Moon Express
Encyclopedia
Moon Express, or MoonEx, is a privately held seed-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 resources of economic value.
, Barney Pell and Robert D. Richards
, co-founded Moon Express
, a Mountain View, California
-based company that plans to mine the moon for elements that are rare on the earth, including Niobium
, Yttrium
and Dysprosium
".
, MoonEx has 25 employees, plans to stage a public demonstration of its hardware in the coming months, and has announced that they will be ready to land on the Moon by 2013.
On September 11, 2011, MoonEx 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.
major world space agencies, including NASA
, have put in place a coordination framework for encouraging the type of commercial activity proposed by Moon Express.
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:
. There are 29 groups competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. This prize will award $20 million to the first team to put a lander on the moon and deliver data, images and video from the landing site and 500 meters away by the December 2015. 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.
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.
Seed money
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, friends and family funding or angel funding , is a securities offering whereby one or more parties that have some connection to a new enterprise invest the funds necessary to start the business so that it has enough funds to sustain itself for a period...
company formed by a group of Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
and space
Spaceflight
Spaceflight is the act of travelling into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft which may, or may not, have humans on board. Examples of human spaceflight include the Russian Soyuz program, the U.S. Space shuttle program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station...
entrepreneurs, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize
Google Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X PRIZE, abbreviated GLXP, sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, is a space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007...
, and ultimately mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
for resources of economic value.
History
In April 2011, Naveen JainNaveen Jain
Naveen K. Jain is a business executive and entrepreneur. He is the founder of InfoSpace, Intelius, and Moon Express. In 2000, Forbes ranked Jain 121 on their list of 400 Richest Americans with a net worth of 2.2 billion dollars....
, Barney Pell and Robert D. Richards
Robert D. Richards
Robert D. Richards is a Canadian-born space entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, Inc., a U.S. company awarded a $10M commercial lunar contract by NASA and a competitor in the Google Lunar X PRIZE...
, co-founded Moon Express
Moon Express
Moon Express, or MoonEx, is a privately held seed-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 resources of economic value.-History:...
, a Mountain View, California
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
-based company that plans to mine the moon for elements that are rare on the earth, including Niobium
Niobium
Niobium or columbium , is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It's a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite...
, Yttrium
Yttrium
Yttrium is a chemical element with symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and it has often been classified as a "rare earth element". Yttrium is almost always found combined with the lanthanides in rare earth minerals and is...
and Dysprosium
Dysprosium
Dysprosium is a chemical element with the symbol Dy and atomic number 66. It is a rare earth element with a metallic silver luster. Dysprosium is never found in nature as a free element, though it is found in various minerals, such as xenotime...
".
, MoonEx has 25 employees, plans to stage a public demonstration of its hardware in the coming months, and has announced that they will be ready to land on the Moon by 2013.
On September 11, 2011, MoonEx 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.
Initial contract
MoonEx has received a NASA contract for data purchase that could be worth up to . 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.Legal regime for lunar resource extraction
Although the requisite legal regime to enable mining of lunar resources is not fully in place,major world space agencies, including NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, 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 titaniumTitaniumTitanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
– a strong but light metal favoured for high-end aerospace applications. Finally, the Moon’s known abundance of Helium-3Helium-3Helium-3 is a light, non-radioactive isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. It is rare on Earth, and is sought for use in nuclear fusion research...
could prove valuable if fusion reactors ever become feasible in the future.
"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."
The views of Moon Express on the legal and political realities of lunar resource utilization were articulated in an April 2011 Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
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 waterInternational watersThe terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems , and wetlands.Oceans,...
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.'
Google Lunar X Prize
The company is also a competitor in the Google Lunar X PRIZEGoogle Lunar X Prize
The Google Lunar X PRIZE, abbreviated GLXP, sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, is a space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. It was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007...
. There are 29 groups competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. This prize will award $20 million to the first team to put a lander on the moon and deliver data, images and video from the landing site and 500 meters away by the December 2015. 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.
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.
See also
- Astrobotic TechnologyAstrobotic TechnologyAstrobotic Technology is a privately held seed-stage company formed by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates, with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize...
- Exogeology
- Geology of the MoonGeology of the MoonThe geology of the Moon is quite different from that of the Earth...
- Shackleton Energy CompanyShackleton Energy CompanyShackleton Energy Company was formed in 2007 in Del Valle, Texas with the explicit goal to prepare the equipment and technologies necessary for mining the Moon. Shackleton is a subsidiary of Stone Aerospace.-Approach:...