Space Base California (CalSpace)
Our Project
When astronauts last left the moon in 1972, it was a dry and barren world with little to offer. 50 years later, our strategic and scientific understanding of the moon and its resource potential has expanded dramatically. NASA plans for a man and a woman to launch a sustainable presence on the Moon by 2024, thereafter establishing a deep space gateway to explore Mars and worlds beyond. We want to tell this epochal story.
Pale Blue Dot Ventures (PBDV) believes it has an exceptional opportunity to convey the science and story for the future of space exploration. In mid-July 2019, PBDV agreed to an exclusive period of negotiation with the City of Lompoc, California (extended several times by the City Council, primarily due to COVID-19) to complete a concept and feasibility program for an educational and entertainment venue. Space Base California would be located on 82+ acres of land on Pacific Coast Highway, just 10 miles (16.09 km) from the Pacific Ocean and adjacent to Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). Located on California’s Central Coast, Lompoc is providing this unique land parcel with a direct view into VSFB’s Southern Space Launch Complexes at what we think is an extremely favorable cost for a qualified project. VSFB is the only active space launch facility on the West Coast and is already a key facility within the new U.S. Space Force.
Our founding team has over 40 years of experience in destination design, marketing, finance, and operations. We are in the early stages of designing a venue with premium branding and a global draw. Our future-facing focus is on space exploration and its natural overlap with earth observation. Respectful of past achievements, but certainly not tethered to recounting history, Space Base California (e.g., CalSpace) would be designed to convey the story of mankind’s next great adventure and provide an enduring spark and engagement long after guests have departed.
CalSpace is a completely new kind of destination. It’s not a “theme park”, science center or space camp. Instead, Space Base California will offer an entirely new way to educate, inspire, and entertain. Our target audience includes students, teachers, industry professionals and everyone with the curiosity and passion to join the next generation of space exploration. We have a tremendous opportunity to create a destination where we can advance the science and story of space exploration. We have every intention of building a national treasure.
Steve Franck
Founder & CEO
Pale Blue Dot Ventures, Inc
Design Statement
Space Base California (CalSpace) facilities would be organized as an open-air campus, taking full advantage of the site’s dramatic California canyon topography. CalSpace’s anticipated contemporary architecture would be designed to elicit the feeling of being on a space colony, with a futuristic and modular appearance to the different structures, venues, attractions, walkways, and plazas. All the primary buildings would be organized around a central open courtyard featuring dramatic sculptural elements that clearly indicate CalSpace’s mission to prepare the next generation for the exploration of our solar system and beyond.
Architectural design elements would be expected to incorporate this modular aesthetic into what might be a future Mars colony. Various building components and structures would appear to be pre-fabricated for transport to this remote location within the payload of a spacecraft before being assembled together off world. Bright white paneled surfaces with exoskeletal structural and mechanical systems are anticipated to be expressed on the exterior of the buildings in a manner that would be designed to add mission realism and spark the imagination. Outdoor walkways would be enclosed or protected from coastal winds yet provide easy access to the surrounding environment. Every aspect of planning and design for CalSpace would have sustainability foremost in mind – both to benefit our own continued existence on the collective home world and to foster future innovation for how we will exist beyond it. Situated throughout the campus and atop its many structures, we envision solar and wind energy harvesting devices to provide clean power for CalSpace operations.
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