14 DAY TRIAL // Inspired by the European Space Agency's success in landing a spacecraft on a comet and having it drill into its surface, a bunch of space exploration enthusiasts are now looking to send a robot to the moon and have it poke a hole in it.
Thus, UK-based Lunar Missions Ltd. hopes that, come 2024, they will manage to put a robot on our planet's natural satellite and have it drill into its south pole.
Should things go according to plan, the robot Lunar Missions Ltd. plans to send to our good old moon will successfully drill up to a depth of about 65 feet (approximately 20 meters).
Provided that the planets will be aligned in the right way and the skies will be smiling down on the robot on the day of this mission, the borehole might go as deep as 330 feet (roughly 100 meters).
Why drill into the moon?
Seeing how the moon has had its fair share of meteorite bombardments and cosmic radiation scorching over the ages, some might be tempted to say that the folks behind Lunar Missions Ltd. would do best to let it be and not abuse it any further.
The thing is that these space exploration enthusiasts aren't planning to drill into the moon's south pole just for fun. On the contrary, they have a very serious working agenda, and it all boils down to gaining a better understanding of the world we live in.
In a nutshell, these guys and gals want to have their robot do more than just poke a humongous hole in our planet's natural satellite. They want it to collect rock samples from deep inside the moon and return them to Earth.
Seeing how these rocks have never experienced a close encounter with cosmic radiation or meteorites, it is expected that, by analyzing their makeup, scientists will manage to shed new light on what Earth and the moon were up to some 4.5 billion years ago.
“By doing this, we will access lunar rock dating back up to 4.5 billion years to discover the geological composition of the Moon, the ancient relationship it shares with our planet and the effects of asteroid bombardment.”
“Ultimately, the project will improve scientific understanding of the early solar system, the formation of our planet and the Moon, and the conditions that initiated life on Earth,” UK-based Lunar Missions Ltd. explains.
A little bit of fun never hurt anybody
True, this mission is all about figuring out how our planet, the moon and life on Earth came into being. Still, this does not mean that the robot Lunar Missions Ltd. wants to send to the moon won't get to have some fun while drilling into the celestial body's south pole.
Thus, word has it that, once the borehole is created and rock samples are collected from deep inside it, the robot will shove a capsule into the ground. Apparently, the time capsule will contain a record of life on our planet, the rise of human civilization included.
The time capsule will also carry so-called digital memory boxes to the moon. Ordinary folks who will find it in their heart to support this project will each get such a memory box and will get to upload anything they want into it.
They might have it all figured out, but they still need help
Lunar Missions Ltd. says that, although only announced a couple of days ago, this little project has been in the works for nearly 7 years now. The thing is that, to make it happen, they need a little help from us ordinary folks.
More precisely, the folks behind Lunar Missions One need £600,000 (nearly $940,000 / €750,000) to jump-start development operations. They hope that, with the help on an ongoing fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, they will eventually get this money.
Commenting on the importance of this project, Lunar Missions Ltd. founder David Iron said, “Lunar Mission One will make a huge contribution to our understanding of the origins of our planet and the moon, and will inspire a generation to learn more about space, science and engineering, in the same way that my generation was inspired by the Apollo moon landing.”
Check out the video below to learn more about this project and head over to Kickstarter if you feel like giving these guys and gals a helping hand.
