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Moon Express Raises $20 Million In Series B-1, Fully Funds Trip To The Moon (techcrunch.com)
The company competing in the Google Lunar X-Prize, Moon Express, has raised $20 million in funding and announced that they have now fully financed their mission to the moon. The company made history last year as it became the first private company to receive permission to travel to the moon. Moon Express plans to launch their MX-1E spacecraft to the moon at the end of 2017 with the goal of winning the $20 million grand prize in the X-Prize competition. TechCrunch reports: If successful, Moon Express would become the first private company and the fourth entity in history to soft-land on the moon. The first three entities were all government-funded superpowers from the U.S., USSR and China. Of course to win that title, Moon Express will need to beat the other X-Prize competitors including SpaceIL from Israel, Team Indus from India (carrying the Japanese team HAKUTO as a payload), and the international team Synergy Moon. Each company has had launch contracts confirmed by X-Prize, a requirement to remain in the competition. The first company to soft-land on the Moon, travel 500 meters across its surface, and transmit high-definition video and images back to Earth will win the grand prize of $20 million. There's also $5 million up for grabs for the company that comes in second. Perhaps the most challenging of the X-Prize requirements is the deadline. To win the prizes, competitors must complete all tasks by the end of 2017. Although the X-Prize Foundation has pushed the deadline back before. What makes the Google Lunar X-Prize competition especially unique is that it required participants to obtain 90% of their funding from private sources. In theory, this would encourage profit-driven business plans, kick-starting a wave of lunar-based commercialization.
...but landing on the moon gets you only 20 million? Fuck off, Google.
Moon Express has contracted five rockets from launch provider Rocket Lab USA. A newcomer to the launch industry, Rocket Lab USA has yet to fly their experimental Electron rocket – the same rocket that is contracted to take Moon Express’ MX-1E to the moon. It’s first launch is set for later this month
If those rockets don't work, they can always build a bridge to the moon out stacks of money. -_-
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
First to post obligatory Futurama reference.
2050: Moon express is happy to announce rockets to Mars under a new department - Planet Express!
2050: Moon Express is excited to announce rockets to Mars under their new division - Planet Express!
From whom does one ask permission to go to the moon? And who authorises that authority to grant it? And what would be the punishment if one went to the moon without permission?
getting permission to travel to the moon is ridiculous. and what are "they" going to do if somebody goes to the moon without permission?
Ridiculous or not, I can't legally fly my $100 toy quadcopter in my backyard without FAA permission, which they grant if you register it.
I have no idea what President Trump (no relation to candidate Trump) will do in regards over-regulation, but he's very different from all the professional politicians in a lot of ways, so it'll be interesting to find out.
Lily drone guys had 34,000,009 in their pocket and they couldn't build a fucking flying camera... These guys will go for the moon at less than 2/3 of that price?
You can't handle the truth.
Space Nuttery really exists, and it should be in the DSM-VI. Or they could make a special House episode about it.
Seriously? Do you think mankind was meant to stay on just this planet when there are so many more 'nearby' to visit and populate? You really think Earth will remain sustainable forever? There's already natural forces at work that would disabuse you of that notion.
You call going to space insanity, when there's other logic that NOT going to space is insanity. But then again I bet you have forgotten all the things you benefit from thanks to people putting satellites into space, and the innovations you enjoy that were generated by the quest to get there.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Space Nuttery really exists, and it should be in the DSM-VI. Or they could make a special House episode about it.
Seriously? Do you think mankind was meant to stay on just this planet when there are so many more 'nearby' to visit and populate? You really think Earth will remain sustainable forever? ...
Seriously? You think that any accessible planet is more habitable than the Earth is? Has more water? More oxygen? A more temperate climate? Earth after a massive asteroid strike would STILL be more habitable than Mars, Venus, or one of the outer planet moons. Welcome to reality.
Reality is Kryptonite to Space Nutters. Have you noticed the almost religious tone in that post?
On Slashdot a few days ago there was a story about a hardware company that imploded after raising $35 million, trying to build some little drones.
I'm no rocket scientist but I feel like getting to the moon might be a little more challenging?
Who the freak needs to give ANYONE permission to travel to the moon? I hate bureaucracy.
Have you ever noticed the irony that armchair scientists think there's no water or ice on any of the other celestial bodies, yet every time a comet or other natural space detrius is mentioned the composition is almost always spoken of as being made up of ice and rock?
No the conditions may not be hospitable in their natural form, that's not to say living habitats cannot be carved or created.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
Reality is Kryptonite to Space Nutters. Have you noticed the almost religious tone in that post?
What Generation of hopeless pessimist do you belong to? What was your childhood like that you have no vision of grandeur of the future?
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
I am a realist. I am experienced, and have engineering judgment. I keep my sci-fi fantasies safely for the weekends.
The problem with "visions of grandeur" is that they are just that, visions. Like a religious experience.
My vision of grandeur includes a leisure society with a 10 hour workweek and enough resources for all, since we are all the same species.
We have the knowledge, technology, and resources right here, right now to arrange amazing living conditions for all.
What happened to that vision of grandeur?
Oh, you prefer to fantasize about objects and minerals. OK then.
Also, your sig contains at least two typos. Please fix.
Try *thinking* about exactly what people landing on another world would be up against. Just because someone has detected ice on Mars doesn't mean the first explorers are going to wander into the underground city of the ancient Martians. I'd love to see humans on other worlds. But I'm also in touch with reality.
If they could think, they wouldn't be Space Nutters.
Is registering your name so we know who to blame if you fly your toy into something important causing expensive damage actually over-regulation?
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We won't know if we don't keep looking. And we definitely won't be able to get there if we aren't developing space technology.
Yes, it's likely that we'll fail to ever get to a planet outside of our solar system ever, but if we don't try then we know how it ends. Eventually the sun eats the earth along with the rest of the solar system and that's that. And that's assuming that we don't wipe ourselves out before that.
Moving to another planet diversifies things and would make it more likely that some form of us would survive until the end of time.
www.distancetomars.com
" make it more likely that some form of us would survive until the end of time"
So, very practical and not a techno-atheist religion at all, then.
These are little plastic toys you can catch in your hand, so yes, I think it's a bit silly. I'm having trouble imagining how it could "cause expensive damage" - a baseball is more dangerous, denser and flies four times as fast. Should there be a law requiring all baseballs to be registered?
There's an obvious way to change a couple characters in thev regulation to make it much more sensible. Currently, toys weighing 255 grams or more have to be registered. 255 grams includes some designed to be flown indoors - toys that won't even damage your lamp. A more reasonable cutoff, which wouldn't encompass small toys, would be 1 Kg.
Note that people have been flying model aircraft for literally hundreds of years with very, very few problems.
Another issue with the current regulation is that it's illegal to fly a toy 6 feet off the ground in your backyard in most of the US, without contacting the nearest airstrips. You can't leave the ground, even a few inches, without talking to every airstrip within several miles, which typically means two or three of them (there are thousands of small airstrips and helipads in the US). Note you *can* fly a *kite* to 300 feet, but it's illegal to fly a toy helicopter at 6 feet. A more reasonable rule, which would again avoid ensnaring small toys in regulatory hassles, might require airstrip contact for items flown over 100 feet. Again, a baseball creates more risk to aircraft than does a little toy copter flying around the yard.
Ps: The FAA did recently issue some guidance clearing up the requirements for paper airplanes and birthday balloons. For a time, the wording of the proposed regulation would have required you to register a paper airplane before tossing it.
The one thing I can look up to and see as a historical constant will be gone. I wonder if they will figure out a way to leave cans and candy bar wrappers behind as well.
The first three entities were all government-funded superpowers from the U.S., USSR and China.
What the hell is that supposed to mean? How about "..were the superpowers, the US, USSR and China" or "government agencies of the superpowers; the US, USSR and China."? How about a simple "...were funded by the superpowers; ..."?
"I don't shoot my mouth off without knowing what I'm talking about" - by raymorris (2726007) on Thursday December 31, 2015 @09:29AM (#51215379)
Raymorris you shoot your mouth off f'ing up in 2 security fuckups https://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5351503&cid=47379233/ & https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5351503&cid=47374033/ + raymorris = scriptkiddie https://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8895203&cid=51726265/
&
Tell us how ONLY 'newer script kiddie tools' have stringlength built in (when PASCAL had it for ages - my fav tool) https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8472509&cid=51114383/ YOU BLUNDERING WANNABE!
APK
P.S.=> You like to talk behind others' backs like the gossiping bitch TROLL you are raymorris https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9880997&cid=53312265/ well, here I am letting YOU TALK in those links, showing your FAILS wannabe ... apk