LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The moon is within the grasp of several private companies.

LunaCorp is in negotiation with additional corporate sponsors, networks and internet portals, said James Dunstan, a lawyer for Garvey, Schubert & Baker in Washington, D.C. He is also a founding director of LunaCorp.

Dunstan said the recent announcement of LunaCorp support by RadioShack sparked a 30-percent rise in the electronic company's stock. "It was the single largest event that RadioShack has had all year. The publicity was valued at $1.5 billion," he told SPACE.com while attending the second annual Lunar Development Conference, held in Las Vegas July 20-21.

The Robotics Institute will create a machine that can operate in the frigid darkness of a crater shadow that hasn't seen the sun in 2 billion years.

"With MirCorp and LunaCorp, it's not 'get into their wake.' It's more like 'put on the water skis.' Because I think the powerboat is really going to power up now. I think we're going to see the same type of revolution and innovation that we're seeing on the internet," Dunstan said.

James Benson, chairman of SpaceDev in Poway, California, is also heading for the moon.

As one of its commercial space projects, SpaceDev engineers are working with the Boeing company to blueprint a lunar orbiter.

SpaceDev's lunar craft would carry out Star Wars-like maneuvers around the moon, Benson said. It would execute low-altitude flyovers of lunar territory, with the orbiter perhaps deploying a secondary satellite. This smaller craft would show the main lunar vehicle as the mission proceeds.

SpaceDev's lunar-orbiter mission would give internet viewers a spectacular ringside seat over the moon, Benson said.

The goal of the project is to turn $50 million into $2 billion within three years. To do so, the project will rely on the internet's projected customer base of 400 million users by 2002, Benson said.

 Moonward in 2001

TransOrbital, Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia is another for-profit space venture headed for the moon.

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The firm's TrailBlazer Spacecraft is projected to be the first commercial spaceflight to the moon, said Gregory Nemitz, vice president for TransOrbital. It is to be lofted moonward in mid 2001.

TrailBlazer is to crank out high-definition television from lunar orbit for use as internet content and other commercial products. While circling the moon, TransOrbital's probe is to map the entire lunar surface for universities and planetary scientists.

The lunar-video orbiter can tote its own business card -- lots of them. For $2,500, a person's business card can be safely tucked away aboard TrailBlazer. As the spacecraft ends it mission, it will be targeted to crash into the moon, carrying the cargo of business cards down to the lunar surface.

Burials at the moon are being offered by Celestis, Inc.

The "going rate" is $12,500.

Celestis has begun taking reservations to put cremated remains in lunar orbit or on the surface, said Charles Chafer, president of the group's Encounter 2001 program. This lunar service is slated to begin in two years time, Chafer said.

Already, Celestis has started the one-of-a-kind memorial service.

NASA's Lunar Prospector satellite to the moon was launched in January 1998. Aboard that probe, a Celestis flight capsule carried a symbolic portion of the cremated remains of the late space geologist, Eugene Shoemaker.

Those ashes are now on the moon's surface, placed there when Lunar Prospector nose-dived into the lunar south pole in 1999.

"Shoemaker was a renowned astronomer and geologist. He is the first person memorialized on the moon," Chafer said.

Since 1997, Celestis has been placing the cremated remains of individuals into Earth orbit. "We've got 100 people orbiting the Earth. That's more than any other country does," he told those attending the Lunar Development Conference.