Our Mission: Educate. Inspire. Entertain.
About Us
Pale Blue Dot Ventures (PBDV) is focused on finding commercially attractive space-related opportunities. The Pale Blue Dot was a picture of Earth taken in February 1990 by the Voyager 1 space probe at a distance of 3.7 billion miles, as it left our solar system for the last time. The picture was suggested by astronomer and author Carl Sagan. As we first see our “Pale Blue Dot”, Sagan explains Earth’s relative position in the vastness of space in a poignant video which can be found on the link below. It is well worth viewing to appreciate a profoundly new context for our existence on Earth.
CARL SAGAN’S PALE BLUE DOT
Background
Energized by the popular success of private space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, the public has shown a renewed fascination with space exploration. Global box office receipts from “space reality” films like The Martian, Gravity, Arrival and Interstellar exceeded $2 billion, while “space fantasy” including well-known titles like The Expanse, Mars, Avatar and Star Wars added another $8.4 billion. We have a singular destination entertainment opportunity that can profitably engage this proven audience.
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 18-month exclusive period of negotiation with the City of Lompoc, California (recently extended to 22 months by the City Council in a 5-0 vote due to COVID-19) to complete a concept and feasibility program for an educational and entertainment venue. The California Space Academy would be located on 82+ acres of land on Pacific Coast Highway, just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean and adjacent to Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB). Lompoc, located on California’s Central Coast, is providing this unique land parcel with a direct view into VAFB’s Southern Space Launch Complexes at what we think is an extremely favorable cost to a qualified project. VAFB 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 80+ 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, The California Space Academy (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, The California Space Academy 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
California Space Academy (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 of 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 collective home world and to foster future innovation for how we will exist beyond it. Situated throughout the campus and atop it many structures we envision solar and wind energy harvesting devices to provide clean power for CalSpace operations.
Location of Proposed Site
