But in the long term, Moon Express hopes to explore the moon’s potential as a possible home for humans.
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So far, the company still needs to assemble the lander for its Electron rocket.
Until now it was only under the control of the government.
Joining a new trend of companies who are attempting to prepare for privately-owned space exploration, a Florida company has received approval from the USA federal government to launch into space and head to the moon.
“We are now free to set sail as explorers of Earth’s eight continent, the moon”, MoonExpress CEO Bob Richards said in a statement on the federal approval of the MX-1E spacecraft leaving Earth’s orbit and heading to the moon.
No private space mission has been carried out ever beyond earth’s orbit, this mission will be the first of its kind, and the spacecraft will land on moon in 2017. A private mission to Mars would require much more regulation with which to comply, due to the concerns about contamination that could affect possible Martian life.
If successful, Moon Express would become the fourth entity in history to soft-land on the moon, after the first three which were all superpowers – the US, USSR and China.
Beyond winning the Lunar X prize, however, the company sees this as an opportunity to eventually mine the moon for rare minerals, such as iron ore, water, and Helium-3.
It puts the group a step closer to achieving the £15.2 million Google Lunar X Prize given to the first private company to achieve a moon landing with a movable craft. Once on the Moon, it will capture images of the surface and transmit them back to the Earth. One concern that Moon Express did have to address: guaranteeing they would not disturb Apollo and other historic lunar landing sites.
As space travel becomes more advanced, private companies along with traditional, government-operated agencies will have to work together to improve on parallel platforms.
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Executives said the decision heralded a wide range of new possibilities for commercial space travel.
