Rocks from the moon are not really that expensive. Based on new contracts that NASA has sealed with four companies, the lunar material fetches somewhere between a dollar or a few thousand more.
The space agency has picked four startups to gather objects on the moon and store it up as NASA's exclusive property -- for a total price of $25,001. And one deal stands out: a $1 purchase that may depend on Amazon big boss Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space program.
According to NASA chief of commercial spaceflight development Phil McAllister, NASA accepted a $1 offer from Lunar Outpost. "They propose collecting the lunar material for one dollar - that's right, one-point-zero-zero dollars - following the arrival of the Blue Moon lander to the south pole in 2023," Geek Wire quoted the director as saying.
Lunar Outpost is one of the four companies awarded deals to collect between 50 grams and 500 grams of lunar regolith, or moon soil, for NASA. The space administration will use the material in its Artemis Programme, whose objective is to send the next man and a woman to the earth's space neighbor by 2024.
The program is among the most unique in American history. The goal is not to gather new information about the moon's surface or research how different lunar material types can be used. The goal, rather, is to fan interest among the private sector to invest in the development of advanced lunar vehicles and rovers.
In other words, the venture is to clarify to the rest of the world that the moon is not just a solitary place for scientific and space exploration - it's a place of business.
The three other startups involved in the program are: California-headquartered Masten and two separate space groups that are both called iSpace - one from Luxembourg and the other from Japan.
The funding is so low because NASA is only paying for the collection of the moon soil, not any of the space companies' development or transport costs, agency officials disclosed.
The "economic incentive" for the four-space companies signed up for NASA's new lunar resource initiative is not exactly clear, but the four companies are already well underway developing different types of lunar exploration systems.
As this developed, Blue Origin released a statement in response to an email from GeekWire, casting some doubt on the program: "We don't have a contract with Lunar Outpost... we recommend that you check with NASA, as this is inaccurate," Geek Wire reported.
