MOON EXPRESS - Happy New Year!

I’d like to extend my best New Year wishes to friends and colleagues at NASA, the X PRIZE Foundation, Google and all those supporting and creating the emerging commercial lunar industry.  

It’s been an amazing year of progress in commercial space. While underscoring the value of public-private partnerships in the opening of the space frontier, the “slam-dunk” success of the SpaceX F9/Dragon flight proved that entrepreneurial efforts can be successfully leveraged with government incentives to do great things. In the same spirit, NASA made a first step toward extending this model beyond Earth orbit with the introduction of the “Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD)” program, selecting six U.S. companies for contracts worth up to $10M from the purchase of data arising from their commercial lunar activities. 
 
Moon Express is excited to be one of those selected by NASA for the ILDD program and one of the three companies chosen for the initial $500K Task Orders. This first small step along the commercial path to the Moon will prove how the private sector can respond quickly to incentivized market opportunity. We were also proud to be announced as a new contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. Together, the NASA and GLXP incentives have raised the stakes to critical mass.  

I am proud to serve as MoonEx CEO. It has been an absolute pleasure working with our founders, investors, executive team and staff in standing up a company with the experienced people, partners and financial resources to blaze a trail to the Moon. I continue to be awed and inspired by what people can do when struck with passion and vision. With the right mix of people, technology and capital, anything is possible. I have the good fortune to be surrounded by incredible people who have come together to make it happen; in many cases making substantial changes in their careers and personal lives to do so. But that’s what it takes to create the future. The many dreams shared by my friends and colleagues on the NewSpace frontier have never felt so close at hand.  

It’s an exciting time for commercial space. We are at an epochal turning point in human history. Moon Express was aptly named in honor of the bold entrepreneurship and public-private railway partnerships that opened up the American west to growth and prosperity. As we continue to learn more about the Moon and its resources, our curiosity and capital will migrate from exploration to development and ultimately settlement, helping secure our survival as a multi-planet species.  

Happy 2011 everyone. Let’s make it epic and continue to turn our dreams into reality!  

~ Bob

Moon Express

News is breaking that a new contender in the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) has arisen and has been contracted by NASA for up to $10M in data purchases from its commercial lunar activities.


Moon Express (MoonEx) is one of six U.S. companies selected by NASA for its $30M Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program. MoonEx is also revealed as an Official Team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition on the GLXP website today and I've noted on some blogs and tweets that some watching closely have already noticed that I am listed as the MoonEx team leader.


I am very excited about MoonEx and I can't wait to tell you more about it. We'll be revealing ourselves in a press conference to be announced in the near future, but right now we're just saying the basics:

Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company. We have the experienced people, partners and financial resources to blaze a trail to the Moon and establish new avenues for commercial space activities beyond Earth orbit.

On a personal note I want to congratulate all the GLXP Teams and their leadership who made the cut on the NASA ILDD program. This is a highly competitive and challenging program, not for the faint of heart nor naive of mind.


As I said in my last blog - the boundaries of a frontier are unpredictable in many ways; that's what makes it exciting. The GLXP and NASA ILDD program are very exciting competitions that represent the knee in the curve of opportunity for the commercial lunar industry. The rising tide floats all boats.  Applause to NASA for raising the stakes and good luck to everyone as we continue to pursue the vision of commercial lunar enterprise.


~ Bob.

A Personal Odyssey

It's an exciting time for commercial lunar ventures; a realization in many ways of the pioneering work invested into Odyssey Moon over the last few years.

I am very proud of our achievements.

Most recently, NASA's announcement of over $30M in potential awards for commercial lunar activities is testimony to our efforts and pivotal in providing further incentives to entrepreneurial companies such as those known to be competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE and perhaps some new entries to the race.

It was a very challenging goal, we knew, to embark on a private sector effort to extend the powers of entrepreneurship and risk capital beyond our current economic sphere of Earth orbit. It is a goal that I remain firmly and completely committed to achieving.

However, as reported by Parabolic Arc today, I have departed as CEO of Odyssey Moon.  After founding Odyssey Moon and taking it as far as I could as its chief executive, the rationale for investing my time and energy timed out and I have had to resign as CEO to pursue funded ventures. I hope Odyssey Moon remains recognized as a seminal mover in the history of commercial lunar aspirations.

There are a lot of developments underway in commercial space that are very exciting and we will see many new permutations as entrepreneurs seek the formulas to make it happen.

The boundaries of a frontier are unpredictable in many ways; that's what makes it exciting.

I am thrilled that amazing people and ventures continue to rally to the vision of commercial lunar activity. Success favors the bold and I look forward to continued hard work harnessing the powers of private enterprise in creating an off-Earth economy and multi-planet civilization.

- Bob.