The Laughing Wolf

Return To The Moon

The Return to the Moon conference is taking place, and I do wish I was there. Next best thing, however, is that Michael Mealling is there and Rand Simburg is LiveBlogging the event. Rand’s posts really, really, make me wish I was there.

This conference was the first one I went to where real, and realistic, business plans were floated and it impressed me. Up until that time, most plans I heard focused on elements of technology and were heavily dependent upon a technological deus ex machina to work. For example, a certain piece of technology would allow extraction of ores and material from asteroids for use in space structures and back on Earth. This technology was proceeding apace but needed funding to reach fruition. If the money were made available, the technology could be fully developed and the good fairy what sits in the sky would wave its magic wand and all the developments and infrastructure to use it and make money off of it would magically appear fully mature and ready for use.

Mr. Gump (LunaCorp) and others actually presented plans that had realistic costs and schedules, amortizations, how they would return the investment, and how they would make a profit. In short, everything a real business plan should include and no good fairy.

The reports Rand has posted are well worth reading, and my thanks to him for this outstanding service. I do wish I was there instead of packing…

LW