much fuel would it take to reach the
moon if we were already in Earth orbit?
The answer that came back was: not
much. I then looked into the idea of
getting sponsors to finance a private
lunar mission; it was feasible but not
self-sustaining. That got me thinking,
in 1992, about how you could design a
self-sustaining lunar mission.”
Stone has proposed to lead a bold
expedition to the moon’s Shackleton
Crater. The intent: to harvest water
on the moon, transport it into
low-Earth orbit and convert it to
liquid-oxygen and liquid-hydrogen
propellants, establishing the first
celestial fueling station and reducing
the cost of interplanetary exploration.
In 2007 Stone formed the Shackleton
Energy Company, through which he
intends to raise $15 billion to fund
this expedition. He hopes to have the
operation under way by 2015 and to
establish sustained, profitable human
industry on the moon.
“
It’s right; we need it; we, as a human
race, need it,” Stone said. “Governments
only tend to fund space exploration when
there is a need to demonstrate technology,
but you can’t think that way if you want
to break down the barriers
for exploration. The
government has done its
part; it has broken the
boundaries for us. It’s just
like the westward expansion: Jefferson
dispatched Lewis and Clark to explore
the West, but it was the public who
established it. It was the Vanderbilts and
the Rockefellers. We are at that point.”
—
Maureen Halsema
www.alertdiver.com
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EXPLORE MORE
Stone Aerospace:
www.stoneaerospace.com
Stone Aerospace Social Media:
www.facebook.com/stoneaerospace
U.S. Deep Caving Team:
www.usdct.org
Stone prepares for the 2003 Sistema Cheve expedition. He will return to the system in 2013 to
continue exploring “J2,” which currently represents the most remote point that human explorers
have reached inside the earth.
COURTESY BILL STONE