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A lunar NASCAR race? Companies compete to make big bucks on the moon

Companies are racing to mine it for its riches. The competition is fierce but the payoff is potentially huge.

December 5, 2014 4:22PM ET

by Kristyn Martin @kristynmartin

This is third part in a series on the business of space

Moon Express and Astrobotic are competitors in a very small emerging market: commercializing the moon. It’s a market that doesn’t even know it needs the moon yet.

“We see the moon as the eight continent of the world,” says John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic. “We want to open that up.

Bob Richards, CEO of Moon Express, says. “We believe that a hunk of the moon that you can hold in your hand could be worth a billion dollars.”

Both companies are building unmanned craft to take cargo to the moon, like a freight service. Astrobotic’s lander can carry 600 pounds of cargo to the moon. “Once we land on the moon, we become a solar power station,” says Thornton. “We have solar panels, so we’re like the local utility for payloads that come with us.

Moon Express’ spacecraft can carry 80 pounds and is about the size of a coffee table. “It’s a little like a flying saucer,” says Richards. “The energy of our spacecraft is a little like a hot rod in space. It can get all the way to the moons of Mars.”

Both believe the moon is a stepping-stone for larger things — namely, exploring deeper into space, like Mars. The big vision is to set up a launchpad on the moon that can take rockets even farther out and use the water at the poles of the moon to create the fuel to take the rockets there.

“It will actually serve as a time capsule for the kids of Japan to put their dreams in”

John Thornton

CEO, Astrobotic

The companies have their sights set on eventually mining the moon for water and precious minerals. But the near-term goal is simple: carry cargo such as commercial products and science experiments to the moon.

NASA announced this year that both companies were chosen to be a part of its Lunar Catalyst program, which aims to help develop spacecraft, with the goal of eventually contracting companies to take cargo to the moon — similar to deals NASA has with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to take cargo to the International Space Station.

“NASA is moving onto the frontier challenges like going to Mars,” says Alex MacDonald, an economist for NASA. “But we also think it’s important to continue our economic expansion on the lunar surface as well. And that’s why we’re helping companies do what NASA once did.”

But these companies have to pass the first test: getting there. And there’s another layer to the competition, the $30 million Google Lunar XPrize competition, with a $20 million grand prize to the first company that drives 500 meters on the moon and sends back HD images in real time.

Astrobotic and Moon Express are competing for the prize, along with 16 other teams from around the world. Many hope to launch to the moon in 2016. Astrobotic has proposed buying a SpaceX rocket and working with other companies to split the $70 million launch cost. Once they arrive on the moon, the company proposes a veritable lunar NASCAR for the moon rovers, splitting any prize. It’s a bold idea, complete with NASCAR-like advertisements on the rovers, streaming back their space race in HD for the world to watch. However, XPrize says no other teams have signed up for such a race.

Astrobotic has proposed a NASCAR race of moon landers, streamed back in HD.

Regardless of how the teams work out the launch costs, many plan to make money and carry payloads to the moon even while competing. Moon Express plans to deliver a telescope from the International Lunar Observatory Association. And a Japanese company has paid Astrobotic an undisclosed amount to deliver a sports drink called Pocari Sweat to the moon. The company is essentially buying the title of being the first energy drink on the moon.

“It will actually serve as a time capsule for the kids of Japan to put their dreams in,” says Thornton. He expects other brands to follow suit and be the first of their categories go to the moon.

Until now, American’s images of moon exploration were Apollo missions, astronauts and maybe a bit of gold. But sports drinks and rover races? That’s the reality of commercializing space — far cry from Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart’s day.

“It’s a big question when you start seeing a really creative, innovative lander on the moon and you have a close-up and it’s of Budweiser or NASCAR … It puts some ambiguity in the game,” says Schweickart.

But, he says, sponsors are money, and private money is the key to developing commercial space and all that comes with it.

“The innovation is the secret to the future,” he says. “That will enable my grandkids to look up on the moon and see lights of towns and settlements and cities, maybe. Who knows?”