NASA Wants To Buy Moon Rocks From Companies

NASA Wants To Buy Moon Rocks From Companies

"We will buy lunar rocks from them," says a new official tender from NASA, "please submit your offer". NASA wants to motivate private space companies to organize their own lunar missions to prepare lunar stations. Stones do not have to be brought to earth The deal on offer looks like this: Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin or others bring astronauts or robots to the moon at their own expense. They fill a box with 50 to 500 grams of rock, take a photo, write down where it is and transfer ownership to NASA. That was it. They don't have to bring the soil samples to earth. Ten percent of the money is given when the contract is signed, ten percent when the rocket launches, 80 percent when the photo is there, if possible by 2024 - an ambitious goal. How high the fee is should then be in the offer.

Incentive for commercial space development

NASA will of course never pick up the moon rocks. But this is how it finances private lunar missions without having to take part in the development of rockets and technology. This gives companies an incentive to further develop commercial space travel. And NASA can leave the lunar program behind and delegate it to commercial providers. NASA focuses on the next target: Mars.