In a world first , a US - based companyhas been grant permissionto travel beyond Earth ’s celestial orbit into rich outer space . Moon Express , found in 2010 by billionaire tech enterpriser Naveen Jain , just received FAA headway to send a robotic probe to the moonlight ’s surface to scout it for worthful resources .
If successful , Moon Express could pave a path for other companies to get tapping the moon for smoothing iron ore , water , rarified earths and cherished metals , with the goal of turn Earth ’s nearest neighbour into a way station for spare percentage and rocket fuel . As Moon Express take down on itswebsite , water is “ the oil of the solar system , ” and the ability to access this full of life resource off Earth wouldvastly reduce the monetary value of more challenging deep space commission .
And Moon Express is n’t the only game in town — earlier this twelvemonth , Luxembourg announced a partnershipwith asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries , which hopes to beginlaunching robotlike spacecrafton near Earth object prospect missions in a few years . Both DSI and Moon Express are benefiting from the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act , a new law thatgrants companies legal ownershipover any resources they ’re able to mine off Earth .
Whether more private ventures will soon receive clearance to fulfill their place minelaying dreams may hinge on the success of Moon Express , which stands to receive $ 20 million from Google ’s Lunar XPRIZE competition if it can carry out its mission , of shore a spacecraft on the moon and shine photograph and video back to Earth .
Moon Express hopes to become the first individual ship’s company to land on the Moon in former 2017 .
[ CNBC ]
Asteroid miningrocketsSpacespace raceSpaceflight
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