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From Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo to Stephen Hawking, the moon has long held a fascination for astronomers, philosophers, scientists and stargazers. Now it is also becoming a focus for a growing number of companies as rapid technological progress makes lunar mining more viable. The potential upside for space start-ups is clear, with lunar resources including water, helium-3 and rare-earth minerals estimated to be worth quadrillions of dollars.
Tech companies aiming high
Moon Express – the first private company to get US government approval to go to the moon – is one of the players at the forefront of this new space race. The Florida-based firm, led by space entrepreneur Bob Richards, is entirely focused on mining the moon for minerals and water. It has developed a moon-specific lander called the MX-1E, which is in testing phase at its Cape Canaveral headquarters.
Another challenger is Deep Space Industries. Like its competitors, the California-based firm is trying to reduce the cost of deep space exploration – currently estimated at more than US$1 billion per mission – to make resource extraction viable. Focused more on asteroid exploration than moon mining, Deep Space Industries’ Chief Business Developer, Peter Stibrany, predicts prospecting is only five years away.
Planetary Resources, a start-up backed by Luxembourg (yes, the country) and Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, is another industry newcomer working on technology that it hopes will make underground asteroid exploration a reality from 2020. Like Deep Space Industries, Planetary Resources wants to dig up water and minerals in space for use in orbit, rather than transporting them back to earth.
Other firms include Los Angeles-based OffWorld, Japan’s ispace and Kleos Space, which is developing robotic explorers to mine the moon. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, has been working on the problem of launch costs with reusable rockets, which could help lower the cost of getting to the moon.
Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:
https://www.scoop.it/t/luxembourg-europe/?&tag=Space
From Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo to Stephen Hawking, the moon has long held a fascination for astronomers, philosophers, scientists and stargazers. Now it is also becoming a focus for a growing number of companies as rapid technological progress makes lunar mining more viable. The potential upside for space start-ups is clear, with lunar resources including water, helium-3 and rare-earth minerals estimated to be worth quadrillions of dollars.
Tech companies aiming high
Moon Express – the first private company to get US government approval to go to the moon – is one of the players at the forefront of this new space race. The Florida-based firm, led by space entrepreneur Bob Richards, is entirely focused on mining the moon for minerals and water. It has developed a moon-specific lander called the MX-1E, which is in testing phase at its Cape Canaveral headquarters.
Another challenger is Deep Space Industries. Like its competitors, the California-based firm is trying to reduce the cost of deep space exploration – currently estimated at more than US$1 billion per mission – to make resource extraction viable. Focused more on asteroid exploration than moon mining, Deep Space Industries’ Chief Business Developer, Peter Stibrany, predicts prospecting is only five years away.
Planetary Resources, a start-up backed by Luxembourg (yes, the country) and Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, is another industry newcomer working on technology that it hopes will make underground asteroid exploration a reality from 2020. Like Deep Space Industries, Planetary Resources wants to dig up water and minerals in space for use in orbit, rather than transporting them back to earth.
Other firms include Los Angeles-based OffWorld, Japan’s ispace and Kleos Space, which is developing robotic explorers to mine the moon. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, meanwhile, has been working on the problem of launch costs with reusable rockets, which could help lower the cost of getting to the moon.
Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:
https://www.scoop.it/t/luxembourg-europe/?&tag=Space