This breakthrough USA policy decision provides authorization to Moon Express for a maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the Moon’s surface, beginning a new era of ongoing commercial lunar exploration and discovery, unlocking the enormous potential of the Moon’s valuable resources. If the mission tastes success, it would open the way for other companies to carry moon exploration missions.
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In fact, earth’s natural satellite could also act as a great stopover during interplanetary travel. What would you say if you find out that travelling to the moon and back will be possible?
The space firm aims to launch the lunar flight plan sometime in late 2017, most probably out of New Zealand, with the help of a rocket that has yet to fly. The company is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, and must land its rover on the moon by December 31, 2017, to win.
The rover will be unveiled by the company in September.
“In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals, and Moon rocks back to Earth”.
“We look at the moon as our eighth continent”, said Moon Express co-founder Naveen Jain in a statement. The $20 million prize will go to the first private firm to get a lander to the moon that can then move a bit.
The moon has long stood as a symbol of life’s fragility on Earth; the barren landscape glowing in the night sky holds a place in the majority of cultures stretching back to the dawn of humanity.
According to a report in Techno Buffalo by Brandon Russell, “Moon Express, a startup based in the US, has been granted permission by the government to travel beyond Earth’s orbit”.
Moon Express, co-founded by Naveen Jain, was last week granted a license by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch a spacecraft and land on moon in 2017, becoming the first private company to get such an approval. “If successful, Moon Express could pave the way for future missions for other companies to explore the moon, which scientists are hoping to mine for its vast resources”. In this case, Moon Express ran its mission parameters through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval, so the federal government could ensure the project adheres to the worldwide Outer Space Treaty, which governs what nations can do in space.
Previously, only governments have flown into outer space. So humanity needs to think about other options too and it seems that the experts of the Moon Express company had already thought of that. No human has stepped on the moon since 1972.
One Florida company’s interest in real estate is out of this world.
So when we land on the moon, not only will we be the first company ever to do so, we will become the fourth superpower.
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Moreover, they premiere yet another thing.
