Adrenaline Junkies Look to the Moon for Great New Fix

Do you want adventure in your vacations? Are you willing to go the extra mile to visit a place you'll never forget? Then Excalibur Almaz has the perfect trip for you: a 500,000 mile, sightseeing round-trip tour of the Moon in a converted Soviet-era Almaz space station. Art Dula, founder and chief executive of the Isle of Man-based company, is ready to sell tickets.

Almaz, which means diamond, was first proposed in October 1964. It promised to advance space-based reconnaissance beyond the capabilities of unmanned satellites. Justification for the Soviet manned platform came in December 1963 when President Johnson announced the cancellation of the Dyna-Soar mini-shuttle in favour of the US Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory;

MOL

was designed to enable the US Air Force to explore the military potential of a man-in-space program.

Unlike MOL, Almaz flew as part of the Salyut program. Nine stations were launched in the 11 years between 1971 and 1982, before the nation turned its efforts to building the Mir space station.

Dula's plan is for a giant Russian Proton rocket to launch the 30 ton space station into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Tourists will follow in one of four reusable return vehicles (RRVs); each will ferry three people at a time to the station. Once aboard, retrofitted thrusters on the Almaz will turn it into a long-distance spaceship. It would take the crew of tourists into lunar orbit before returning to Earth. They would land in the RRVs via parachute.

The bulk of the trip will be controlled by computers while the 90 cubic metres will provide the crew of tourists ample living space as well as shelter from particularly potent bursts of solar radiation. Only one Almaz will fly at a time; the other will be kept in reserve on the ground.

Dula's marketing studies suggest that about 30 Moon tourist seats could be sold between 2015 and 2025. That's enough for one mission a year, and it fits within the hardware's lifetime. The RRVs can be used 15 times and each space station has a service life of 15 years.

But this isn't strict tourism like Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic flights offer. Dula described the trips as “private expeditions” rather than sightseeing tours. “Excalibur Almaz is willing and able to send crewed missions deeper into space than would be possible aboard any other spacecraft in existence today,” he says.

Beyond willingness to send crews, Excalibur Almaz has proven technology as one of its selling points. "There is not a single other vessel owned by a government or the private sector that is suitable for a manned flight to lunar orbit, utilizing proven technologies," Dula says. "The EA fleet has previously flown to space several times and will undertake many more missions. It contains vessels of a design that has spent thousands of hours in space successfully. This is scientific fact, not fiction."

If the bold plan succeeds, it will be a private British company that will carry out the first manned Moon mission since 1972’s Apollo 17. Like Apollo, only those with the right stuff will be eligible to go. In this case, proving physical and mental fitness is only part of the eligibility process. You’ll also need about $156 million for the fare.

Looks like the Moon is a tourist destination reserved for the rich and famous, at least for the first round of Excalibur Almaz flights.

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