Lunar Mission One: A New Funding Model for Exploration

Abstract

Lunar Mission One directly addresses the key issue of how to fund the expensive endeavor that is space exploration. It brings together, internationally and inspirationally, the resources and aspirations of government, industry, and most importantly citizens. Its robotic mission will land at the lunar south pole and drill deep for geological science. It will also take measurements of the surface environment to assist decisions on a future manned base. As well as advancing precision landing and robotics, it will develop key technology that will enable remote deep drilling for the search for life on other planetary bodies. The mission's program will be commercially managed by industry, including its design, its build, and its operation. 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, giving them greater options for their planning. It is 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. That funding derives from the mission depositing an epic record of life on Earth down the borehole where, thanks to the exceptional environmental conditions, it could survive a geological timescale, awaiting discovery far into the future. People will pay to include their personal information, especially their DNA stored by a single strand of hair, with a mix of imagination and reality and leading to the project's revenues. 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. A global pilot program is underway to develop and test the ideas for how best to achieve this inclusively for all cultures, ages, and abilities. A number of universities have started student projects in a wide range of areas. Local Chapters of enthusiastic volunteers in all continents are supporting our public engagement, assisted by an online collaboration platform. Lunar Mission One's market research suggested that the project will make a significant financial surplus, all to go to a nonprofit trust as a future legacy for the future space exploration.