The American company Moon Express was the first among private organizations received US government permission to send an expedition to the moon. The flight is scheduled for 2017. Small module MX-1 with the on-board equipment will be launched on a rocket that creates a company Rocket Labs. The module will work on the Moon two weeks; return to Earth, he will not.
Moon Express, or MoonEx, was founded in 2010 by a group of scientists from the Silicon Valley and businessmen to participate in the competition Google Lunar X-Prize. Before the contestants the task of the first to put on the moon spacecraft that can travel 500 meters over the surface, passing Earth on the video in high definition.
The prize fund is $ 30 million. Application for participation filed more than 30 companies, but so far reduced the number wishing to 16. MoonEx representatives referred obtain government permission historic: with it they are much ahead of the competition
The American legislation is not ready for projects of private space flight, and approval for Moon Express is given on an individual basis.. Currently commercial companies are mostly run satellites and all the specialized private mission – such as the delivery of cargo to the space station – controlled by NASA. Read more
According to The Verge, now in the US policy of actively working on a bill that will regulate such missions. The need for their day to day becomes more and more obvious: so, SpaceX company has already announced plans to send a spacecraft to Mars in 2018, and Bigelow Aerospace wants to create a network of space hotel in 2020.
In addition to the victory. competition, Moon Express aims to study the Earth’s own satellite for further mining. The nearest flight company calls trial, gathering in future regularly send to the moon spacecraft. In 2020 already identified Moon Express delivery to Earth the first samples of lunar material.
Meanwhile, the media noted that this aspect will require separate legislative regulation, since the question of who may be the owner of the minerals mined in space, have not yet fully resolved.
Learn how earthlings technology needed for the colonization of Mars.
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