Moon Express

In August 2010,[4] Robert D. Richards,[5] Naveen Jain,[6] and Barney Pell co-founded Moon Express, a Mountain View, California-based company that plans to offer commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long-term goal of mining the Moon for resources,[7] including elements that are rare on Earth, including niobium, yttrium and dysprosium.[1][8]

Beginning in 2010, Moon Express based itself at the NASA Ames Research Center. Moon Express and NASA signed a contract in October 2010[9] for data purchase that could be worth up to US$10,000,000.[1][10]

On June 30, 2011, the company held its first successful test flight of a prototype lunar lander system called the Lander Test Vehicle (LTV) that was developed in partnership with NASA.[5] On September 11, 2011, Moon Express set up a robotics lab for a lunar probe named the "Moon Express Robotics Lab for INnovation" (MERLIN) and hired several engineering students who had successfully competed at the FIRST Robotics Competition.

In mid-2012, Moon Express started work with the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) to put a shoebox-sized astronomical telescope called International Lunar Observatory on the Moon.[11]

By 2012, MoonEx had 20 employees, and in December 2012, MoonEx acquired one of the other Google Lunar X-Prize teams, Rocket City Space Pioneers, from Dynetics for an undisclosed sum. The agreement made Tim Pickens, the former lead of the RCSP team, the Chief Propulsion Engineer for MoonEx.[12] In September 2013, MoonEx added Paul Spudis as Chief Scientist and Jack Burns as Science Advisory Board Chair.[13]

In October and November 2013, Moon Express conducted several free flight tests of its flight software utilizing the NASA Mighty Eagle lander test vehicle, under a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.[14] One month later, in December 2013, MoonEx unveiled the MX-1 lunar lander, a toroidal robotic lander that uses high-test hydrogen peroxide as its rocket propellant to support vertical landing on the lunar surface.[15] On April 30, 2014 NASA announced that Moon Express was one of the three companies selected for the Lunar CATALYST initiative.[16]

By December 2014, Moon Express successfully conducted flight tests of its "MTV-1X" lander test vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, becoming the first private company (and GLXP team) to demonstrate a commercial lunar lander test.[17]

In 2015, the company announced that it would relocate to Florida's Cape Canaveral in 2015.[18] In July 2016, Moon Express stated it would be taking over Cape Canaveral Launch Complexes 17 and 18.[19]

On July 20, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration approved Moon Express plans for a mission to deliver commercial payloads to the Moon, making Moon Express the first private company to receive government approval for a commercial space mission beyond traditional Earth orbit under the requirements of the Outer Space Treaty.[20][21]

On October 31, 2017, NASA extended the agreement for the Lunar CATALYST initiative for 2 more years.[22]

On July 12, 2018, both historic launch towers at Space Launch Complex 17 were demolished via controlled demolition to make way for Moon Express facilities to test its lunar lander.[23] That month, Moon Express was unable to make payroll and laid off nine employees; the employees did not receive back-pay until October 2018.[24]

In October 2018, the company signed several collaboration agreements with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and a number of Canadian aerospace companies.[25]

On November 29, 2018, Moon Express joined the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program of NASA, becoming eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon for NASA.[26][27]

The company was a competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize.[28] The prize was an award of $30 million to the first team to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon and deliver data, images and video from the landing site and from 500 meters away from its landing site.[6]

Moon Express signed a contract with Rocket Lab on 30 September 2015 for three Electron launches of Moon Express robotic spacecraft in pursuit of the X Prize, starting in 2017.[29][30]

The first mission, called the Lunar Scout, was planned for 2017 (later delayed to July 2020) and would use the MX-1E lander.[31] This was a technology demonstration flight that included three payloads:[32]

• International Lunar Observatory (ILO-1) is a small optical telescope that will operate from the lunar south pole. The selected landing location is the 5 km (3.1 mi)-high Malapert mountain.[33]
• MoonLIGHT is a laser retroreflector experiment built by Italy's INFN and the University of Maryland to perform research on gravity and on general relativity.[34]
• Celestis memorial container with some human remains.

The second mission was the Lunar Outpost MX-3,[35] a robotic lander to the lunar south pole that would scout for water ice and other lunar resources.[32] The third mission, called Harvest Moon, would be a sample-return mission.[32]

By October 2015, there were 16 teams competing for the prize. On January 23, 2018, X Prize founder and chairman Peter Diamandis stated "After close consultation with our five finalist Google Lunar X Prize teams over the past several months, we have concluded that no team will make a launch attempt to reach the moon by the March 31, 2018, deadline."[36]

Following the end of the Google Lunar X Prize, Moon Express shelved the planned lunar lander missions and turned its efforts toward competing in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program instead.[3]

The company's robotic spacecraft are based on NASA's Modular Common Spacecraft Bus (MCSB),[37][38] which are modular and scalable platforms that can be configured as landers or orbiters.[40]

All MoonEx robotic spacecraft use low-toxicity fuels, advanced carbon composites and silicates and a Moon Express PECO rocket engine.[41] The PECO main engine uses RP-1 as a fuel and hydrogen peroxide as an oxidiser. The landing thrusters use hydrogen peroxide as a monopropellant.[42] PECO stands for 'propulsion that is eco-friendly'.[43] The company has the "MX lander family":[35]

• MX-1 – a single-engine spacecraft with a mass of 250 kg (fuelled); 30 kg payload capacity.[39]
• MX-2 – a twin-engine spacecraft with a 30 kg payload capacity.
• MX-5 – a 5-engine platform configuration that can include MX-1 or MX-2 staged system. The MX-5 has a 150 kg payload capacity.
• MX-9 – a 9-engine platform configuration, designed for sample return. The MX-9 has a payload capacity of about 500 kg.[41]

• Exogeology
• Geology of the Moon
• Lunar resources
• Lunar water
• NewSpace

• Calandrelli E, Escher A (16 December 2016). "The top 15 events that happened in space in 2016". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-12-16.

• Moon Express official website
• Brown, Eryn (December 9, 2011). "Shooting for the Moon — to mine it". L.A. Times. Retrieved January 2, 2012.
• Chow, Denise (November 14, 2011). "A 'Mine in the Sky': Moon Express Co-Founder's Lunar Ambitions". Space.com. Retrieved March 16, 2012.