A mission to the moon in the near future is being crowdfunded via Kickstarter and organized by British rock star Brian Cox.
Dubbed Lunar Mission One , according the its official site, the mission will be to drill deep down under the surface of the moon to take a look at what lies beneath, (something that miraculously hasn’t really been done before). The point of the drilling will be to collect samples from deep below the surface, and to leave a time capsule of DNA and digital files on the moon.
A robotic probe will be launched from Earth and land on the south pole of the moon. Once there, the probe will drill down up to 300 feet beneath the lunar surface to analyze moon rock that is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Then, the Lunar Mission One probe will deposit a time capsule in the hole filled with “digital memory boxes” and actual human DNA in the form of hair strands.
Here’s the Kickstarter promotion video for the mission to the moon.
As with all Kickstarter campaigns, certain donations get you certain rewards. The higher the donation, the better the reward.
The Lunar Mission One trip to the moon has a Kickstarter goal of about $900,000, (600,000 British Pounds). This won’t be the final budget for the Lunar Mission One program, but rather a jumping off point.
If backers donate at the 15 pound level (around 23 bucks) they get their name on a “wall of thanks” on the Lunar Mission One website. Backers who give at the 30 pound level (about $47) will get their name on a public, digital registry to be buried on the moon. The 60 pound level (about $94) is the level at which you reserve your digital memory box for the capsule to be buried on the moon. Lunar Mission One isn’t expected to launch until 2024, so for the next 10 years you can upload whatever you want onto your memory box in the form of digital information, and it will be taken along on the mission.
Though the moon mission is being crowdfunded by Kickstarter, the scientific and engineering firm that will be designing and building the probe will be RAL Space. According to their official website , RAL Space has been involved in over 200 space missions and are “at the forefront of UK space research.”
After the recent comet landing by the European Space Agency’s Philae lander, as part of its Rosetta Mission, and now this wild idea to crowdfund a unique mission to the moon put together by the Brits, the question is, how will Americans respond? Will it bother them that Europe is taking the lead in space exploration, where the U.S. used to dominate? Or will it spur the Americans to new heights and new ideas?
What do you think about the Kickstarter mission to the moon?
[Image via DL Digital ]
