With all the difficulties with NASA and spaceflight, will private enterprise put the next men on the moon?

When Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites took the X-Prize for reaching space in a privately funded and launched vehicle, they appeared to put NASA on notice that private enterprise may very well have the better solution to space travel. Now there is another prize similar to the X-Prize to challenge private citizens to develop alternative plans for reaching the moon. With all the difficulties NASA has had over the past decade with funding issues, a looming deficit, and constant congressional debates over the worth of an ongoing space program, is it possible that private enterprise will be the next ones to develop a vehicle, launch it to the moon, and land man on the moon again? More important still, is it possible commercial development of the moon wil move beyond discussion in science fiction books to a reality we will actually see?

Spaceship One is a very long way from being a viable spacecraft capable of transporting any sort of payload into orbit, let alone the Moon. That being said, it shows what people in the private sector can be capable of. In the future, I think private enterprise will have a huge part of space travel/exploration, with government's involvement in that being limited to oversight and regulation (like the FAA does for air travel).

I think so.

Neither the moon nor other space bodies can be exploited until the energy "problem" is solved. The problem? It takes too much energy to leave earth's gravity, accelerate, de-celerate, and land on an outer space body.
I see the only solution to be a lightweight fusion-device source of energy

It's my belief that private companies will flock to the moon once technology progresses. There is something there called helium 3 that will make engery companies want to mine it. NASA will play a role in getting man back to the moon but will turn over more and more of projects over to private companies for them to build. An example of this is the current space shuttle. NASA manages and funds the program but contractors (boeing and lockheed) repair and maintain the shuttle fleet.

Yep... and I bet MacDonalds will be right in there with their first Float-Thru

there are actually private institutions that offer to launch you into outer space for a very very incredulous fee. i don't remember the actual site, but i believe that http://ask.yahoo.com has an article regarding this question.

They wouldn't bother. Business is about profit. Only the government comes out ahead by WASTING MONEY.

Put people on the moon again? For what purpose?
Let the Chinese waste some of their budget surplus on a man on the moon project. Robots can do it faster, cheeper, better.

Actually, there is supposed to be a mission to the Moon that is planned for 2025 by the Chinese. I am not sure they are going to do it but so far without much competition private industry does not currently have that amount of capital to complete such an endeavour. That is changing, but slowly. If the United States government would become less strict in its monopoly laws we could probably send someone to the Moon within fifteen years or so. Brian

Private enterprise is not as restricted by political wants and needs as NASA is. They do not prevent their creative teams from thinking outside of current standards. It is very likely that the next moon journey will be funded by private enterprise. Then commercial development of the moon will not be far behind. Remember supersonic flight was not believed possible less than a seventy-five years ago (its being commercially banned notwithstanding).

china

will put the next man on the moon

not the retards at nasa

yes