"Fly me to the moon" might be the theme song of the small spacecraft aiming to land on the moon in 2015. While it is not optimally designed for passengers, it can bring government or scientific payload to our nearest neighbor in space. Moon Express unwrapped on Thursday in Las Vegas its MX-1 lunar lander.
The California-based company built the MX-1 from scratch. The ride is expected to tip the scale at 1,320 pounds with rocket fuel making up three fourths of its mass. The lunar lander is built from composite materials using its fuel tanks as the base for its design.
"The spacecraft rockets use a high test version of the consumer level hydrogen peroxide widely available in drug stores. We're developing three new rocket engines at our Propulsion Development and Test Facilities in Huntsville and benefiting greatly from new advances in digital 3D design and fabrication tools," said Moon Express chief propulsion engineer Tim Pickens in statement.
The MX-1 combines technologies of micro-avionics, robotic, and green technologies. The spacecraft, about the size of a coffee table, can utilize sunlight and hydrogen peroxide as fuel. With known sures of water on the moon, the lunar lander has a potential source of fuel in its destination as hydrogen peroxide is just an oxygen enriched form of water. However, the MX-1 needs to use kerosene to propel itself and escape the gravity of earth, eventually out of orbit.
"The MX-1 is not just a lunar lander, it is a spacecraft workhorse with many markets. The MX-1 is the 'iPhone of space'; a platform capable of supporting many apps including our core plan of exploring the Moon for resources of benefit to humanity," said Moon Express co-founder and chief executive Bob Richards.
The MX-1 is aiming for the Google Lunar XPRIZE of $30 million. Aside from bringing payloads of around 130 pounds to the moon, it can also help in satellite servicing and other applications such as cleaning debris in space.
According to reports, the MX-1 might land in the Southern Hemisphere of the moon where the U.S. Surveyor 7 landed in 1968.
