A Consortium for Moon and Mars?

[Spacebeliever]

How would the will for all space enthusiast and professionals be consolidated with a goal? What would a consortium have to do to receive government funding? Is it possible to have government funding and research assistance while keeping the consortium's administration in the hands of a non-governmental body of distinguished directors? How could the space believing public get involved and have a hand in helping the Mission?

 

[kelvinzero]

One problem is that space enthusiasts cannot agree on a goal. The moment you actually pick the moon or mars for your first destination you probably lose half your support, and so on.

Another problem is that such a consortium would probably have the same problems as a government. It would be making its money not by completing a goal, but by convincing many non-experts that it could, given money.

This is different from a commercial enterprise where the key person in charge has taken a significant risk with their own fortune and must actually deliver the promised product for it to pay off.

I am fairly enthusiastic about the X-prize approach, though I havent donated any money of my own yet. The main reason is that I have not seen a way to donate just to prizes that interest me.

What I think would work quite well is a tree of x-prizes, taking us all the way from here to sustainable ofworld colonies. The organisation has to build up trust and momentum by continually completing smaller goals, such as in ISRU, rapid prototyping, lunar landers and closed loop life support, before larger ones can be attempted.