A private company known as Moon Express wants to mine the moon and explore its resources, collecting them and bringing them back to Earth. This might be a massive leap in the newly developed commercial cosmos race regarding the moon. On January 13, the US-based company has announced that it managed to raise all the necessary funds for landing its first craft on the surface of the moon.
- Specialists from the Moon Express company are determined to win Google’s Lunar X Prize.
- They have gathered funds and they are bound to accomplish the goal set by Google.
- If the mission will be successful, they will receive a $20 million payday prize.
The Moon Express is currently competing with many other companies for Google’s Lunar X Prize which set as a goal the opening of new paths to Earth’s satellite. When other ideas such as the commercial exploitation of celestial objects and the moon are being close to materializing, the talk about legal ramifications still raises concerns.
Google developed a project which is prone to offer $20 million paydays to any team determined to complete three assignments. The first one is to land a rover on the surface of our satellite. The second request would be to drive that rover about five hundred meters and then send accurate footage back to Terra.
The second best will receive $5 million. The toughest part is that the winning team is supposed to finish the mission until the end of this year using only their private funds. Moon Express hopes to attain the goal, regarding its history. Back in August, the company became the first one to obtain permission to commence commercial activity beyond our planet’s orbit.
Bob Richards, the chief executive, and co-founder, argued that after they managed to raise $20 million in “Series B” funding, the company has all the necessary resources to set off for the moon. Now that they do not need to worry about the financial and legal obstacles, they need to start working to accomplish the mission. Richards’ company has already obtained a contract with Rocket Lab, the US Aerospace Corporation, planning to perform launching tests this year.
Nevertheless, the ambitions of the company go beyond winning the prize from Google. If they manage to accomplish the mission following their plan, then they hope also to bring home commercial payloads besides the footage required by Google’s contest. The MX-1 spaceship is bound to land on the surface of the moon, exploring and exploiting it.
Image courtesy of: wikipedia
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