Google Lunar X project has sparked interest in private companies to race to the moon. Google is offering $20 million to the first time to complete the tasks. There are three tasks involved in the race. They have to land a craft on the surface of the moon, drive 500 meters and transmit high definition footage back to Earth. This will be all carried out before the end of the year for the team using private funding to win the prize.
One of the five participants is the U.S. based company Moon Express. In August, the company became the first to receive permission to engage in commercial activity beyond Earth orbit from the U.S. government. Moon Express has raised $20 million in funds and have all the resources to make it to the moon. Bob Richards, chief executive and co-founder of Moon Express stated that with all financial and legal hurdles now cleared, it is now a matter of rocket science stuff. The company plans to test launches early this year after they have secured a contract with Rocket Lab, a U.S. aerospace corporation.
In a new round of series B funding, Founders Fund and Social Capital and Autodesk, a software company have raised the funds to $45 million. However, Moon Express leadership wants to raise another $10 million as contingency. The next step for the company is exploring mining on the surface of the moon and start flying commercial flights according to an article from the Mining.
The company aims to run a full-fledged delivery service to the moon. Co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain stated that Moon Express envisions bring precious resources from the moon to Earth such as metals and moon rocks. The moon's helium 3 could be used as valuable fuel source for fusion reactions. The moon also has ice that could be melted for water. Hydrogen resource could also be used to power future space travels.
Planetary Resources, another company, had also set its sights at mining in space. It plans to harvest metals and water from asteroids. The company estimates that harvesting water from space could be a trillion dollar market. This brings up the question who owns space? The Outer Space Treaty of 1966 established rules governing activities in space. Among the regulations are stated that there will be no weapons, no territory claiming and enterprises should be to the benefit of all of humanity.
In 2015, the U.S. government had passed the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act to pave the way for a growing number of companies that are interested in space exploration and resource collection in space such as SpaceX, Moon Express, Planetary Resources and other companies of the same nature. With Google's Lunar X program, more companies are setting to move their ventures into outer space.
Companies are allowed to own and sell resources that are gathered and extracted from space objects but not the objects themselves. Others are arguing that the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty's provision that all countries should benefit, is being violated as reported in The Christian Science Monitor.
