A moon-mining company has now raised enough money for its maiden flight.
Moon Express, a California-based company had aspirations to extract the moon's natural resources someday. Well, it has now raised enough money to find its mission to 'space rock'!
Based in Silicon Valley, the company has secured $20 million (close to INR 136 crore) in a recent round of funding and has raised over $45 million ( INR 306 crore approximately) in total, till now. This investment ensures that the company can attempt to launch a small robotic lander to the moon by the end of this year.
The company is now competing for Google's Lunar Xprize, which promises $30 million ( INR 204 crore approximately) to whichever company can "land a privately funded rover on the moon." The winner must travel 500 metres on the Moon's surface and should also be capable of transmitting high-definition images back to Earth. Aeronautics startup Rocket Lab is in charge of designing and deploying the company's MX-1E lander, and plans to launch it from New Zealand.
"We now have all the resources in place to shoot for the moon," company Co-Founder and CEO Bob Richards said. "Our goal is to expand earth's social and economic sphere to the moon, our largely unexplored eighth continent, and enable a new era of low cost lunar exploration and development for students, scientists, space agencies, and commercial interests."
At the moment, the governments of Russia, the US, and China have dominated probe trips to Earth's natural satellite. Moon Express is slated to become the first firm to break this monopoly. The company has also secured clearance from the US government for a moon mission, in August last year. Additionally, President Barack Obama had also signed the SPACE Act which allowed private companies to mine resources from space.
The end goal? — To bring back "precious resources, metals, and moon rocks." The company also has ambitions of establishing low-cost lunar travel to enable science missions and potential leisure trips. But mainly, it aims to mine the moon for resources – water that can be recycled for rocket fuel.
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