Moon Express Sets Its Sights on Deliveries to the Moon and Beyond
Julie Arnold, a spokeswoman for Moon Express, said the lander would be a little bigger than the R2-D2 robot from the movie “Star Wars.”
The design change was made so that the lander would fit in a smaller rocket that Moon Express now plans to use for the first mission.
“I think it’s big,” Dr. Richards said of the potential market, adding that he hoped its designs would “redefine the possible.”
The company released illustrations of its MX-1E lander, which it says will make the trip to the moon this year.
But even if the company does not win the prize, he said, Moon Express would still
have a profitable future ferrying payloads for NASA and commercial customers.
“What we’ve designed is a common core approach.”
Moon Express’s second mission would use a larger spacecraft that looks like two soda cans, one stacked on top of the other, essentially two MX-1Es.
“It can get basically anywhere in the inner solar system,” Dr. Richards said, meaning the neighborhood from the sun to Mars.
