From an old metal stamping building in Pittsburgh's Strip District, Astrobotic Technology is preparing to launch a mission to the moon on October 16, 2015.
The company is actively selling “payload” or cargo space at a price of $500,000 per pound to fly aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with an Astrobotic robotic lander and rover.
“It’s a little bit like UPS or FedEx delivery to the moon,” says CEO John Thornton. Astrobotic has capacity for 600 pounds of payload; so far, they have been contracted to carry human ashes and a Japanese soft drink, in addition to a multi-million contract with NASA for data collection.
Paid space exploration is not new — the International Space Station is the model — but this will be the first private concern ever to land on the moon. (So far only three governments, the United States, the former USSR and, more recently, China, have reached the lunar surface.)
“It’s a game changer for space exploration,” says Thornton. Potential markets include scientific and research organizations who want to conduct experiments or deliver instruments, governments interested in boosting national pride (“We’re selling Apollo moments”) and marketing concerns, like the Japanese company who will promote itself as the first soft drink on the moon.
The flight will launch from Florida, but mission control will revert to Pittsburgh. The landing site is Lacus Mortis, a lunar “skylight” or 300-foot-deep pit that may lead to an underground cave formed by lava flow. The Astrobotic rover will drive around and look down with an eye towards a future mission exploring the slopes.
Since the last time Keystone Edge checked in with Astrobotic in 2012, the company has made significant progress towards winning the Google Lunar XPrize, worth millions. The company, founded in 2008 as a spinoff of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, currently employs 14 and is planning to hire another four as it prepares to move to an expanded 5,200-square-foot space that will accommodate offices and construction of its spacecraft.
Source: John Thornton, Astrobotic Technology
Writer: Elise Vider