Lunar Mission One
was a proposed international,
crowdfunded
, robotic mission to the Moon, led by Lunar Missions Limited in
England
.
[1]
They did not obtain $1 billion funding for research, development and launch of a spacecraft, meant to be launched in 2024.
[2]
The Lunar Mission One program closed down due to tax issues.
Overview
[
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The mission, which is in its early conceptual stages, aims to send a
lunar lander
to the
Moon
in 2024. The lander would drill below the surface of the Lunar South Pole to a depth of up to 100m, in the hope of accessing
lunar rock
up to 4.5 billion years old. The lunar lander would contain scientific instruments to explore the science and
geology
behind the origins of the Moon and the
Solar System
.
[3]
After drilling, the module would place a
time capsule
into the borehole. This time capsule would contain a public archive, with a record of Earth's biosphere and a history of
human
civilization
, and a private archive consisting of millions of
digital memory
boxes. Consumers would be able to purchase digital memory boxes, and fill them with digital data such as photos or videos. They would also be able to store their
DNA
via a strand of hair.
[4]
Lunar Missions Limited has set the total cost of the mission at £500 million and it is aiming to raise these funds through global sales of digital memory boxes.
[5]
Funding for the initial legal fees
[2]
was raised on the international crowd-funding platform,
Kickstarter
. The fundraising was successfully completed on 17 December 2014,
[6]
with £672,447 ($1,017,000 approx.) being pledged, exceeding the minimum target of £600,000 ($900,000 approx.).
[7]
Management
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]
Lunar Missions Limited is a company chaired by
Ian Taylor
, former
UK Minister for Science and Technology
. Directors of the company include David Iron and Angela Lamont. The technical advisor for the first stage of the project is
RAL Space
.
[8]
Lunar Mission One is overseen by the Lunar Missions Trust which is also responsible for the education program to be developed around Lunar Mission One, primarily focusing on STEM subjects. The Trust is chaired by
Sir Graeme Davies
and trustees include
Monica Grady
and David Iron.
[9]
The Lunar Mission One program closed down due to
VAT tax
issues.
[10]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Exploration
programs
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Active
missions
| Orbiters
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Landers
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Rovers
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Flybys
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Past
missions
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Planned
missions
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Proposed
missions
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Cancelled /
concepts
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Related
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- Missions are ordered by launch date. Crewed missions are in
italics
.
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