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Government vs Commercial

Two Ways to the Moon

The traditional government-led approach has been the only path for 50 years. There's another way now.

The Traditional Way

Government-Led Program

The Luna One Way

Commercial Consortium

Timeline to Permanent Presence
10+ Years
Artemis projects first continuous presence no earlier than the early 2030s, with industrial-scale operations a decade later.
1 Year
From first launch to permanently crewed industrial outpost. 18 flights in 12 months using existing hardware.
Program Cost
$50B+
SLS + Orion + Gateway + HLS + ground systems. Constellation was cancelled at $9B spent with nothing to show. Artemis trending higher.
$4-5B
Total architecture including 20% contingency. Comparable to a single large commercial real estate development.
Funding Source
Taxpayer
Subject to congressional budget cycles, continuing resolutions, administration changes, and political priorities.
Private Capital
Risk-sharing consortium funded by private investment. No government prime. No cost-plus contracts. Revenue-driven.
Contract Model
Cost-Plus
Contractors paid for time and materials with guaranteed profit margins. No incentive to reduce cost or accelerate schedule.
Risk-Sharing
Consortium members share risk and upside. Fixed-price milestones. Everyone is incentivized to deliver on time.
Launch Vehicle
SLS
$2.2B per launch. One flight per year at best. Expendable. No commercial reuse path.
Starship
~$100M per flight. Reusable. Demonstrated monthly-to-bi-monthly cadence. Dual-site launch capability by late 2026.
Mass to Lunar Surface (Year 1)
~30 Tons
Artemis III delivers crew + limited science payload. Multi-mission architecture required for any permanent infrastructure.
1,000+ Tons
18 Starship flights delivering complete industrial infrastructure: reactors, habitat, ISRU, robotics, comms, and consumables.
Power System
Solar + Battery
Dependent on location. 354-hour lunar night requires massive battery storage. Limits industrial operations and site selection.
80 kWe Nuclear
Two KRUSTY-derived fission reactors. Continuous power day and night. Enables 24/7 robotic operations and industrial-scale ISRU.
Site Selection
South Pole
Constrained to permanently shadowed regions for ice. Extreme thermal environment. Complex lighting. Political sensitivity.
Equatorial
Simpler terrain. Ilmenite-rich regolith for ISRU. Avoids polar politics and uncertain ice deposits. Nuclear power eliminates sun dependency.
Resource Utilization
Eventual
ISRU is a long-term goal. Demonstration experiments planned. No production-scale architecture in current Artemis baseline.
80 kg O₂ / Day
Dual-redundant MRE + MSE plants from day one. Production-scale oxygen for life support, propellant, and sale. Alloy by-products for construction.
Revenue Model
None
Pure expenditure. No commercial revenue structure. Returns measured in science and prestige, not dollars.
$500M+ / Year
Oxygen at $1M/kg. Tenant leases at $8-12M/slot. Revenue by 2028. The outpost pays for itself.
Operations Model
Sortie Missions
Short visits. Crew arrives, does science, leaves. No permanent infrastructure buildup between missions.
Industrial Park
Multi-tenant facility. Day-staffed initially, then 24/7. Robotics run through the lunar night. Tenants lease space for manufacturing and research.
Crew Approach
2-4 Crew
Short-duration stays. Massive EVA requirements. Crew does everything from science to maintenance to construction.
4-8 Crew + Robots
Crew focuses on high-value tasks. Robotics handle construction, shielding, excavation, and night operations. Minimizes EVA needs.
Risk Philosophy
Minimize Risk
Conservative margins. Multi-year certification. Every risk mitigated before proceeding. Schedule slips are accepted as the cost of safety.
Manage Risk
Accept higher near-term risk for dramatically reduced program duration. Redundancy over conservatism. Closer to early commercial spaceflight than government programs.
Hardware Readiness
Custom-Built
Bespoke systems developed over decades. SLS derived from 1970s Shuttle hardware. New programs start at TRL 1-3.
TRL 5-9
Only existing or near-flight-ready commercial systems. Starship, Sierra LIFE, KRUSTY, GITAI, Nokia LTE. Nothing needs to be invented.

Same Moon.
Different Approach.

Luna One uses only hardware that exists today to build what government programs have been planning for decades. The architecture is published. The consortium is forming. The question isn't whether this is possible. It's who's going to be part of it.

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