Space Startups Are Trying to Make Money Going to the Moon
Startup Companies, along with NASA and SpaceX, want to build businesses on the moon— but first they need to get there
Artist's concept of NASA astronauts working on the surface of the moon.
Source: Geopix/NASA/Alamy
For years, NASA has been planting the seeds of what it hopes will one day sprout into a full-fledged lunar economy. In the future, private companies could ferry people and cargo to and from the moon, creating a base to conduct science and, eventually, mine resources and even lunar ice as an ingredient to make rocket propellant. It’s a grand vision that could start to take shape this year and eventually lead to a marketplace in which companies could use the lunar environment to turn a profit as they do now with orbiting satellites.
Much will have to go right for that future to coalesce over the next decade or so, starting with making trips to and from the moon as routine as satellite launches. For now, the lunar economy consists mainly of money from NASA contracts, and it will probably stay that way well into the decade. If a self-sustaining lunar economy is to emerge, private companies will have to find ways to do business on the moon that doesn't rely on government money.