MOON TV: TransOrbital has won approval from the FedGov for the first commercial flight to the Moon. It is to take place in 9-12 months, using their "TrailBlazer" orbiter bus lofted on a Russian launcher.

Judging from their site, they are taking an entertainment-first, science-second business approach. The primary products are to be imagery, in the form of still pictures, video, and a high-resolution lunar surface atlas, and carry-along secondary payloads (a time-capsule and personal mementos). Several missions are in the works, with plans for lunar landers and rovers to follow the initial orbital mission(s).

Looks promising. Hopefully they can pull it off. On the one hand, I can see the initial missions at least getting a lot of public attention, in the same way that Pathfinder created such a stir of interest several years ago. And building up in steps is good showmanship: each successive mission brings something new and more ambitious than before, maintaining that public interest (and thus the returns from advertising, sales, tie-ins, etc.). On the other hand, I see the public interest side as being of limited duration. They might be able to sustain interest with visits to special attractions like Tycho or any of the various landers, LEM bases, or even crashed ascent stages and S-IVbs (which obviously have never been seen). But even with clever showmanship, the public will become bored of the product eventually.

Of course, by then, well...maybe they'll be able to send their probes to Mars and start the cycle all over again...

(link via Mark Whittington)