For the first time ever, a company that goes by the name Moon Express has been granted the permission to land on the moon. Technically, the company has been allowed to travel beyond the earth's orbit though for Moon Express, that entails travelling all the way to the moon.
Chairman and co-founder of the Florida based company; Naveen Jain has stated their intention to land on the moon is driven entirely on business values. That does hint of the possibility of establishing a human colony on the moon though that's too long term at the moment.
According to The Independent, among the immediate plans of Moon Express includes landing a probe on the moon the size of a standard washing machine. Named MX-1 lander, the spacecraft would be carrying various sensors and will be fitted with engines, which when ignited will allow the probe to hop around the surface of the moon.
The first Moon Express venture has already won the support of five launch customers. One of them is a company that would accept from people the ashes of their ancestors to be placed on the moon. The first Moon Express flight is confirmed to carry the ashes of the parent of its CEO and co-founder Bob Richards.
Naveen Jain said he expects to make profit by carrying scientific equipment against a payment or by way of sponsorships. As TechCrunch mentioned, the company also has plans to create a fuel store on the moon by harvesting lunar resources like water and helium. This he hopes will allow for round way trips to the moon and back or for travelling further into space.
The company also stated they hope to make money by extracting lunar resources like platinum and such and bringing them back to earth.
According to the WSJ, the first flight is planned around late 2017 with Rocket Lab providing the rocket. It is going to be a one-way trip which is reported to cost just around $10 million which again is just a fraction of the several hundred million that it has cost so far to send a spacecraft to the moon.
Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Alan Musk too has expressed his desire to send a spacecraft to the mars and eventually create a human colony there.
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