Posted on 08/03/2016 6:52:05 AM PDT by BenLurkin
For the first time ever, a private company has permission to land on the moon.
The U.S. government has officially approved the planned 2017 robotic lunar landing of California-based Moon Express, which aims to fly commercial missions to Earth's nearest neighbor and help exploit its resources, company representatives announced today (Aug. 3).
...
Previously, companies had been able to operate only on or around Earth. The new approval, while exclusive to Moon Express, could therefore serve as an important regulatory guide for deep-space commercial activity in general, Richards said.
"Nobody's had a deep-sea voyage yet. We're still charting those waters," he said. "Somebody had to be first."
Moon Express submitted an application to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on April 8. The document then made its way through the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Federal Communications Commission, Richards said.
The interagency approval process "took some time, not because anybody was against or averse to this," he said. "It's just that we asked questions that had never been asked before, and that had to be addressed and worked out."
Moon Express can now focus exclusively on the financial and technical challenges of the 2017 moon mission, which will begin with the launch of the company's MX-1 lander atop a Rocket Lab Electron booster. (
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Strange things on the moon, possible older or currently being used bases and structures not made by natural means...
“Hotel On The Moon”
by Joe Alley
http://www.broadjam.com/artists/songs.php?artistID=3636&mediaID=109741
Let’s put a bunch of those there, too!
Interesting launch company:
I notice they haven’t done a test flight yet, but I do hope they are successful.
“d Moon Express, which aims to fly commercial missions to Earth’s nearest neighbor”
Except we have no idea about what the cosmic radiation will do to people.
Just need on really big diamond.
What if they just went ahead and made the trip without asking?
They could do it if they launched it from another country or from international waters. But that doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be repercussions here in the US when they got back.
I'm outraged by the need for approval. I just read this story here: Scentific American
The interagency approval process "took some time, not because anybody was against or averse to this," he said. "It's just that we asked questions that had never been asked before, and that had to be addressed and worked out."
Here's a question that seems to have never been asked before: how is it any of the government's f*ing business if a private entity goes into space?
Does the government own it all? The entire solar system? The entire galaxy? All the galaxies? The entire universe? The multiverse?
The government is the default owner of all creation?
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