Cost Is Estimated To Be Around $5 Billion

The Open Lunar Foundation has revealed plans for a moon village after spending some five years developing the plan mostly in secret.

GeekWire relays a report from Bloomberg which says that venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson posted a message on Twitter last week indicating that the establishment of the settlement would cost around $5 billion. "At $5B, it’s not only achievable within current NASA budgets, it offers the tantalizing possibility that a single passionate individual could fund the entire program as their legacy!” Jurvetson Tweeted.

The Open Lunar Foundation is comprised of a group of tech executives and engineers who hope to make the vision a reality. Many of the foundation's members have former ties to NASA, according to Bloomberg.

Chelsea Robinson, the chief of operations and staff for Open Lunar told Bloomberg that the group's "highest ambition is catalyzing and enabling a peaceful and cooperative lunar settlement. At this time when there are so many commercial and government actors advancing their efforts on the moon, we are excited to demonstrate a civic approach to participation.”

The group has spend the last 18 months meeting in private to lay out the type of early missions that would make the most sense.

The strategy of the foundation is to borrow from existing open-source technology to move the project forward. They also have plans to share data and hardware designs.

Robinson said that the goal of the Open Lunar Foundation is to "take the best of what humanity has to offer and put our best foot forward, and take our first self-sufficient step off Earth.”

The plan shares a lot of commonalities with ESA's "Moon Village" concept, according to CNet.

The Open Lunar Foundation currently has raised about $5 million, according to Bloomberg.

(ESA image)

FMI: Source report
Source report