quite welll already. And it's been good at getting contracts for other projects too. They never found financing for NEAP or a projected lunar orbiter.

But Spacedev has approached the commercial space business differently than - for instance - Lunacorp and Applied Space Resources, which have shut down now. They took on related work and are making a go of it. Sooner or later they may have enough money to fly NEAP or something else as well.

The only other commercial lunar mission which looks promising is Transorbital's Trailblazer, repeatedly delayed but continuing to make progress in a very serious way.

Phil