A new unmanned mission called Lunar Mission One hopes to make history in space exploration, not only with what it discovers on the Moon, but also with the way it secures the necessary funds.
Lunar Mission One has been designed by the British Lunar Missions Ltd, with the aim of landing a robot on the moon , which will study the subsoil of the Earth's satellite.
However, if it becomes a reality, it will not be thanks to funds from a state space agency, but to ordinary people who are willing to finance it. For this purpose, Lunar Missions Ltd has already launched a campaign through the Kickstarter, in order to raise the 600,000 pounds that will be needed for the initial phase of the mission's preparation. A goal that has been met by more than 30% in just 48 hours, after 216,000 pounds have already been secured from 2,350 space enthusiasts.
David Iron, a former British government space adviser and founder of Lunar Missions Ltd, told the Guardian that the company turned to private citizens because it has become increasingly difficult to find funding for such projects. “We are essentially launching a new funding model which, if successful, will demonstrate that such missions can be funded in a completely new way,” he added.
According to the company's schedule, the robot's construction will begin in 2018. Arriving on the Moon with an unmanned spacecraft, it will land at the south pole, in one of the largest craters in our solar system. There, it will collect rock fragments at a depth of 20-100 meters, so that for the first time samples from the lunar subsoil can be studied.
Those who are willing to pay more than 60 pounds will be able to send a digital "time capsule" to the moon, which the robot will "bury" under the ground of the satellite . For donations of more than 200 pounds, one can also place a small... lock of hair in their "time capsule", which will be buried at the site.
Although the company does not guarantee that the DNA will survive the transport, market research it has conducted has shown that around 10 million people around the world would like a sample of their biological material to travel to the Moon. A figure that "translates" to 2 billion pounds.
As for the science part of Lunar Mission One, the robot will analyze the composition of the rocks to determine whether their isotope ratios match those of Earth's rocks. If confirmed, it would give significant support to the theory that the moon was formed by a powerful impact of a space rock on Earth 4.5 billion years ago.
At the same time, the analysis of the rocks is expected to provide evidence about the creation of the Earth. Something that is not easy to do directly on our planet, because the "oldest" rocks are not unchanged over time, due to geological processes.
Iron estimates the cost of Lunar Mission One at £500m, with the bulk of the cost going to private companies to build the spacecraft and rover. However, he is optimistic that this will be more than met by donations, saying any money left over will go into a fund to fund future missions.
Source: defencenet.gr
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