Sports on the Moon
Bright new business in the Moonbase. Imagine a service, which can be only provided on the moon. That was one of the challenges at the Act in Space hackathon, and it was quite impressive to come up with ideas so conceptual and challenging for humanity itself. Our team dusted off one of the most enjoyable and no-brainer topics — Space Sports.
Keep feet on the ground… on the Moon
Well, first thing first. When you want to come up with some ideas about building a business on the moon, you have to settle a few things first.
- You have to believe that there actually WILL BE a permanent settlement on the moon.
- You can send people there.
It wouldn’t be possible to crack these problems in 24 hours, so we passed these problems to someone else and focused on the joyful part. In the bright, near future, we count on Falcon Heavy, BFR, and Ariane rockets as being a few of the shipping methods you will have available when needed.
There is also one pretty moon base under construction, as you can see this excellent visualization from ESA. So we have it covered.
ESA has a beautiful vision of multi-dome lunar base which will be 3D printed with local materials. Once assembled, it will protect these villagers against space radiation and micrometeoroids. Besides, it provides excellent scientific capabilities and comfort known as ISSS (International Space Station Standart). You can ask many astronauts how comfy it is.
So what business do we have there?
We proposed the Space Sports Organisation. This organization would design and organize various Space Sports. Why? Because something hazardous and unpredictable has a chance to be extremely popular and engage a broad audience.
Coming up with an original name is extremely difficult. Our first proposal — Association of Space Sport (ASS) — wasn’t suitable for this kind of project, so we voted for something more conservative.
It’s SSO for now! If you have a better idea, share it with us, but do not book the domain!
Ordinary people, living their dreams and everyday lives on this planet are driven by desire. Each day, thousands are seeking new, emotional experiences, pleasure, excitement, entertainment. That’s why we count on extreme popularity somewhere between Tour de France, Olympic games, and F1.
Olympic games consist of these primary revenue streams:
- Broadcasting rights.
- International and domestic sponsorships.
- Licensing.
- Ticket sales.
We are talking about $8 billion in revenue in the period 2009–2012 (Source: IOC, Olympic Marketing File, 201) Space sports could actually challenge these numbers. Can you imagine how all this money and publicity could boost space exploration programs?
The advertising on the rover will be augmented so it can be changed after each season.
And speaking of costs, you should read this fantastic article from Elizabeth Howel — Moon Base Would Be Cheap with Help from Private Industry. Estimate cost of sending a human to the moon could be about tens of billions of dollars. Building a permanent base would cost at least $40 billion. These are really rough numbers, though the final bill will be undoubtedly huge. Nevertheless, let’s compare it to other significant events.
Winter Olympics games in Sochi ended with a final budget $51+, summer Olympics in Beijing 2008 with a bill over $45 billion.
Why does science need such an aggressive promotion?
Because it lacks public interest on a global scale. With public interest, you have supports of governments and that usually means even more money. Space research and colonization of the Moon or Mars can not only be a domain of scientists.
Take SpaceX as an example. This company made space exploration hot, and their Roadster event was an excellent marketing success. People need to know that the universe is something they can achieve or live through their heroes. The moon should be somehow available to ordinary people, like a playground, except in orbit, where we can test technologies that will help us colonize Mars and the solar system.
Minimal Viable Product of Space Sports
The path we need to take to actually ride on the moon is long. Where we can start now is a simulation of these games and their conversion to e-sports. Creating the environment of our Moon in game engines is not something new.
With the Lunar Rover Race as an example, we could train with these realistic games and prepare a whole generation of moon-gamers, while the moonbase is still being constructed. And once it’s ready, the best players around the world would control the real Lunar Rovers remotely.
Just a quick summary. While a moonbase is under construction, you will have hundreds of thousands of people playing or watching moon e-sports. Once ready, the best players can control robotic rovers, and when the settlement is fully operational, crews of astronauts and scientists will be challenging each other in various sports.
I hope you have enjoyed this article as much as we enjoyed the hackathon. If you are inspired and would like to keep in touch with us, let’s establish the Space Sports Organization as a platform for international discussion.
Perhaps it sounds like a joke to you, but that’s really ok. Let’s entertain ourselves and share our dreams anyway. In years to come, there will be much more unrealistic and sci-fi things going on, so where’s the harm?
It’s our belief that connecting all people who share enthusiasm for creation on the moon is the first step to make these sports happen. I would like to see some serious economic and technical analysis on an academic level. Anyone interested in writing a thesis and dissertation on this topic?
Liked our article? Write us your crazy ideas or real concepts how to best use moon.
Team: David, Longyi, Marek
