Moon Express
Moon Express plans to pursue its lunar mission in 2017, making it the first private company to get approval and be a pioneer of commercial space missions beyond the Earth’s orbit. Moon Express

A space archaeology expert from Flinders University in Australia believes space mining should be automated. On Monday, a US company got clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to deploy a robotic probe to the moon’s surface.

If Moon Express would be successful in its mission, it could pave the way for other companies to start mining the moon for resources such as iron ore, water, rare earths and precious metals. Besides Moon Express, another asteroid mining company, Deep Space Industries, aims to also begin the launch of a robotic spacecraft on a near-Earth object within the next few years.

Their initiatives are the result of the US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act which grants American firms legal ownership over resource they could mine outside Earth, reports Gizmodo.

If Moon Express is successful in its mission, Google would award the company US$20 million (A$26.11 million) for winning its Lunar XPRIZE competition. Moon Express must land a spacecraft on the moon and beam photos and videos back to Earth.

Moon Express plans to pursue its lunar mission in 2017, making it the first private company to get approval and be a pioneer of commercial space missions beyond the Earth’s orbit. Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, said in a statement, “We are now free to set sail as explorers to Earth’s eighth continent, the Moon, seeking new knowledge and resources to expand Earth’s economic sphere for the benefit of all humanity.”

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Source: Explaining the Future