Lunar Law Row Heats up as NASA Enters Private Moon Rush

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

Date posted: 02/07/14

The CATALYST program is a wonderful opportunity, say officials at lunar-mining hopeful, Moon Express of Mountain View, California, which paid for access to NASA facilities when designing an X Prize entry. We anticipate CATALYST will lead to delivery of payloads and missions to the lunar surface in the same way that commercial transport services to the space station have, says Moon Express CEO Bob Richards. Public-private partnerships have proven their worth in low Earth orbit, so this is a step in the right direction, agrees Mike Gold, director of Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, Nevada, which designs inflatable space habitats. It is one small step for lunar landers, one giant leap for commercial development of the Moon, he says.