Colorado School of Mines Lunar Ventures Competition

Here's another one from Space for All. The Colorado School of Mines is sponsoring a student lunar business plan competition focused on lunar businesses. There is the potential for a large investment for a good enough business plan. Also planned for the winning team are $25,000 and services. Three other teams will get $3000, and all 4 teams will be able to present their plans to space industry and government leaders. The goal of the competition is to foster teams of engineers, scientists, and business people to work together to make viable space businesses. The final round of the competition will be next weekend (ie May 19-21 2007). Here is how the presentations and judging are expected to go.

The experience is intended to be like that of a start up seeking investment funding. The businesses are intended to be near-term ones - perhaps businesses that can start on Earth but also be applicable to the moon.

Since I'm reporting on this competition well after its start, the list of finalist teams and descriptions of their business plans is available. You can see that most if not all of the business plans involve businesses on the Earth that can also be used on the moon. See the Space for All post or Out of the Cradle for a link to a news article on the finalist teams. Here's an article specifically on the finalists from Colorado.