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Here's the point: Artemis is not a company.
It's a project -- a goal with a means of accomplishing that goal -- named after the Greek goddess of the moon. The Artemis Project is the only venture we've seen, private or government, for-profit or non, that will get anyone but few civil servants living and working in space within our lifetimes.
It will take the combined efforts of many commercial companies and many nonprofit organizations all over the world to make this program work. We're trying to create an environment where anyone who wants to can participate, as a volunteer, as an entrepreneur, or both. Anyone who wants to meet the quality standards of the program is welcome to join the project, license use of the trademark, and to earn some really nice profits while contributing to the future of every human being on Earth.
The Artemis Project must emphasize financial success as a private enterprise because that is the only way we will have sustained growth in space. A program supported only by tax money and operated in response to the winds of politics will not endure. That means people have to earn a profit from it, and they have to continue to earn profits as far into the future as we can foresee.
That's why we started The Lunar Resources Company, but there's too much emphasis on that one company in the way we've been presenting the project. We're working on fixing that. LRC isn't planning to build the spaceships itself; we're looking to aerospace companies with a long track record to do that. The robots will come from companies and organizations who have demonstrated they know what they're doing, as will the launchers and propulsion stages. And, most of all, those entertainment products will come from folks who know what they're doing in a host of different industries.
A few people have asked why we aren't concentrating on schmoozing with aerospace companies. It's because we're not ready for that stage of the project yet. That part of the feasibility study was easy: we asked a few key companies if they'd do it, if we can come up with the money, and if they thought our cost estimates were good. Everyone said yes, they want to do this, and everyone also said our cost estimates were a little high. So we're confident that we have competent spaceship builders who can do the job, will do the job, and will get it done under budget. (Launch to LEO is still a big question mark. It'll cost less than the $800 million we're showing, but how much less?)
Having done that, the next step is to demonstrate the feasibility of the income side of the project. This will take lots more work because we have to (a) build a market, (b) find businesses and organizations who want to participate, and (c) do all this in a manner that will cause a portion of the revenues to go into the spaceship fund. To do that, we have to get those business plans together in lots of industries.
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