Yesterday Astrobotic Technology of Pittsburgh announced that it had been contracted by Toronto area company Canadensys to deliver payloads to the surface of the moon.
Read More »NASA’s Plan to Hitch a Ride With Commercial Lunar Payload Service Providers is Brilliant
Less than a month ago NASA announced that nine companies had been selected as “couriers” for future payloads to the surface of the moon. The combined maximum contract value is $2.6 billion over the next 10 years. The Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is brilliant and here’s why.
Read More »Moon Express Looks to Canada for International Growth and Signs MOU with the Canadian Space Agency
There is some irony in the signing today of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Moon Express and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen.
Read More »Opinion – For All Moonkind, to Preserve Outer Space Artifacts
By: Michelle Hanlon, co-founder, For All Moonkind, Inc. “Made on Earth by humans,” proudly proclaims the circuit board of the “midnight cherry” Tesla Roadster launched into space on SpaceX’s game-changing Falcon Heavy. In the glove box are, among other things, a copy of Douglas Adams’ iconic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a towel (of course) and a tiny quartz storage disc, prepared by the Arch …
Read More »Landing Site Selection for Commercial Missions to the Moon
This past week at the Lunar Science for Landed Missions Workshop, two commercial landing opportunities panels were organized that included representatives from Moon Express, Astrobotic, Blue Origin, iSpace, Masten Space, PT Scientists, Team Indus, Masten and Ceres Robotics.
Read More »There May Not Be a Google Lunar X Prize Winner but Winners Have Already Emerged
The Google Lunar X Prize has a final hard date of March 31, 2018. If none of the finalists have completed their mission to the moon by that date then no one will win. Even so, it’s clear now that the spirit of the competition has been met.
Read More »The Moon is Almost Open for Business
In his opening statement at the Subcommittee on Space Hearing on Private Sector Lunar Exploration, Brian Babin (R-Texas), Chair of the Subcommittee said “will space be the next sector to lead economic growth?” His answer, ” I don’t know.” It’s an important question and his answer was right.
Read More »The New Race for the Moon – Space Quarterly Archives
Continuing with our Summer Reading Series of articles or interviews that still have some relevance today, we present Craig Covault’s June 2013 article The New Race for the Moon from Space Quarterly Magazine.
Read More »Five Teams Remain as Google Lunar XPRIZE Enters Final Phase
Space is hard. While startups success rates are slowly increasing in low earth orbit (LEO), it’s even harder for startups looking beyond low earth orbit. In fact, no company with the goal of operating a commercial enterprise near or on the moon, can call themselves a success, yet. But just maybe we’ll the emergence of one as a the result of the Google Lunar XPRIZE.
Read More »The Mouse on the Moon – Plan B Enters Google Lunar X Prize
Last Thursday the X Prize Foundation announced the final entries in the Google Lunar X Prize and the lone Canadian entry was submitted and approved just before the deadline. The official roster of entered teams now stands at 29 from four continents. They are vying for a total of $30 million in prizes. To win the teams must send a robot to the Moon and …
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