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Snapshots of LunaCorp History

 

     LunaCorp, a small but ambitious private company headed by its former president David Gump, was established in 1989. The creation of the company was inspired by the idea to launch a privately-funded lunar mission, which would send a lunar rover, driven by commercial customers, onto the Moon. The initial idea of LunaCorp had both scientific and entertainment, as well as commercial value - to further explore the Moon and to enable direct participation of the general public in space programs. At the beginning of the program, LunaCorp was planning to send the rover onto the Moon with a sole purpose of visiting the landing sites of the Apollo mission. Later plans developed towards exploration of the sites located near the Poles, especially the shaded craters which were believed to hide lunar supplies of frozen water. The program's advisor was Dr. Buzz Aldrin, who, together with Neil Armstrong, walked on the surface of the Moon in 1969 during the first manned lunar mission.

     The planned LunaCorp program included a custom designed Moon's rover, build by Dr. Red Whittaker in accordance with Russian technologies. Dr. Whittaker, one of the top scientists of the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, had to design a lunar vehicle of about 440 pounds, that would be operating in extreme temperature conditions of the Moon, both boiling hot and unbearably cold, depending on the time of the day or night. As the robot had to explore lunar craters hidden from the Sun on the Poles of the Moon, it had to be ready to efficiently operate in very low temperatures of liquid nitrogen. Originally, a strategy of LunaCorp mission to the Moon was outlined by the mission controller Geoffrey Landis, who proposed to avoid the extreme lunar temperatures by navigating the rover to drive along lunar high latitudes at a low speed. Such mission strategy was designed for the robot to both experience only mild lunar temperatures and be able to use solar power as a source of fuel (See the work "Solar Power for the Lunar Night" written by Geoffrey Landis in 1989). It was planned that the robotic rover would use solar energy when operating in the sunlight, and batteries when driving in the shade. Additional equipment had to include a powerful drill capable to dig up to 4 feet deep into the lunar ground in search of water and the imaging system to transfer quality videos back on earth. The lunar rover was scheduled to be first tested in the severe conditions of Canadian Arctic, in July 2001. The test had to be sponsored by NASA in the amount of $1 million. It is known that, before the year 2000, LunaCorp had already manufactured and tested the first Dr. Whittaker's model of lunar rover named the Nomad. Later, the rover test in Canada was conducted, with other subsequent tests in Atacama Desert of Chile and in Antarctica.

     In June 2000, LunaCorp published a press-release titled "LunaCorp Launches Plan for Multimedia Moon Robot". The document contained the scheduled year of the Icebreaker Moon Rover launch - 2003, and named the initial corporate sponsor of the project - RadioShack Corporation. An earlier sponsor, Japanese giant company Mitsubishi Corp., was not mentioned in the press-release. LunaCorp was also seeking additional three to four sponsors to fund the mission. More money was expected to come from the Internet portal, contracts with big publicly-funded space agencies, exclusive TV contracts, etc. The total price of the entire project was estimated at about $80-130 million.

     RadioShack, the initial sponsor of the program, was rated then the nation’s largest retail company in the sphere of consumer electronics. It promised to fund LunaCorp in the total amount of $1 million in 2000, and to add several millions more in the future for the needs of Icebreaker Moon Rover. The sponsoring company had plans to collaborate with Microsoft in creating an online game stimulating the rover's exploration of the Moon. Other commercial plans featured the development of new internet businesses, wireless phones, satellite dishes, mini-theatres, and other Moon-inspired technological products. In 2001, LunaCorp, funded by RadioShack, selected the first celebrity person as a future passenger of the space mission - Lance Brass of NSYNC, and even conducted all necessary medical procedures to allow his flight. In May 2002, Lanced participated in the Moscow conference hosted by LunaCorp, where he announced that the medical permission for his space training had been received. The news conference was attended by more than 90 reporters.

the robotic rover     Unfortunately, at the end, all grand plans of LunaCorp and its sponsoring companies did not bear any tangible fruit. The reason still remains obscure, but in 2003 the LunaCorp company was dissolved. Its former president now holds the CEO position at Transformational Space Corp.

© 2007 Lunacorp.com

 

 
The Moon © 2007 Lunacorp.com