Moon Express

Moon Express, or MoonEx, is an American privately held early stage company formed by a group of Silicon Valley and space entrepreneurs, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize, and ultimately mining the Moon for natural resources of economic value.^[1][2]

History

In August 2010,^[3] Naveen Jain,^[4] Barney Pell and Robert D. Richards,^[5] co-founded Moon Express, a Mountain View, California-based company that plans to offer commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long-term goal of mining the Moon for resources,^[6] including elements that are rare on Earth, including niobium, yttrium and dysprosium.^[1][7]

On June 30, 2011, the company held its first successful test flight of a prototype lunar lander system called the Lander Test Vehicle (LTV) that was developed in partnership with NASA.^[5]

On September 11, 2011, Moon Express announced that it had set up a robotics lab for a lunar probe named the "Moon Express Robotics Lab for INnovation" (MERLIN) and hired several engineering students who had successfully competed at the First Robotics Competition.

In mid-2012, Moon Express announced that it will work with International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) to put a shoebox-sized astronomical telescope on the Moon.^[8] Additional details were released in July 2013, including that there would be two telescopes: a 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) radio telescope as well as an optical telescope. The preferred location is 5 kilometers (3.1 mi)-high Malapert crater, with plans to land the mission no earlier than 2018.^[9]

By 2012, MoonEx had 20 employees. In December 2012, MoonEx acquired one of the other Google Lunar X-Prize teams, Rocket City Space Pioneers, from Dynetics for an undisclosed sum. The new agreement makes Tim Pickens, the former lead of the RCSP team, the Chief Propulsion Engineer for MoonEx.^[10]

In September 2013, MoonEx added Paul Spudis as Chief Scientist and Jack Burns as Science Advisory Board Chair.^[11]

In October and November, 2013, Moon Express successfully conducted several free flight tests of its flight software utilizing the NASA Mighty Eagle lander test vehicle, under a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. ^[12]

In December 2013, MoonEx unveiled the MX-1 lunar lander, a toroidal robotic lander that uses high-test hydrogen peroxide as its rocket propellant to support vertical landing on the lunar surface.^[13]

On April 30, 2014 NASA announced that Moon Express Inc. was one of the three companies selected for the Lunar CATALYST initiative.^[14]

The Moon Express "MX-1" spacecraft is designed to be launched as a secondary payload and to fly to the Moon from GEO.^[15]

In December 2014, Moon Express successfully conducted flight tests of its "MTV-1X" lander test vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, becoming the first private company (and GLXP team) to demonstrate a commercial lunar lander. ^[16]

October 2015, Moon Express announced a launch contract with Rocket Lab to launch three Moon Express robotic spacecraft to land on the Moon, with two launches manifested in 2017, utilizing an Electron launch vehicle.^[17]

Legal regime for lunar resource extraction

Although the requisite legal regime to enable mining of lunar resources is not fully in place,^[18] major world space agencies, including NASA, have put in place a coordination framework for encouraging the type of commercial activity proposed by Moon Express.

"Entrepreneurs are thinking about further commercial expansion into space. As space exploration extends to the Moon and Mars, there will be potential opportunities for companies to provide ... space-based resource extraction and processing capabilities. For example, Moon rocks are rich in oxygen that might be exploited to provide life support systems for lunar operations. Liquid oxygen can also be used as a rocket propellant – and it might be more economical to manufacture it in space than to lift it off the Earth. Mining the Moon might also yield titanium – a strong but light metal favoured for high-end aerospace applications. Finally, the Moon’s known abundance of Helium-3 could prove valuable if fusion reactors ever become feasible in the future.^[19]

"For business to be confident about investing, it needs the certainty of a long-term commitment to space exploration, the opportunity to introduce its ideas into government thinking, and the rule of law. This means common understanding on such difficult issues as property rights and technology transfer. The Coordination Mechanism foreseen as part of the Global Exploration Strategy will provide a forum to discuss these important issues."^[19]

The views of Moon Express on the legal and political realities of lunar resource utilization were articulated in an April 2011 Los Angeles Times article where Naveen Jain was interviewed:

The idea of exploiting the Moon's resources for private gain is not likely to be a concern, Jain said. The United States, he said, 'has already brought back Moon rocks to our country without any other country fighting war over it.' 'I also think that the Moon will be treated no differently than the international water in our oceans,' he added. 'In this case, no one really owns the water but any company or country can mine the resources … from the international water as long as they follow certain safety/moral guidelines.' Jain also noted that 'there is strong legal precedent and consensus of 'finders keepers' for resources that are liberated through private investment, and the same will be true on the Moon. You don't have to own land to have ownership of resources you unlock from it. Moon Express will use existing precedents of peaceful presence and exploration set by the U.S. government 40 years ago.'^[1]

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, ratified by 100 nations, including the United States, forbids countries from claiming sovereignty over any part of the Moon, but does not prevent private companies from building or staking claims on the Moon. Mining could fall under similar legal parameters as fishing in international waters.^[20]

Mission plans

Initial contract

Moon Express has received a NASA contract for data purchase that could be worth up to US$10,000,000.^[1][21] Moon Express is also partnered with NASA through a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement that allowed Moon Express to invest over $500K into the commercialization of technology developed by NASA.^[5]

Rocket

On 30 September 2015, Moon Express signed a rocket launch contract with Rocket Lab, a New Zealand startup company.^[22][23] Under the launch services contract, Rocket Lab will use its Electron rocket system to launch three missions. Two launches are for 2017, with the third to be scheduled at a later date.^[22]

Google Lunar XPRIZE

The company is also a competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize.^[24] As of October 2015, there are 16 teams competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, two of which have launch contracts for 2017 (SpaceIL and Moon Express). This prize will award $20 million to the first team to put a robotic spacecraft on the Moon and deliver data, images and video from the landing site and 500 meters away.^[4]

Other mission plans

In addition to participation in the Google Lunar XPRIZE, with a planned "maiden technology demonstrator flight" in 2015,^[13] MoonEx is planning to place the International Lunar Observatory (ILO) on the Moon as early as 2018. The plan calls for placement of both a 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) radio telescope as well as an optical telescope at the South Pole of the Moon. The preferred location, as of July 2013 is 5 kilometers (3.1 mi)-high Malapert crater.^[9]

See also

• Exogeology
• Geology of the Moon

References

• Brown, Eryn (December 9, 2011). "Shooting for the Moon — to mine it". L.A. Times. Retrieved January 2, 2012. 
• Chow, Denise (November 14, 2011). "A 'Mine in the Sky': Moon Express Co-Founder's Lunar Ambitions". Space.com. Retrieved March 16, 2012. 

External links

• Moon Express official website
• Team Moon Express
• BBC Radio Covers Moon Express