One giant leap for Manx kind

Manx-based space firm Excalibur Almaz has been unveiling a strategy that could eventually see it supply mines on the moon.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Art Dula, told the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference in Washington about Excalibur Almaz’s plans for lunar and deep space missions

The company’s aim is to set up an affordable commercial space program using what it calls its high degree of technical readiness.

It says it’s already managed nine successful Reusable Return Vehicle Capsule flights, reentries and soft landings – one of its spacecraft has already been tested in orbit attached to a Salyut Space Station for 175 days.

Mr Dula told the conference his aim is to set up the infrastructure needed for commercial activities in space which include mining asteroids and the moon, research and exploration.

In particular, the company will concentrate on passenger, crew and cargo transportation, microgravity research, and geological evaluations and mapping of other planets.

Mr Dula says other services could include charter missions, advertising and sponsorship opportunities, entertainment and astronaut training.

The firm’s reusable spacecraft would eventually provide a path to the stars, as plans include an orbit which would see spacecraft fly by the Moon every two weeks.