Project Harvest Moon

The mission of Harvest Moon was to use leftover Saturn rockets and lunar modules from the Apollo program's space flights to fly two astronauts to the Moon, where they would set up automated experiments that could be controlled from Earth, collect one to four hundred pounds of lunar rocks, and return to Earth, where the collected material would be divided into tiny fragments and sold to the public.^[2] The cost to investors was estimated by the Wall Street firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette to be $150–$250 million, but income could reach $400 million.^[2] Profits would go to charity.^[3] The mission would be controlled by NASA.^[8] In addition to the acquisition of lunar material, two experiments were proposed. The first, with an eventual Moon colony in mind, was a twenty-foot mylar dome under which plants, insects, and possibly small animals would be observed for their reaction to the two-week-long lunar day. The second experiment would be a lunar observatory which would provide remote-controlled fourteen-day exposures through the negligible lunar atmosphere.^[5][9] The privately funded International Lunar Observatory, to be launched in 2019, is a modern realization of the Harvest Moon proposal.^[10] The advantages of a Moon observatory had been discussed at the beginning of the space age by Willy Ley.^[11]

Suggested by George Van Valkenburg in October 1970,^[12][13] Project Harvest Moon was developed by the New Worlds Company, incorporated by the Committee for the Future in 1970.^[8] After the financial analysis by the brokerage firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the project was publicized in the summer of 1971 and reviewed by independent newspapers and syndicated columnists such as Bob Considine.^{[2][3][5][8][14]} On March 9, 1972, the Project received a hearing by the House Subcommittee on Manned Flight, chaired by Rep. Olin Teague (D-Tex),^[7] a vocal supporter,^[15] who submitted a House Resolution instructing NASA to "reserve a Saturn 5 rocket, a command service module, and a lunar module for possible use by a transnational mission".^[16] On July 18, however, a spokesman from NASA, which had remained lukewarm to the project,^[2] reported that there were no serviceable lunar modules.^[4] Having terminated Harvest Moon, the Committee for the Future moved on to other space proposals.^[4][17]