

Moon Express Lunar Lander Program - ChuckMcM
http://www.moonexpress.com/

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austinz
> "Moon Express engineers have combined the latest exponential technologies in
> micro-avionics with advanced propulsion and materials to create an
> innovative approach to spacecraft design and fabrication, empowered by
> leading edge Autodesk digital design tools to help make the impossible
> possible and reach for the Moon."

The web site is filled with vapid copy, but this rather meaningless sentence
takes the cake. There are a bunch of interesting XPrize teams working to land
rovers on the moon; I wouldn't put any money on these guys.

~~~
demallien
Where on Earth do people learn to write this crap? Someone must be teaching
it, because it's extremely prevalent, particularly from people in marketing.

One if the minor joys of my life is that as a native English speaker leaving
in France, people often ask me to "correct the English" of press releases.
When I run into word salad like your example I just tell my interlocutor that
I don't understand what they are trying to say. After many minutes of them
explaining, I rewrite the paragraph in plain English :) begone marketing-
speak, I hereby banish thee to the low gates of Hell!

------
mey
I'm skeptical about the stated reasons to go back. The only one that seems of
any actual rarity is the moon rocks themselves, but that seems unlikely to be
a sufficient recurring revenue stream. Aka, once everyone can get one, what's
the attraction?

Rare Earth are available, just most terrestrial mines have shut down because
there is not a sufficient market place to make it worth while.

Helium-3 can be manufactured. So again, terrestrial production can be
increased.

Not going to comment on platinum.

Honestly the most value I could see on the moon is the production of resources
to sustain life and fuel to act as a higher orbit refueling platform. Both are
critical to get humans and machines active in space.

    
    
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum
    

As to why the Moon would make a good refueling platform

    
    
      http://xkcd.com/681_large/

~~~
rbanffy
I like the idea of manufacturing spacecraft parts on the Moon. There is no
oxygen so metallurgy may be easier, gravity is lower, so some alloys should be
easier to make and there is abundant energy in the form of sunlight. I don't
know about its mineralogy, but I would suspect it's rich in light metals.

Also, a radiotelescope on the far side would be shielded from Earth's
interferences.

And, of course, someone has to bury a big black brick in Tycho so future
generations can be puzzled.

~~~
gliese1337

        Also, a radiotelescope on the far side would be shielded from Earth's interferences.
    

While that would be _really awesome_ , I'm pretty sure a radio telescope could
be shielded just as well with a few sheets of metal (like the James Webb
telescope). And if it's stuck to the surface of the moon, it's a lot more
restricted in where it can point at any one time than one free-floating in
space would be.

~~~
pjc50
You can't shield an earth ground-based telescope from the atmosphere. And the
Arecebo fixed telescope seems to work quite well - one of those in a moon
crater would be an extremely sensitive instrument.

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eksith
Space travel (even to LEO) is pretty bloody expensive. I'm not sure any type
of mining will become worthwhile or even feasible without significant
breakthroughs in equipment/fuel costs in the next few years. Without them, I
don't think any costs of going to the Moon are recoverable by mining - unless,
of course, we find out the cheese turns out to be a solid lump of Platinum.

Of course if the visits are purely scientific, then the costs will be
worthwhile. As a commercial venture, I don't see the point.

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TrainedMonkey
Reasons they listed for going to the moon seem pretty weak. Need expert
opinion on their lander/engine tech for I am no rocket scientist. I find very
interesting use of word "proprietary" in design of their lander, why would
they emphasize that?

All that said I applaud all and any efforts to advance space technologies.

------
ChuckMcM
Ok, had to share this. Not sure if these guys have any shot at all about
getting to the Moon but they have just dumped a large amount of information
about what they are going to attempt on to their web site.

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ocfx
"RESOUCES".... really? I know it might seem picky but having an error that
glaring on a site is a good way to get people to not take you seriously.

~~~
dandelany
What kind of people are you talking about? How many investors would discount a
company based on a typo? The kind of people that matter to them would never
form an opinion based on something so trivial.

~~~
qbrass
Missing a typo on a website is trivial, but it leads to wondering if they
missed something more important. You don't want to see your investment impact
the Moon 10x faster than it was supposed to because somebody misplaced a
decimal point.

~~~
dandelany
Yep I'm sure the people who write the website copy also calculate the orbital
dynamics, and I'm sure they give both items the same scrutiny. I would love to
see one iota of evidence that the occurrence of typos in web copy is a good
predictor of _anything whatsoever_.

I mean come on, _the plaque placed on the moon by Apollo 11_ has a typo on it!
[http://timdroogsma.blogspot.com/2009/07/typo-on-
moon.html](http://timdroogsma.blogspot.com/2009/07/typo-on-moon.html)

~~~
mikeash
I don't buy it. I can't remember seeing AD/BC go before the year number even
once, and I see it after all the time.

