An exciting prize combined with breakthrough collaborations is helping to fuel the expansion of robotic deep space exploration and science.
With the incentive of Google’s Lunar XPrize competition, many teams around the world are competing for their moonshot. The competition seeks to challenge engineers, entrepreneurs and innovators across the globe. A prize of $30 million will be awarded to teams that land a privately-funded rover on the moon. The rover must travel at least 500 meters and transmit high definition video and images back to Earth.
One of the 16 competing teams has their sights set on more than just winning the XPrize. Before they pave a path through lunar soil, Moon Express is paving a path for government approval that could have wide-reaching benefits outside of their own mission. An essential part of this path is that countries must comply with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Countries must provide “authorization and continuing supervision” of space activities by groups under their jurisdiction. The U.S. typically achieves this through licensing.
Moon Express MX-1 Lander artist’s concept
The licenses for commercial space launches are provided by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The rocket company that will provide launch capabilities for Moon Express landers, Rocket Lab, will have its launches licensed by the FAA.
In order to ensure Moon Express meets the legal requirements to launch their lunar lander in 2017, the company requested a payload review of its lunar lander from the FAA. Then, they hit a snag–the U.S. has no way to provide the required authorization and supervision the Outer Space Treaty requires. So the company created a way to overcome the hurdle.
Working with officials from government and industry, Moon Express is taking the current review process for payload and combining it with extra information. The company calls it “mission approval.” What’s the extra information? It’s voluntarily provided by Moon Express and includes how they will avoid harmful interference with other spacecraft and historic moon sites.
From the company’s point of view, this mission approval process is a temporary solution until a permanent approval process is created for commercial missions beyond Earth orbit. Collaborating with regulatory officials who will determine their ability to launch lunar robotic landers, Moon Express is developing a unique approach to the problem, enabling them to progress toward the XPrize.
The goal of Moon Express is to have the capability to carry scientific payloads on their robotic missions. From there, the company will scale up to commercial operations. Other companies are also interested in operations on the Moon and on asteroids. By pioneering a path for the future of their company, Moon Express helping to enable a future for privately-funded science and the development of resources in deep space.
Related:
Moon Express proposes alternate approach for lunar mission regulatory approvals (Space News)
U.S. Set to Approve Moon Mission by Commercial Space Venture (The Wall Street Journal)