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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.
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.
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?
Just try to build a moon capable rocket in your backyard and I'm pretty sure you will find out who 'they' are and what 'they' can do about it.....
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
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?
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.