Moon Express is now in competition for the Google Lunar XPrize, which promises to award a $20 million grand prize to the first team to successfully land a privately funded rover on the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back high definition video and images. Once on the Moon, it will capture images of the surface and transmit them back to the Earth.
Advertisement
No one has ever done the same again, but there is hope as the USA just approved another lunar probe that will take another lander to the moon.
“The Moon Express 2017 mission approval is a landmark decision by the USA government and a pathfinder for private sector commercial missions beyond the Earth’s orbit”, Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards said in a statement.
In a press release, co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain said, “In the immediate future, we envision bringing precious resources, metals, and Moon rocks back to Earth”.
“We are now free to set sail as explorers to Earth’s eighth continent, the Moon, seeking new knowledge and resources to expand Earth’s economic sphere for the benefit of all humanity”. The spacecraft has yet to be manufactured or tested, as well as the rocket itself has never been flown, but has clearance from the government to send the spacecraft.
This marks the first time the federal state has granted approval for a private mission beyond Earth.
Yutu touched down on the lunar surface in December 2013 as part of the Chang’e-3 lander mission, making China the third country to reach the moon after Russian Federation and the United States.
Even though this approval is exclusive for Moon-Express it shall be an important regulatory guide for deep-space commercial activity.
To close its contracts, Moon Express routed its payload applications to the FAA, and was pored over by other federal agencies before finally getting the go signal on July 20, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.
Advertisement
The robot will be the size of a suitcase and fly to the planet for a two-week mission. Among the spacecraft’s cargo will be some private objects including cremated human remains.
