Scott Powers
Moon Express is close to permission to go to the moon, opening up that frontier to private businesses.
The California company with operations at Cape Canaveral announced Wednesday it has received a positive review from the FAA for an FAA license to send a payload to the moon to begin private, commercial exploration for profitable resources there. It’s not only the first time the U.S. government has ever given permission to private company to send something to the moon, it marks a landmark international (inter-solar system?) achievement under a United Nations Outer Space Treaty the United States signed in 1966.
The Federal Aviation Administration, not NASA, has jurisdiction over private launches and payloads headed to space. The license still requires a few more steps, but the review process was the key.
Moon Express said it hopes to land its MX-1E moon rover on the lunar surface in late 2017, after blasting off atop a rocket supplied by Rocket Lab USA. Few details of the launch or the mission have been released, except that it likely will be from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Moon Express officials acknowledged Wednesday that a lot needs to go right for them to meet that target date.
The MX-1E is both a lunar lander and a space ship. So after the Rocket Lab Electron booster gets the MX-1E into space, Moon Express will power it the rest of the way to the moon surface.
The company was founded by billionaire internet entrepreneur Naveen Jain, space entrepreneur Bob Richards and space technologies engineer Barney Pell to explore and mine the moon and asteroids for resources ranging from water to helium-3 to platinum. Moon Express has a longterm, three-launch contract with Rocket Labs, which is developing but has not yet launched, ultra-low-cost “Electron” rockets designed to carry small payloads.
The moon has not been left entirely alone since the last American Apollo mission. China has sent rovers there.
“The Moon Express 2017 mission approval is a landmark decision by the U.S. government and a pathfinder for private sector commercial missions beyond the Earth’s orbit,” Richards stated Wednesday. “We are now free to set sail as explorers to Earth’s eighth continent, the Moon, seeking new knowledge and resources to expand Earth’s economic sphere for the benefit of all humanity.”
The company plans to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and has a longterm contract to perform work there.
Moon Express sought the FAA license in April.
In an interview with FloridaPolitics.com earlier this year, Richards called the coming commercial moon mission the beginning of a new era.
“The big vision is to utilize the resources of the moon to the benefit of life on Earth,” Richards said in a January interview.
“And we believe the moon is a gateway to the solar system. We believe the resources of the moon are going to be crucial to Earth’s energy and resource needs, both here on the planet and off, and we believe the discovery recently of water on the moon is a game-changer that puts the moon in the pathway to Mars,” he added. “”It’s like a port of Earth.”
There are plenty of commercial space companies eyeing the moon and asteroids, Moon Express’s license creates a template for others to follow.
Dale Ketcham of Space Florida said the FAA license is unprecedented, especially since the FAA had to consider far-ranging issues no government regulatory agency has ever before considered.
“It has been a real challenge as, under the UN Outer Space treaty, the U.S. government has to officially take responsibility for the behavior of any parties they license for doing anything in space,” Ketcham said. “But it had to happen, and they’re the first.”
Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, agreed that the license approval is a huge milestone for commercial space, in a statement issued Wednesday. “We applaud the government for its decision on this critical mission that will make possible humanity’s development of space resources. I am thrilled for CSF member, Moon Express, and anxiously await for this unprecedented milestone in space exploration.”
So did Elliot Pulham, chief executive of the Space Foundation: “A major milestone has been achieved here for commercial space activities. We applaud Moon Express and the federal government for this historic ruling to allow private enterprise to travel beyond Earth’s orbit and more fully open a new era of commercial exploration and discovery.”
