Moon Express, a California-based company hoping to one day go into mining on the moon, has received full funding for its first trip to the lunar surface, scheduled to take place later this year. In the latest round of financing, the company received a large tranche of $ 20 million, and now the total amount of funds required for the project is more than $ 45 million.
All of this money will go directly to the launch of the Moon Express MX-1E lander, whose task will be to study and document the lunar surface, after being launched aboard the experimental launch vehicle "Electron".
According to representatives of Moon Express, the company raised the necessary funds through the investment firms Founders Fund and the Collaborative Fund, as well as software development company Autodesk and other private investors.
“We now have all the necessary resources to fly to the moon. Our mission is to expand human social and economic interests in relation to the Moon, our "eighth unexplored continent", and to set the stage for a new era of cheap lunar exploration and development projects available to students, scientists, space agencies and private stakeholders."
Moon Express is currently regarded as one of the most likely winners of the Google Lunar X Prize, an international competition to send the first private spacecraft to the Moon. One of the main requirements of this competition is that 90 percent of funding for a lunar space mission project must come directly from private sources. And at the moment, it seems, only the Moon Express company fully meets this requirement. What's more, Moon Express announced last year that it had received approval for its space mission from the US Federal Aviation Administration, effectively becoming the first private company to receive such approval from a US regulatory body.
Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle that will send the MX-1E lander to the moon
Nevertheless, to date, one of the main issues has not yet been resolved, which must be dealt with at all costs. The issue is the launch vehicle. Rocket Lab, an American rookie in the aerospace industry, is ready to provide its Electron rocket to send the MX-1E lander from the launch site in New Zealand. The rocket itself is designed to launch compact satellites into low-earth orbit, but its actual launches have never been made. At the end of last year, Rocket Lab announced that its Electron rocket was ready for a test launch, but a date for its maiden flight has yet to be announced.
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The last deadline for the Google Lunar X Prize to reach the moon is December 31, 2017. The first team to land their spacecraft and begin research on our planet's satellite will receive a $ 20 million prize.
The Moon Express MX-1E lander is designed to be delivered to low-earth orbit by the Electron launch vehicle, after which it will continue its four-day voyage to the Moon using its own engines. Having reached the destination, the module will need to make a soft landing on the satellite, conduct photo and video surveillance and send the received material back to Earth. For scientific research, the module will be equipped with special scientific equipment, including those provided by the NASA aerospace agency, the International Lunar Observatory, and the University of Maryland at College Park.
The MX-1E mission in itself for Moon Express is only the first step towards realizing its basic plans. The company wants to start mining on the satellite, including water that can be used to create rocket fuel. More recently, Moon Express engineers have moved to Space Launch Complexes 17 and 18 located at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, where they will conduct test trials of the MX-1E lander and their future spacecraft.
NIKOLAY KHIZHNYAK