Photo: Moon Express
The aerospace industry has become an extremely dynamic one in the past few years, thanks to a handful of private companies which have revived and then boosted space exploration to heights never achieved before.
Among the less visible companies to work on space exploration technologies is Moon Express, a Cape Canaveral-based startup that plans to reach the Moon before all other competitors and win Google’s $20 million Lunar XPrize.
Moon Express plans to do so with a family of landers it calls Scouts. The objects, still in development, are supposed to reach the moon, establish an outpost at the Moon’s South Pole and eventually “harvest” the Moon – that means bringing back a sample.
There are currently two type of scouts under development at Moon Express, the MX-1 and MX-2. Two larger exploration robots, called MX-5 Discovery and MX-9 Frontier, are also under development.
None of them will be used for carrying humans, but could be suitable choice - and rthe cheap one, says the company - for sending cargo to the lunar surface or from there back to Earth.
The Moon harvest is supposed to take place in 2020, giving Moon Express only one year to test launch the Scouts and even reach the Moon in one. And as with any start-up, money is of the essence,
At the end of last week, Moon Express announced it secured $12.5 million in financing from investors that would help it further develop the spacecraft needed for their space program.
“We are at the dawn of an exciting new era of lunar exploration and development,” said in a statement the company’s CEO Bob Richards.
“We’re excited about the new U.S. space policy to return to the Moon in a sustainable way with commercial partners and we look forward to working with NASA and other space agencies in exploring Earth’s eighth continent.”
Moon Express plans to do so with a family of landers it calls Scouts. The objects, still in development, are supposed to reach the moon, establish an outpost at the Moon’s South Pole and eventually “harvest” the Moon – that means bringing back a sample.
There are currently two type of scouts under development at Moon Express, the MX-1 and MX-2. Two larger exploration robots, called MX-5 Discovery and MX-9 Frontier, are also under development.
None of them will be used for carrying humans, but could be suitable choice - and rthe cheap one, says the company - for sending cargo to the lunar surface or from there back to Earth.
The Moon harvest is supposed to take place in 2020, giving Moon Express only one year to test launch the Scouts and even reach the Moon in one. And as with any start-up, money is of the essence,
At the end of last week, Moon Express announced it secured $12.5 million in financing from investors that would help it further develop the spacecraft needed for their space program.
“We are at the dawn of an exciting new era of lunar exploration and development,” said in a statement the company’s CEO Bob Richards.
“We’re excited about the new U.S. space policy to return to the Moon in a sustainable way with commercial partners and we look forward to working with NASA and other space agencies in exploring Earth’s eighth continent.”
Google News