Take me to the moon? Show me the colour of your money first, darling.
01/10/1999 . Source: Jessica Martin 

News comes to us of the colourful activities of the Lunar Resources Company, a company which has resolved to both advance and engage in space flight as a commercial enterprise.

Setting their sights high, these guys are aiming to establish and operate a permanent manned lunar base, and in their own words: "to transact any and all lawful business - on Earth, in outer space, and on other celestial bodies - for which corporations may be incorporated under the Texas Business Corporation Act."

We can only hope that the definition of unlawful activity in Texas soon includes that terrible barn dancing they subjected our journalists too last time we were in the lone-star State, re-runs of Dallas on TV, and the use of the electric chair.

We wouldn't want any tourist astronauts subject to such crimes on the moon, no sir.

See the lunar tourist people at their site at http://www.tlrc.com/ Or drop them a line at tlrc@tlrc.com and tell them the Crowsnest sent you.

Don't forget to send us a postcard back with a vial of moon dust when you get to the Sea of Tranquility.

As an aside, there's a similar space tourism company at http://www.spacevoyages.com/ who can be contacted at zsv@spacevoyages.com if you want to maximise your chances to get into orbit early next century.