Conveniently stationed in Cape Canaveral, Florida, MoonEx has already passed the XPRIZE’s milestones of developing landing and imagining technology, earning the firm a total of $1.25 million in prize winnings.
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Until now it was only under the control of the government.
A small startup is to become the first private company to receive permission from the US government to land a craft on the moon. The lander, which is yet to be completed, will travel on a rocket developed by start-up Rocket Lab, which to date has not launched any commercial missions.
Moon Express plans to pursue its lunar mission in 2017, making it the first private company to get approval and be a pioneer of commercial space missions beyond the Earth’s orbit.
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The company’s 20lb lander – the MX-1 – is created to hop across the moon’s surface.
Eventually, Moon Express plans to mine for resources on the moon, such as platinum group metals and helium-3, which, according to some could be a safer nuclear fuel and was abundant on the moon, according to the European Space Agency.
The company is one of 16 teams aiming to be the first commercial entity to land on the moon and to net the $20m that comes with the feat, courtesy of Google. If any other equally valuable project will be proposed then the government can issue similar permissions to other companies too.
In a press release announcing the authorization, CEO Bob Richards said, “The recent discovery of water on the Moon is an economic game changer for humanity’s future”. However, there are more significant things which Moon Express intends to do.
The FAA said it received the company’s request for a Payload Review and Determination on the MX-1E spacecraft in April.
The company aims to deploy a suitcase-sized lander on the lunar surface for a two-week mission.
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“To rephrase John F. Kennedy, we choose to go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s profitable”, Moon Express Chairman Naveen Jain told Popular Science.
