NASA's VIPER rover might still reach the lunar surface after all Intuitive Machines has submitted a bid to save NASA's VIPER rover, describing the $84 million savings claimed by the US space agency when cutting it as "a government number." NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) at the end of last week to seek interest from US companies keen to conduct a mission with the canceled …
SpaceX was a risky start up that grew because they won a Commercial Orbital Transport Services contract from NASA. Intuitive Machines is currently a risky start up that has won a Commercial Lunar Payload Services contract from NASA. This type of contract is not a guaranteed path to profit (See Rocketplane Kistler and Starliner) but it is a huge opportunity for those able to deliver.
Currently they are losing money. The bet is on how 'lunar economy pans' out. The lunar missions are running at least 2 years behind schedule. China's racing ahead may help speed up the cadence of CLPS contracts. If they pull off IM-2 successfully this Dec/Jan, they will be in an enviable position.
Easily. And many thousands of billions more besides.
Remember that only 12 people have been to the Moons surface. Humanity has spent a total of 160 hours, 52 minutes on the surface of the Moon - and the majority of them were pilots, not geologists (selenologists?)
The very first sample returned from the far side of the Moon landed on the 25th June 2024.
Yes, less than two months ago!
Economists have estimated every dollar spent on Kennedy's moonshot bet that resulted in the Apollo landings was returned to the US economy between 10 and 30 times over by the year 2000 (and it is a gift that keeps on giving) There were a lot of technologies that were developed for it that had offshoots that resulted in billion dollar industries.
Unless you're one of those who say "until we solve hunger, crime, disease, war, poverty, global warming, stray dogs and the deer who nibble at my neighbor's garden we have no business going into space", you must concede we should and will be building a moon base someday. The more we know about the moon, the better decisions we'll make when we do it - saving time and money on that project as a result.
It's directly responsible for the IC chip.
NASA said "we want a ton of this chip for the CM/LM guidance computers" (quad dual-input NANDs IIRC)
Industry said "no, there's no ability to produce that, and nobody else wants chips"
"There's a lotta money in it for ya..."
"Oh alright, we'll give it a try"
"We got it years earlier than we otherwise would."
That is a huge benefit in itself.
We also have lots of work done in metal alloys, medicine, waste recycling. The list is very long and in a box somewhere I have several years worth of NASA Spin Off that documents the tech developed at NASA that has been "spun off" to commercial industry. Pure science always pays off, but there's no telling when and how much so accountants don't want to go anywhere near it.
"That is a huge benefit in itself."
Yep. The UK may be a shadow of it's former self, but look where it was once the Industrial Revolution started here and got properly under way. Being a first or at least early mover in any or all industry is a huge advantage.
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