Lunar Mission One: A New Funding Model for Exploration

Introduction

Perhaps, the greatest challenge for space science and exploration is creating an economic case for its financing. To help pay for this expensive endeavor, space agencies are increasingly resorting to international cooperation, the use of private sector resources and the participation of citizens.

Lunar Mission One ¹ directly addresses this key issue with a direct revenue-generating business plan. It brings together, internationally and inspirationally, the resources and aspirations of government, industry, and most importantly the public. And it does so with direct benefits to academic science and industrial engineering.

Mission

An international robotic mission ² will send to the lunar south pole an unmanned lander of under 1,000 kg dry mass with payload (Fig. 1). Using pioneering wire-line technology and onboard instruments, it will drill deep for science, investigating lunar geology down to 20–100 m of depth to provide insights into the history of the solar system. ³

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Fig. 1.

Feasibility study lander (artist's drawing). Logo and image used with permission of Lunar Mission One.

It will investigate the local surface conditions for a future permanently manned base, a “Moon Village,” looking for opportunities through ISRU exploitation and hazards caused by the radiological environment.

It will also check for potential LF radio astronomy.

On success, a second mission can be assigned for the return of selected samples.

Aligned to the Global Exploration Roadmap, the mission will advance remote control robotics, precision landing, and above all telerobotic deep drilling for the search for life on other planetary bodies as well as exploratory terrestrial drilling for resources on Earth. In particular, it expects to develop novel Additive Manufacturing to secure the borehole. ⁴

Revenues

But the mission's greatest uniqueness is the way it will be funded. The downhole location has exceptional conditions for preservation—very cold, a complete absence of fluids, and physically stable and secure. The mission will deposit a collection of time capsules that could survive a geological timescale, awaiting discovery far into the future.

The capsules will contain an epic informational record of Life on Earth, of human history and civilization, and a database of the biosphere and the Earth's environment.

Storage will be made available to consumers worldwide. They can upload personal information and add their DNA stored as a single strand of hair, imagining what may happen to it.

Priced by storage capacity, and with DNA as the main revenue driver, typical sales around $50–$500 are expected, with a low-cost entry of $1. With global customer numbers in the order of 10 millions, the revenue projection is in the $ Billions and provides the basis for project funding.

This is a “Carl Sagan” type of project, generating considerations of the far future, “are we alone,” and the archive's prospects for preservation, discovery, and recovery. It will connect to an individual's sense of being, from their local associations with friends and family to their being part of the global community of humankind. Customer sales are expected to be heavily associated with life events, such as significant anniversaries.

Management

The project will be undertaken as a Public/Private Partnership. The mission's program will be commercially managed by industry, including its design and development, its build, and its space operations. But it will be performed under government authority. This facilitates the legal issues and also helps to merge it into the global exploration program of international space agencies.

A global sales and marketing campaign will be undertaken in parallel, together with an independently managed large-scale education program. The overall project has ultimate nonprofit ownership and objectives.

Government support for key technologies would come through normal R&D channels, recognizing the spinout opportunities especially with drilling robotics and materials. A successful mission will encourage further developments for deep drilling on other moons and planets, especially in the search for basic life.

Commercial cash flow funding from sponsors, attracting investment returns at market rates, will cover the period before revenues are able to pay for project costs.

This will be a new form of Public/Private Partnership for space, in which government contributes financial security and support for key public benefits and in return sees a substantial injection of nongovernment funding from outside the space sector, giving them greater options for their space agency planning.

Public Engagement

The mission offers significant opportunities for the online interaction and direct involvement with schools and colleges and members of the general public.

The public-access record of human culture and natural science can underpin a global education program. The archive will contain a digital encyclopedia based on Wikipedia, to which schools can contribute local information and so facilitate the teaching of history and culture, of wildlife and the environment.

The 1985 BBC Domesday Project for UK schools provides the closest model for creating the archive, but this time, it will be performed worldwide with the Internet and involve all cultures, ages, and abilities.

The space mission itself provides opportunities for educational science and technology, supported by professional institutions in their areas of expertise and by volunteer ambassadors.

A global pilot program is underway to develop and test the ideas for how best to achieve this inclusively, and a number of universities have undertaken student projects in a wide range of areas. Local Chapters of enthusiastic volunteers in all continents are supporting the project's public engagement and promoting local interest. See Figure 2 for the global coverage.

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Fig. 2.

Lunar Mission One Chapters and/or pilot schools.

A collaboration platform has been development by the UK Satellite Applications Catapult. The British Interplanetary Society is hosting the educational engagement, mutually supporting the project's unique mix of imagination and reality.

The educational program supports global marketing awareness and so helps Lunar Mission One's overall business case.

Program Plan

The project's cost estimate is ∼$1.5Bn—half for the space project and half for the public engagement.

This scale of undertaking requires 3 years of preparation before committing decisions can be made. This will include the negotiation and procurement of the main mission contract between an industry consortium and at least 1 government, plus a parallel contract with a global consumer marketing organization, and further contracts for the science instruments.

While the contracts are being set up, industry will be engaged in the formation of mission planning and de-risking critical technologies, especially the drilling. Lunar science will be progressed with the selection of a landing site and all the instruments. And the archive technology will be determined.

This time will also be used to develop the early marketing campaign with early revenues including taking the first edition of the private archive with Astrobotics' first mission—all supported by the local volunteer Chapters, the pilot schools program, and the collaboration platform “LM Labs.”

When ready, the main development, revenue generation, and education program can start. This will take around 6 years.

The lunar operations are expected to take around 6 months. The whole timetable is conditional on funding.

Legacy

Lunar Mission One's market research suggests that the project will make a significant financial surplus, all to go to a nonprofit trust as a legacy for the future space exploration—to support future missions for their scientific research and educational engagement.