Man is going back to the moon. Not for silly rock samples,
or to hit a golf ball or plant a flag. And not because someone forgot something
on an earlier visit.
Japanese
companies are keen on developing a lunar economy and are consequently backing a
local startup’s mission to land on the moon by 2020. To help them with this
2020 vision, Tokyo-based Ispace, Inc. claims it has already raised the
equivalent of $90 million from some of Japan’s biggest businesses, including
Japan Airlines and Tokyo Broadcasting System Holdings, Inc. Government-backed
Innovation Network Corp. of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan have also
invested in the endeavor. The plan is to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit in
2019 and then land one about a year later.
The trend in space development is
for private companies to play an ever-larger role, as evidenced by Elon Musk’s
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation and the asteroid mining firm
Planetary Resources, Inc. Ispace admits that a thriving lunar economy is
decades away, but says it is realistic to believe there could be 1,000 people
living on the moon by 2040, with some 10,000 people visiting yearly. This would
guarantee at least two or three viable Starbucks locations.
Ispace says the initial business
opportunity is in marketing, and, as such, it will be placing corporate logos
on its spacecraft and rovers. It also plans to deliver images to the moon to be
used in advertising. As Takeshi Hakamada, chief executive officer of Ispace,
stated at a press event in Tokyo recently: “Human beings aren’t heading to the
stars to become poor. That’s why it’s crucial to create an economy in outer
space.”
Ispace says that a successful
landing would allow the company to offer what it calls a “projection mapping
service.” It would erect billboards on the moon’s surface that would allow
corporations to show off their logos with Earth in the background, a
possibility that Ispace officials believe will send many businesses over the
moon. Or at least to it.
President Trump also recently made
it clear that he wants the U.S. to go back to the moon in the near future, largely
to build a foundation to someday land Americans on Mars.
I can foresee a time when weekly
shuttles take people to the moon to have their pictures taken with the
billboard, Earth in the background. A group of people would stand at the foot
of the billboard, for example, looking up at the Kraft Foods ad as a lunar
guide instructs them to “Say cheese,” our home planet as a backdrop.
Some people promise others the
moon. Some people reach for it.
If these companies can pull this
off, they’ll have hung the moon.
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