Moon Express (MoonEx; vehicle model prefix: MX) is an American privately held company formed in 2010 by a group of Silicon Valley and space entrepreneurs. It had the goal of winning the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, and of ultimately mining the Moon for natural resources of economic value.^[1][2] The company was not able to make a launch attempt to reach the Moon by March 31, 2018, the deadline for the prize.

Since late 2018, and as of February 2020^[update], Moon Express focused on supporting NASA under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract.^[3]

In August 2010,^[4] Robert D. Richards,^[5] Naveen Jain,^[6] and Barney Pell co-founded Moon Express, a Mountain View, California-based company that plans to offer commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long-term goal of mining the Moon for resources,^[7] including elements that are rare on Earth, including niobium, yttrium and dysprosium.^[1][8]

Beginning in 2010, Moon Express based itself at the NASA Ames Research Center. Moon Express and NASA signed a contract in October 2010^[9] for data purchase that could be worth up to US$10,000,000.^[1][10]

On June 30, 2011, the company held its first successful test flight of a prototype lunar lander system called the Lander Test Vehicle (LTV) that was developed in partnership with NASA.^[5] On September 11, 2011, Moon Express set up a robotics lab for a lunar probe named the "Moon Express Robotics Lab for INnovation" (MERLIN) and hired several engineering students who had successfully competed at the FIRST Robotics Competition.

In mid-2012, Moon Express started work with the International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) to put a shoebox-sized astronomical telescope called International Lunar Observatory on the Moon.^[11]

By 2012, MoonEx had 20 employees, and in December 2012, MoonEx acquired one of the other Google Lunar X-Prize teams, Rocket City Space Pioneers, from Dynetics for an undisclosed sum. The agreement made Tim Pickens, the former lead of the RCSP team, the Chief Propulsion Engineer for MoonEx.^[12] In September 2013, MoonEx added Paul Spudis as Chief Scientist and Jack Burns as Science Advisory Board Chair.^[13]

In October and November 2013, Moon Express conducted several free flight tests of its flight software utilizing the NASA Mighty Eagle lander test vehicle, under a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.^[14] One month later, in December 2013, MoonEx unveiled the MX-1 lunar lander, a toroidal robotic lander that uses high-test hydrogen peroxide as its rocket propellant to support vertical landing on the lunar surface.^[15] On April 30, 2014 NASA announced that Moon Express was one of the three companies selected for the Lunar CATALYST initiative.^[16]

By December 2014, Moon Express successfully conducted flight tests of its "MTV-1X" lander test vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, becoming the first private company (and GLXP team) to demonstrate a commercial lunar lander test.^[17]

In 2015, the company announced that it would lease part of Florida's Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36 for 5 years, and relocate operations there.^[18] In July 2016, Moon Express stated it would leave LC 36 and be taking over Cape Canaveral Launch Complexes 17 and 18.^[19]

On July 20, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration approved Moon Express plans for a mission to deliver commercial payloads to the Moon, making Moon Express the first private company to receive government approval for a commercial space mission beyond traditional Earth orbit under the requirements of the Outer Space Treaty.^[20][21]

On October 31, 2017, NASA extended the no-funds Space Act Agreement with Moon Express, for the Lunar CATALYST initiative, for 2 more years.^[22]

On July 12, 2018, both historic launch towers at Space Launch Complex 17 were demolished via controlled demolition to make way for Moon Express facilities to test its lunar lander.^[23] That month, Moon Express was unable to make payroll and laid off nine employees; the employees did not receive back-pay until October 2018.^[24]

In October 2018, the company signed several collaboration agreements with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and a number of Canadian aerospace companies.^[25]

On November 29, 2018, Moon Express joined the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program of NASA, becoming eligible to bid on delivering science and technology payloads to the Moon for NASA.^[26][27]

^{[needs update]}

The company was a competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize.^[28] The prize was an award of $30 million to the first team to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon and deliver data, images and video from the landing site and from 500 meters away from its landing site.^[6]

Moon Express signed a contract with Rocket Lab on 30 September 2015 for three Electron launches of Moon Express robotic spacecraft in pursuit of the X Prize, starting in 2017.^[29][30]

The first mission, called the Lunar Scout, was planned for 2017 (later delayed to July 2020) and would use the MX-1E lander.^[31] This was a technology demonstration flight that included three payloads:^[32]

• International Lunar Observatory (ILO-1) is a small optical telescope that will operate from the lunar south pole. The selected landing location is the 5 km (3.1 mi)-high Malapert mountain.^[33]
• MoonLIGHT is a laser retroreflector experiment built by Italy's INFN and the University of Maryland to perform research on gravity and on general relativity.^[34]
• Celestis memorial container with some human remains.

The second mission was the Lunar Outpost MX-3,^[35] a robotic lander to the lunar south pole that would scout for water ice and other lunar resources.^[32] The third mission, called Harvest Moon, would be a sample-return mission.^[32]

By October 2015, there were 16 teams competing for the prize. On January 23, 2018, X Prize founder and chairman Peter Diamandis stated "After close consultation with our five finalist Google Lunar X Prize teams over the past several months, we have concluded that no team will make a launch attempt to reach the moon by the March 31, 2018, deadline."^[36]

Following the end of the Google Lunar X Prize, Moon Express shelved the planned lunar lander missions and turned its efforts toward competing in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program instead.^[3]

The company's robotic spacecraft are based on NASA's Modular Common Spacecraft Bus (MCSB),^[37][38] which are modular and scalable platforms that can be configured as landers or orbiters.^[40]

All MoonEx robotic spacecraft use low-toxicity fuels, advanced carbon composites and silicates and a Moon Express PECO rocket engine.^[41] The PECO main engine uses RP-1 as a fuel and hydrogen peroxide as an oxidiser. The landing thrusters use hydrogen peroxide as a monopropellant.^[42] PECO stands for 'propulsion that is eco-friendly'.^[43] The company has the "MX lander family":^[35]

• MX-1 – a single-engine spacecraft with a mass of 250 kg (fuelled); 30 kg payload capacity.^[39]
• MX-2 – a twin-engine spacecraft with a 30 kg payload capacity.
• MX-5 – a 5-engine platform configuration that can include MX-1 or MX-2 staged system. The MX-5 has a 150 kg payload capacity.
• MX-9 – a 9-engine platform configuration, designed for sample return. The MX-9 has a payload capacity of about 500 kg.^[41]

• Exogeology
• Geology of the Moon
• Lunar resources
• Lunar water
• NewSpace