Lunar Mission One, a moon-bound project looking for crowdfunding to help it raise stg£600,000, has been announced – with room aboard the spacecraft up for grabs.
Backed by scientists in the UK, the project is looking for the public to pledge varying amounts of money via Kickstarter to acquire different levels of ‘access’ aboard the spacecraft.
This will include photos, text, data and even DNA, all included in a fairly awesome time capsule, drilled deep down into the moon.
Ultimately, it wants stg£500m raised through public pledges, with this Kickstarter campaign merely the first phase of proceedings.
Lunar Mission One will basically transport a digital archive of human existence – through the funding – to the moon, where it will conduct in-depth scientific explorative projects, such as drilling down 100 metres to investigate the moon’s make-up.
The ultimate aim is to assess the moon for a potential technological base for future space exploration.
A CGI of how Lunar Mission One envisages its project
“Welcome to Lunar Mission One,” beams science enthusiast Brian Cox in the project’s promotional video.
“We don’t have scientific answers that everyone agrees on, on very simple questions on the moon, such as, ‘where did the moon come from?’ There will be a generation that are inspired by the missions that are done now. The Rosetta mission, landing on a comet, that captured the public’s imagination.
“If we’re going to explore space, and I think we have to, then the moon is the obvious stepping stone. It’s the easiest place to land and build a base. Everyone can play a part directly, in funding.
“The key thing for me is that everyone can say, ‘I think we should explore space … It’s important, so I’m going to do something about it’.”
By pledging now, people gain a voucher to that amount for a ‘Digital Memory Box’ on the finalised project, with space aboard all determined by how much you pledge.
According to the BBC, the cost of a short message will be a few euros, a compressed photo will be a tens of euros while a short compressed video will be about €250. The cost of sending a hair sample, for those who are into that sort of thing, will be around €60.
