SEATTLE (Reuters) - Imagine watching live on your computer as an un-piloted spacecraft flies over the poles of the moon to search for frozen water that could one day provide fuel for deep space voyages or even sustain a human lunar colony.
Or picture a live asteroid flyby, or a view from 20 miles (32 kilometers) above Mars's mysterious shifting polar ice caps, beamed directly to your home.
It could happen by the end of 2001, said
Boeing Co. and its new deep-space partner, Spacedev Inc. The pair last week unveiled plans for what would be the first for-profit lunar launch and end NASA's 30-year monopoly on moon missions.
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"You have experiments the scientific community would like to see done that
NASA doesn't care about. Combined with the public zest for space, it could be hugely profitable," said Jim Benson, president of Spacedev, which is based in Poway, California.
Profit is something of a Holy Grail in both outer space and cyberspace -- ever elusive, but potentially so lucrative that thousands of companies have amassed armies of scientists and engineers and financed a feverish crusade in search of it.
Ironically, Boeing and Spacedev see linking the two risky, ultra high-tech industries as the key to
cashing in.
Websites crave compelling content to attract viewers and generate advertising sales, while space needs a showcase for its celestial splendor, which television can't afford to show without commercial interruption.
The keys to mission success are trimming the cost -- to perhaps $35 million from $250 million for comparable NASA projects -- and then signing up enough soft-drink and
fast-food advertisers to cover the costs.
Benson figures to cut costs by using updated designs with flashy and efficient new computer equipment that he says NASA shuns in favor of familiar, but aging systems.
"NASA doesn't know how to do anything this small and inexpensive," Benson said. Spacedev won a small contract to design a low-budget deep space mission for NASA, which Spacedev is using as its template for the project.
As for revenues, the two companies are banking on the intense public interest shown in the 1997
Mars Pathfinder mission, which drew over 500 million hits to NASA websites, and corporations willing to pay for that kind of exposure.
"Commercial websites get paid by the click. The question is: How much would the advertisers be willing to sign up for," said Jane Schnaars, director of strategic planning at Boeing's re-usable space systems division.
The untapped potential of internet ad sales is one factor propelling web company stocks into the stratosphere, even though few web ventures have yet to earn a dime.
The market for space projects has been far less forgiving, pushing several costly programs to the brink of failure.
Start-ups
ICO Global Communications Ltd. and Iridium World Communications Ltd. each filed for bankruptcy in 1999 after funding costly satellite networks that may never deliver the high-speed media services they promised.
Boeing, too, has had trouble making money in space. Its rocket program suffered through a flurry of explosions and misfires last year, ruining billions of dollars worth of costly space hardware.
But the Seattle aerospace giant firmly believes space will ultimately yield big money and it is assembling a world class commercial space business, capped by a $3.75 million buyout of Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite making unit last month.
Boeing is also a key partner in
Sea Launch, an ocean-based commercial launch system, as well as Teledesic LLC, an ''internet in the sky'' venture.
Boeing does contract work on the
Space Shuttle and the 16-nation International Space Station (ISS), has built 40 Global Positioning System satellites and last year won a $5 billion spy satellite contract from the U.S. government.
"We're no longer just waiting for NASA to order hardware and taking our standard fee," Schnaars said.
"Boeing wants to be a leader in commercial space so we thought this would be a good first step."
Launching the project in 2001 would mean finding a customer and financing in a matter of weeks, the companies said.
"For venture capitalists, space may not be mature enough. If there's strong interest, Boeing has potential to fund programs itself where we feel the business case closes," Schnaars said.
It's still a far cry from
Arthur C. Clarke's vision of piloted Jupiter flights in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the project could open up a range of new options for private sector space exploration.
Someday rich Earthlings, perhaps internet billionaires, might pay for a ride to the moon or even just into orbit, but the embryonic Spacedev is taking it one giant leap at a time.
"We're going to examine the moon, land on it, maybe make a property claim just for fun of it," Benson said. "People in space, for profit, is impossible today, but it's inevitable tomorrow. Not necessarily for Spacedev, but for someone."
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