Turning science fiction to science fact: Golden Spike makes
plans for human lunar missions by Jeff Foust |However, the plans
of Golden Spike, the company that formally announced last week
its desire to carry out such missions starting as soon as 2020,
can’t be easily dismissed.| Yet, the goals of these startups—a
giant air-launch system and missions to prospect and mine
asteroids—pale in comparison to the goal of another new space
startup: sending people to the surface of the Moon. That feat
has been accomplished only six times, and by one nation, the
United States, with the last such mission, Apollo 17, flying 40
years ago this month. At the time, it was a potent symbol of
America’s capabilities, and one of the signature achievements of
the 20th century. The scale of that accomplishment, in many
respects, grows as the decades stretch on without anyone else
repeating it. Given those factors, the idea that a human landing
on the Moon could be done commercially, and for a fraction of
the cost of Apollo or any m