Tag: Moon Express

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Entrepreneurial frontier explored in ‘Moonshots’

Entrepreneur Naveen Jain takes a zero-G airplane flight. (Credit: Naveen Jain / Zero Gravity Corp. via Twitter)

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Seattle-area entrepreneur Naveen Jain is a big fan of moonshots — in part because one of his ventures, Moon Express, is gearing up to do honest-to-goodness moonshots. Jain also backs a “moonshot factory” called BlueDot. So it only makes sense that Jain’s newly published book, written with John Schroeter, is titled “Moonshots: Creating a World of Abundance.”

What does Jain see as the next frontier for technological moonshots?

“I think the next problem I want to solve is agricultural production and food,” Jain told me in the run-up to this week’s publication of the book. “We really believe there is no reason we cannot increase the productivity of our crops by adjusting the soil microbiome and the seed microbiome.”

That may sound like a tall order, considering that experts are sounding the alarm about potentially catastrophic food shortages by the year 2050. But Jain has faith that technology — and entrepreneurship — will find a way.

That attitude is reflected in the 59-year-old, Indian-born engineer’s career, including his sometimes-controversial stint as the founder and CEO of InfoSpace, his foray into space missions as the co-founder and chairman of Moon Express, and his CEO roles at the Bellevue-based BlueDot tech incubator and at its first spinout, the Viome wellness venture.

It’s reflected as well in “Moonshots,” which puts entrepreneurs front and center when it comes to saving the world.

“The book was written for entrepreneurs, and really, even our own kids,” Jain said.

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Moon Express brings in $12.5M to boost lunar plans

An artist’s conception shows Moon Express’ MX-1E spacecraft making its approach to the moon. (Moon Express Illustration)

Moon Express, which aims to start missions to the moon within the next couple of years, says it has raised $2.5 million in bridge financing and has begun a $20 million Series B financing round, anchored by a $10 million lead investor.

Proceeds will go toward building out facilities in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and developing the spacecraft for its commercial lunar flight program, the company said today in a news release.

Since its founding in 2010, Moon Express has been working on a space transport system that’s been called a “FedEx for space.” The company, which has Seattle-area entrepreneur Naveen Jain as its co-founder and executive chairman, was a competitor for the Google Lunar X Prize. Although the prize went unwon, Moon Express is continuing to work on a series of spacecraft for trips to the moon and other off-Earth destinations with backing from NASA’s Lunar CATALYST program.

Moon Express’ co-founder and CEO, Bob Richards, announced the new financing at The World Innovation Network Global Summit in Chicago.

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Moon Express unveils its lunar roadmap

Moon Express’ MX-1E settles onto the lunar surface. (Moon Express Illustration)

Moon Express has laid out the plan it intends to follow to send probes to the surface of the moon and start bringing lunar samples back to Earth by 2020.

The plan calls for completing work on Moon Express’ MX-1E lander and its 3-D-printed PECO rocket engine, setting it on Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle and sending it to the moon by the end of this year.

At least two more missions would follow, heading for the moon’s south polar region in 2019 and 2020.

The Florida-based company’s lunar exploration architecture was unveiled today at a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, D.C.

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Moon Express’ moonshot is ‘go with funding’

An artist’s conception shows Moon Express’ lander extending its robotic arm to take a “selfie” of the spacecraft on the lunar surface with Earth in the background. (Credit: Moon Express)

An executive at Moon Express has been widely quoted as saying his company has reached its funding goal for this year’s planned commercial mission to the lunar surface, thanks to $20 million in new investment.

“We now have all the resources in place to shoot for the moon,” the Florida-based company’s CEO, Bob Richards, said in a statement. “Our goal is to expand Earth’s social and economic sphere to the moon, our largely unexplored eighth continent, and enable a new era of low-cost lunar exploration and development for students, scientists, space agencies and commercial interests.”

Space News quoted Richards as saying that the latest round of investment includes contributions from new and existing investors, including the company’s chairman and co-founder, Seattle-area tech entrepreneur Naveen Jain.

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NASA puts out call for lunar experiments

An artist’s conception shows a Moon Express lander in lunar orbit. (Credit: Moon Express)

NASA wants suggestions for experiments that can be sent to the moon on commercial spacecraft – and Moon Express, one of the companies building those spacecraft, wants to kick in up to $500,000 per experiment.

The experiments would be aimed at filling the “strategic knowledge gaps” for lunar exploration, NASA said in today’s request for information, which was timed to coincide with this week’s meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group in Columbia, Md.

The time frame for the proposed experiments – in the range of 2017 to 2020 – seems tailor-made for Moon Express, which is one of several teams going after the top award in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize.

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Moon Express wins U.S. green light for moonshot

An artist’s conception shows the Moon Express MX-1 lander in lunar orbit. (Credit: Moon Express)

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Moon Express says it has received preliminary clearance for the robotic lander that it plans to send to the moon next year, after a voluntary payload review involving the Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agencies.

The clearance doesn’t represent final regulatory approval for the mission, although some reports may be giving that impression. The FAA will still have to grant a launch license before Moon Express can blast off.

Nevertheless, Moon Express’ executives hailed the successful payload review as a significant step toward what could be the first commercial mission to another celestial body. Moon Express CEO Bob Richards called it a “landmark decision.”

“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,” Richards said in a statement issued today.

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Stage set for private missions to moon, Mars

An artist’s conception shows Moon Express’ MX-1 lander extending its robotic arm to take a “selfie” of the spacecraft on the lunar surface with Earth in the background. (Credit: Moon Express)

After months of discussion, federal agencies are closing in on a process to approve commercial missions to other celestial bodies – including the moon, Mars and asteroids.

The groundwork for the process was laid in April, when the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy told Congress that the Transportation Department was the most appropriate entity to approve new kinds of commercial space missions such as on-orbit satellite servicing and trips beyond Earth orbit.

Now the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies are “working through the interagency process to ensure a mechanism is in place that permits emerging commercial space operations,” FAA spokesman Hank Price said in a statement emailed to GeekWire.

The issue was brought to a head when Moon Express, one of the companies chasing the Google Lunar X Prize, asked the FAA to review its plans to put a lander on the moon next year. The FAA is part of the Transportation Department. Its Office of Commercial Space Transportation is currently in charge of approving commercial space launches and re-entries, but not activities in orbit or in deep space.

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Moon Express asks FAA to review lunar mission

An artist’s conce[t shows the Moon Express MX-1 lander orbiting the moon. (Credit: Moon Express)
Moon Express, the lunar exploration venture backed by Seattle tech entrepreneur Naveen Jain, says it’s asking the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a payload review of its spacecraft and plans for a mission to the moon in 2017.

The request is aimed at heading off regulatory uncertainty about the mission, which is aimed at winning the Google Lunar X Prize.

Moon Express ranks among the front-runners in the $30 million competition, which calls for teams to send landers to the moon, travel along the surface and send back real-time video by the end of next year.

Such a feat would represent a first for commercial space ventures, but because it’s unprecedented, it’s not fully clear what kind of regulatory go-ahead would be required for a U.S.-based company. So far, only governmental space programs have sent probes beyond Earth orbit.

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One small step for Moon Express lunar launch

An artist’s conception shows Moon Express’ lander on the way to the lunar surface. (Credit: Moon Express)

Moon Express, the lunar exploration venture co-founded by Seattle entrepreneur Naveen Jain, has gotten the “all systems go” signal for its bid to put a robotic lander to the moon and win the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

The thumbs-up comes in the form of XPRIZE’s certification of Moon Express’ launch contract with Los Angeles-based Rocket Lab USA. If all goes according to schedule, Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle will blast off from a pad in New Zealand or the U.S. in 2017, sending Moon Express’ MX-1E lander to the lunar surface.

Next year, Rocket Lab is due to begin Electron test launches from a site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula. The company is also working with Alaska Aerospace Corp., which owns and operates the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska on Kodiak Island. In October, Rocket Lab won a $6.95 million NASA contract to launch a payload to low Earth orbit in the 2016-2017 time frame.

The Google Lunar XPRIZE flight would have to go much farther: The rules call for a privately funded lander to touch down on the moon, transport itself at least 500 meters (546 yards) and send video back to Earth. The first team to do all that within the rules wins $20 million. Another $10 million has been set aside for other prizes.

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Moon Express aims for 2017 launch to moon

Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards shows off a model of the MX-1 lunar lander in 2013. (Credit: Moon Express via YouTube)

Moon Express says it has reserved three lunar lander launches from a startup called Rocket Lab starting in 2017, with an eye toward putting robots on the moon’s surface and winning the lion’s share of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize.

If the mission is successful, Moon Express could become the first privately backed venture to achieve a soft lunar landing.

“This will be the space equivalent of the four-minute mile,” Moon Express’ co-founder and CEO, Bob Richards, told GeekWire on Thursday. “This is a new era we just could have dreamed about as kids.”

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