Getting There

Abstract

This is in many ways the most obvious first step to answering the question about who will be selling what to whom on the Moon. There will be the commercial business of someone paying someone else for the means of getting there in the first place. And for repeat trips for both people and goods. The category in the market sector descriptions (Fig. 6.1) of the LCP is sector 1—Transportation to/from the Moon, Launch Providers, and Lunar Landers. We are considering both the means of getting to lunar orbit, and from there to the lunar surface. We are considering both deliveries of cargos and of humans (and eventually some animals—eggs for breakfast, anyone?). And, of course, this is a two-way street. Sometimes, humans and cargos will be returning from the Moon back to Earth. Or simply from the lunar surface to lunar orbit. A component of the Artemis program is a Lunar Gateway Space Station in lunar orbit (Lunar Gateway, 2023). This market sector 1, therefore, is probably the best understood of the 11 market segments at this stage.