Aspiring lunar entrepreneurs contract for help from NASA

San Francisco (AFP) Oct 30, 2008
In a cosmic case of role reversal, aspiring lunar entrepreneurs based on the Isle of Man have hired NASA to build them a robotic rover to send to the moon.

While it has historically been the US space exploration agency dishing out work to private contractors, Odyssey Moon said Thursday that it has contracted NASA as part of its mission to turn lunar travel into a money-making business.

Odyssey Moon is an international partnership that began its project about four years ago.

"The prospect for commercial delivery of NASA science and exploration instruments to the Moon is consistent with the precedents already set by the NASA COTS program supporting commercial supply for orbital operations," said NASA Ames research center director Pete Worden.

"Extending commercial supplier concepts and relationships to advance NASA's mandates for exploration and permanent operations on the Moon is a logical next step."

Odyssey Moon is among the private teams competing for a 30-million-dollar Lunar X Prize being offered by Internet search goliath Google.

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