To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 03:11:44 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] to the moon
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

http://www.newscientist.com/news/print.jsp?id=ns99994633

Moon mission will 'talk' to web surfers

The first commercially-funded lunar spacecraft - scheduled to launch
later in 2004 - will be able to communicate with space enthusiasts via
the internet as it travels towards the Moon.
California-based company TransOrbital has signed a deal with US computer
manufacturer Hewlett-Packard to allow internet users to contact its
craft, Trailblazer, as it travels through space.

The 110-kilogram spacecraft will launch from the ex-Soviet cosmodrome in
Baikonur, Kazakhstan. It will spend roughly three months orbiting the
Moon, taking high resolution images and video footage, before
deliberately plunging into the lunar surface.

TransOrbital aims to finance its first mission by selling its lunar
imagery. The company says thousands of people have also signed up to send
items, including business cards and text messages, to the surface of the
Moon.
These will be carried in a 10 kilogram reinforced capsule. Upon the
craft's impact, the capsule should burrow five metres below the Moon's
crust. Sending a business card aboard Trailblazer costs $2500. Other
possessions can be sent for $2500 per gram and engraved text messages for
$17 each.

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