This week Zero Point Frontiers Corp. delivered its report analyzing the different approaches that might be used to send people from nations around the world on commercial trips to the Moon. Working with the Golden Spike Company and its various aerospace partner companies, Zero Point Frontiers used the software it developed for NASA to help NASA Johnson Space Center design space missions.

"This was a great test case for us," said Zero Point Frontiers CEO Jason Hundley. "Golden Spike gave us an opportunity to make apples-to-apples comparisons of multiple commercial space systems. The good news was that we identified several combinations of vehicles that will support Golden Spike's mission. They were all using several different types of scenarios, rocket stages, crew vehicles, and lunar landers, which made the work challenging."

The software, called the Beyond LEO (Low-Earth Orbit) Architecture Sizing Tool or BLAST, estimates the size and performance of in-space vehicles based on the number of people aboard, the destination, and the number of maneuvers each piece of the mission must perform. Using this tool, NASA engineers can design lunar, Mars, or other missions in one afternoon as opposed to the current 1-3 months it normally takes.

"Zero Point's architecture analyses have been extremely useful, giving us further confidence in the feasibility of our technical approach and business model," says Golden Spike's CEO Dr. S. Alan Stern.

With a suite of preliminary engineering studies complete, after more detailed studies are completed later this year and next, Golden Spike plans issue a request for proposal to select launch and space vehicle providers. Revenue expeditions could be flying by the end of the decade.

Golden Spike continues to gain attention regarding its $1.5-billion-dollar expeditions to the Moon. Humans first explored the Moon on Apollo 11, 44 years ago this past weekend on July 20, 1969.