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I’m sure its come as a shock to everyone as it has to me. The Moon contains actual liquid water.  Its unbelievable that it took us 40 years to discover water on the moon, but we’ve finally done it. For those of you that are still unaware of the current Moon Situation I will be happy to enlighten you.

A couple weeks ago NASA shot a rocket into the centaur crater, to analyze a debris plume.  The rocket was then followed closely by the satellite LCROSS which would analyze the plume transmit data and ultimately meet the same fate as the rocket.  The study was to discover if the debris that was shot up from the moon contained any form of water. After many weeks later the results were astounding, In the debris they found significant amounts of water, gallons to be exact. This completely counteracts the beliefs that the moon was as dry as a bone. This new discovery is a significant opportunity to the space industry, for those in it and those still looking to become a part of it.


Talks of a moon base went from being, purely distant future to a reality in our lifetimes. I expect that we will have a functioning moon base 10-15 years from now. However it may come as a surprise to you that NASA may not be the ones to do it.   Private enterprises will be at the forefront of this one, because of NASA budget cuts there is no way the United States can do this solely as a governmental exercise. If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own space company now is the time! With the current plans of colonizing the moon there will be many support opportunities to fill in the marketplace, be it from habitat building materials to software equipment there will be opportunities a plenty within the coming years for a budding space company to get its start.

While this poses great opportunities for space companies to get their foot in the door, this discovery is known worldwide, countries  such as China (who has been looking to land on the moon by the year 2020) . I believe we are on the brink of a new world order created by the space race of our time: the race for water on the moon. China has been steadily increasing its presence in space. For Example they’ve even issued statements about creating manned weapons platforms in space. They also stand on being the first country to return to the moon, and this was before water was discovered! This new knowledge can only amplify the situation.

In an effort to maintain space superiority in a world of economic stagnation and limited funding, America has gone so far as to offer joint space operations with China. These talks will occur next year and I just hope we don’t give up to much to a country who has historically been a one way door. Sure China has opened some economic opportunities but it still has a long way to go before it can be trusted with such delicate information. Especially when the country has publicly stated its intentions for a manned weapons platform. Its up to global Space corporations to step up and make sure no one country settles the moon or space for its own advancements.

You can watch the first two episodes of Stargate Universe by downloading them free on I-tunes.

The Latest Addition to the Stargate Saga couldn’t have come at a better time. With Battlestar Galactica finished and a lack of interesting Sci-Fi Space Genre’s SG-U truly has a monopoly on the market.



Stargate Universe takes a page directly out of Battlestar Galactica’s book. Instead of focusing on more of a Star Trek feel, SG-U focuses on Battlestar Galactica style with more character development.

The TV show will take place on an ancient ship sent out billions of years ago. They truly are lost in space. To survive they will have to work together to get them through the universe and hopefully make it home in the end.

**Spoilers below**

The TV show starts out leaving you wondering whats going on, but quickly reverts to a flashback where Eli, one of our main characters, is playing a video game and cracks a Stargate Code. I really love this move on the show as it immediately throws some witty comic relief into the show. Our other main characters are the subsequently introduced at a distant base where they are working on a project named Icarus. Needless to say the base is attacked and they are forced to dial an unknown number and end up on the Ancient Space ship.

I’m really excited about this new addition to the Stargate Saga because it seems to take the best of everything and molds it into a unique but familiar Sci-Fi Experience.

Well I guess I can add another to my list of reasons to return to the moon. The moon may not be the barren wasteland that the Apollo missions stated it to be those many years ago. Satellite imaging has confirmed the presence of H2O in some form or another on the moon. This is a huge discovery and may very well turn around 40 years of assumptions that the moon is barren.

The water may not be as you may think though. The H2O molecule is believe to be mixed in with the dirt much like in the Arizona desert. Even the most Arid of climates can harbor some form or another of water.


Now that we’ve confirmed water on mars which is a year away we discover water on the moon which is only days! It seems that we have gone about our search for water in the wrong ways when we should have much more extensively looked at the moon. It is interesting though why this is being discovered now what with The Google Lunar X only months away from launching.

You may have heard about a little competition called the Lunar X prize. Well its basically a competition backed by Google where teams from around the world compete to probe the moon and send back HD video content back to earth. The teams have been getting ready for the competition for many years now and its scheduled to begin in the year 2010. In light of the recent water on the moon discovery more media and public attention may be focused on the moon and this competition. Which leads me to wonder if this is only just a publicity stunt. Whatever it may be I think it can only do good for the Lunar X prize, and prove that even a barren wasteland can have an oasis.

1. National Security: A lot more countries are looking to the stars these days and beginning to become spacefaring nations. Countries such as China and India are newly entering space while Japan and Russia are planning more space missions. All of these countries have their eye on the moon. Many Americans still fear communism and what would happen if China were the first to establish a base on the moon.

2. Resources: The moon is not so much a barren wasteland as the original Apollo missions claimed it to be. The Presence of PGM’s(Platinum Group Metals) may trigger a moon rush. Platinum is the most rare and valuable metal on the planet, and the moon may have an abundant amount of PGM’s deposited by asteroids over millions of years. The moon dust (Regolith) also possesses multiple minerals and even includes oxygen. The moon dust can be broken down into its components and used for building bases on the moon.

3. Exploration: There has been many debates on what process would be used to colonize space. One side of the debate is we should head straight for mars because of its likeness to earth and it would be easier to colonize. The other side of the debate is that the moon should be used as a gateway to mars. Its better to get experience on a celestial body that is only days instead of months or even years away.

4. The Economy: lets not sugarcoat it the economy is going to crap. The only way we were dragged out of the depression was from the world wars and a greater push to industrialism. Today the economy is experiencing the same stagnation and needs to move to a new realm of economic stability. This stability will come from space exploration and development. It will Create millions of jobs in electronics, and even create entirely new jobs the world has yet to see.

What is this unknown company and why is it suddenly so important? Well, as it turns out Moog is an aerospace manufacturing company that chose Space Port America for its testing site. Working in conjunction with UP Aerospace Moog launched its test rocket using UP’s Launch systems. While the flights were not successful in nature it created much needed data for engineers to work with.

Although I am embarrassed to admit I’ve never heard of Moog until today, but the company is actually very large and covers multiple sectors of the economy. Moog covers Aerospace, Energy, Industrial Technology and even Medical Tech just to name a few of their markets. Throughout these markets Moog specializes in motion control.

(To learn more about Moog you can visit their website by checking out my space companies tab.)

Moog’s demonstration is an important step for Space Port America’s survival. If Space Port America hopes to be successful it must not only attract tourism but be a bed for innovation and future space travel testing. The absence of red tape that is usually a pain when dealing with military establishments makes Space Port America much more hospitable towards innovation, hopefully pushing America into a much more involved space future.

Space Port America is slated to finish construction at the end of 2011. Hopefully with the influx of space tourism, Moog will be a leader in a much larger job market for the state of New Mexico. Not only will hotels and tourist activities be built but maybe even a larger community will blossom to support testing facilities and high tech industry. If your looking for a place to invest I would have my money in New Mexico.

The space exploration and space tourism sector may be the next dot com boom. Space Travel has been getting a lot of private sector love lately, with Google’s lunar challenge and privatization of ISS transportation needs. There are even plans for future moon bases and surveying operations within the next decade. With So many attractive space exploration businesses sprouting up the potential for “YOU” to profit may be just around the corner.

Currently many of the space companies in existence do not offer stock, but as this section of the economy gets more media attention IPO’s may spring up as fast as they did for the dot com’s in the late 1990’s. One successful company may begin offering stock as early as 6 months from now. Space exploration Technologies also known as SpaceX began promises of going public after the successful launch of two falcon 9 launches, we can only assume he meant commercial launches. Today SpaceX boasts 1 successful commercial launch with more to come. The contract with ISS begins in 2010 but will be offering test runs with the falcon 9 at the end of 2009. Keep a lookout for SpaceX’s IPO in the near future, because it may very well be worth your investment.

Virgin Galactic may also be planning on letting some investors get a piece of the action. However, Branson may only be interested in floating the company rather than offering a full blown IPO. Nonetheless if you can get a piece of the company, your sure to be in really good shape because Richard Branson has a knack for success. Hopefully in the near future, private space enterprise will go entirely public, but for now I’ll be waiting on the sidelines just waiting for the opportunity to invest.

For those of you more well funded individuals, you may be interested in venture capital opportunities with Space Angels Network. Space Angels is dedicated to helping new space start ups through coaching, promoting, networking and most of all funding entrepreneurs visions.

Subscribe to my RSS feed at the top of the page and get future updates on the best outer space companies to invest in, along with interesting updates on the new space exploration and space tourism industry.

Imagine one day you look up at the full moon, and instead of seeing a bright surface, you see tiny dark spots. What are these dark spots? Moon settlements. This is all because of the new reality painted by private space business, also known as the newspace movement. Private enterprise just got a new push in the right direction, the retirement of the space shuttle created a problem and COTS may be the answer.

COTS also known as Commercial Orbital Transportation Services is a program created by NASA to spur competition and development in the commercial space program. Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are two companies that have received money from COTS and are well on their way to supplying the international space station after the shuttles retirement.

SpaceX has planned missions to ISS all the way up to the year 2015, and will be doing a COT’s demonstration in 2010. SpaceX has already proved that they can launch their falcon into orbit without problems. However they have they have yet to test their Dragon model, that will ferry passengers to the space station. They were given the COTS’ money in order to speed up their research and development to ensure that they can take the space shuttles place.

COTS has caught on not only as a way of decreasing NASA costs, but also is beginning to act as a stimulus plan for the US economy. The Obama administration believes if they can help push a new industry along, it may in just one decade ensure that we are brought out of this recession. It looks like a great idea but will it actually work?

The idea behind COTS as a stimulus plan is that it will create competition in the market place. The competition will create innovation leading to more jobs. Much like the World Wars brought us out of the depression, the newspace proposals will bring us from this recession, through innovation. These Jobs will be created because as more idea’s and technologies are developed, more segments of the industry will be developed. The Solar System is a vast place, and if we can begin to just tap a small portion of it there will be no shortage of jobs as mankind expands to the cosmos.

Think Lost meets Battlestar Galactica (BSG) meets Apollo 13. Well that’s what you get when you watch ABC’s new SciFi TV show: Defying Gravity. From the makers of Desperate Houswives and Greys Anatomy, Defying Gravity strives to bring sex and intrigue into space. I Just hope they take more from BSG’s book than either of those two TV shows for the SciFi community’s sake. Personally Ive been waiting in limbo for some kind of television show reminiscent of Battlestar Galactica, and hopefully this show can fill the void. Defying Gravity Recently Aired at 9PM EDT on Sunday with 2 hours of episode.

Possible Spoilers below

Defying Gravity is essentially a Soap Opera, about a crew that sets out to Explore our Solar System. But there’s a twist! Some invisible entity controls the crews destiny although only the commanders of the expedition know about it. Whether this is a new take on Lost’s time traveling plane crash victims, or BSG’s Biblical Time loop has yet to be revealed. For now we know that problems keep arising and its due to something that lies within module 4.

The Show begins by revealing our Hero, who has been traumatized by a mission to mars. During his mission he was forced to leave 2 crew members to die on the planet. Now he’s training new Astronauts for a trip of a lifetime, a manned Exploration of our Solar System. A love interest is revealed when one of the trainees turns out to be a woman he met at a bar. Now their In Space together along with a Sexy Russian woman who swoons over our Heroes Sexual Prowess, Cue Drama!

Defying Gravity shows a lot of promise, but currently lacks a distinction. I think it will get better as the series progresses and visits to exciting locations around the solar System. For now I’ll just have to get my fix watching the awesome space ship, that looks straight out of the movie Sunshine.

The show is also attempting to bring in more of a rounded audience appealing to a larger female base. You heard me… Girls! A plus for all you SciFi geeks out there (now you’ll have something to talk about on that first date ^^). This is a must See if you enjoyed BattleStar Galactica or Lost

You can Watch Defying Gravity here

The last few years have given rise to a whole new industry, Aimed at Outer Space!  We’ve had some amazing developments in the industry and in the next decade it will only heat up more.  We will have a presence in outer space but it wont be thanks to any one government.  The following is a list of companies that either have proven themselves as a great private space enterprise or show great potential for future outer space Development.

9) Armadillo Aerospace
While this company was a favorite at previous X Prize competitions, they’ve since gone into obscurity. Armadillo Aerospace continues to make the list because it does have very promising LEO capabilities and could still offer a winged answer to space exploration rather than the usual rockets of the day.

8 ) Space Adventures
Space Adventures is responsible for putting the first tourist into space. In 2001 Denis Tito became the first Space Tourist. Space Adventures brokered the launch on a Russian Soyuz Rocket. They currently has plans for returning to the moon and putting even more tourists into space.

7) TeamFredNet
Team Frednet is the most popular team competing in Googles Lunar X prize. While not considered a private company its an open source answer to the space problem. Team Frednets philosophy is the belief that a million peoples input is much better than a few, therefore they use the open source model to come up with great ideas and propel humans into space.

6) Bigelow Aerospace
Bigelow Aerospace is another proven space company, they currently operate Genesis. Genesis is currently orbiting the world. It is part of their plan to produce inflatable habitats, whether on the moon or orbiting earth. Although Bigelow Aerospace doesn’t offer incredible profits, its backed by the real estate giant Robert Bigelow. The Success of Genesis hopes to propel orbiting hotels as a viable commercial enterprise.

5) Xcor Aerospace
Xcor the 2nd company to ever receive a reusable Launch Vehicle mission license is potentially the greatest competitor for Virgin Galactic, Space Adventures and Armadillo Aerospace. Their Lynx model proves to be a major contender for a piece of the tourist pie.

4) Astrobotic
A competitor in Google’s Lunar X Prize challenge, Astrobotic is also a leader in terrestrial unmanned robotic missions to remote locations around the world. They now plan to extend their operations to the moon. Astrobotic has a great business plan for exploration of the moon. With the sale of their survey information Astrobotic proves to be a formidable company in future space exploration. Plus the gotz robots! need I say more!

3) Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites is one of the most innovative aerospace companies in existence. Its founder Burt Rutan is the creator of SpaceShip One, the only non governmental spacecraft to reach earth orbit.

2) Virgin Galactic
Yet another division of Richard Branson’s Virgin Brand, Virgin Galactic proves to be innovative and has the funding to back them up. After buying Burt Rutans Spaceship one model Virgin Galactic, is in position to be the worlds first space liner. Offering the  civilian flights to outer space. Virgin Galactic will be able to offer cheap access to LEO ushering in an era thats come to be known to people in the biz…. as NewSpace.

1) SpaceX
Probably the most well known private space company in the industry. Boasting the first fully privately funded rocket launch, SpaceX is the worlds first space trucking company. SpaceX was awarded the contract to supply the international space station after the discontinuation of the space shuttle in 2010. These guys have a working spaceship and are already making money. Just 1 month ago they sent Razaksat into orbit. Its only a matter of time before their RnD has the ability to surpass that of even NASA.

After discussing the Google Lunar Challenge in my last two articles I thought it would be interesting to delve deeper into the commercial development of the moon. The main question is: How do we extend business past the earths sphere of influence to the moon?


To help answer this question I studied the Age of Discovery. The Age of Discovery was all about searching for trading partners, but what it turned into was colonization and searching for valuable materials. Gold fueled the Age of Discovery and was incredibly profitable, but there was a huge upfront cost. For example Columbus’s discovery of the New World was a complete bust in terms of profits, but that initial investment fueled further investment that created a huge profitable gold mining industry. While its impossible for the moon to contain gold, it can harbor a more valuable resource.

In the 21st century profits drive expansion, so we need to find profit in returning to the moon. For example the Lunar Challenge provides companies with a way of earning profit. The companies participating currently utilize the business model of exploration and sale of valuable lunar information. The presence of PGM’s (Platinum Group metals) has long been speculated on the moon but a discovery made by one of the Lunar Challenge companies may act as a catalyst for moon development and cause an explosion of space commerce.

The platinum found on the moon would be a result of impacting meteors. It has also been speculated that because of the moons gravity and its lack of atmosphere, the moon could harbor a significant source of PGM’s(http://www.thespacereview.com/article/205/1).The initial upfront cost of developing moon mining operations would be huge, but the rewards would be great, not only for the mined resources but also for space travel and the development of space commerce.

The moon is already an abundant source of rocket fuel. The rocket fuel could be made on the moon and shipped to gas stations in LEO(low earth orbit), cutting the amount of fuel carried by ships in half, because it takes so much energy to lift the remaining fuel past GEO(greater earth orbit). Sales of the Rocket fuel would push space travel even farther bringing us closer to presence on mars, which is of course NASA’s ultimate goal.

Space commerce today exists in the form of satellite communications and the newly blossoming space tourism. Hopefully by the time space tourism is developing we can have a lunar base and gas station developed in order send tourists to the moon resulting in even greater profits and a bustling space community.