MoonDust to retrieve USD 10 billion of lunar soil in robotic Moon mission
StartupRealities No 83
MoonDust is a space technology and memorabilia company which plans to launch a single uncrewed mission to the surface of the Moon to bring moon dust back to Earth in 2023. The company is taking pre-orders in a crowdfunding campaign and plans to retrieve one tonne of moon material with a retail price of USD 10 billion.
STATISTICS
Limited amounts of lunar samples (moon soil / moon rock) have ever been brought back to Earth. NASA has 382 kg of moon material brought back in the Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 missions (1969-1972) but none of this is for sale. The former Soviet Union has less than a kilogram, collected with robotic probes in missions in 1970-1976.
PRICE
NASA estimated in 2003 that its cost of retrieval of the lunar samples was USD 50,800 per gram (in 1973 dollars), which would equal USD 308,000 per gram in 2020 dollars. According to a 2018 article in The Washington Post, 0.2 grams of Soviet lunar soil were sold at auction in 1993 at a price of USD 442,500, which in present-day dollars would give moon dust a valuation of USD 4.0 million per gram.
MISSION REVENUE
The MoonDust marketing team estimate that the one tonne of lunar soil planned to be retrieved in the lunar mission will command an average retail price of USD 10,000 per gram. This would value the one tonne of moon samples at a total of USD 10 billion.
MEMORABILIA & JEWELLERY
The company will be selling moon dust in several different forms:
A) in bulk: by the kilogram;
B) in small samples: by the gram;
C) in the form of moon-plated gold, silver and selenium coins and medallions, covered in several-atoms-thick moondust plating, which would require only a milligram of moo ndust to cover a dime-sized coin. The milligram of moon dust plating will have an estimated retail price of USD 25, allowing the company to mint up to 50 million coins at a retail price of USD 100 per coin.
The company expects that for several years after the return of the mission, moon dust will be a major jewellery ingredient on the global market, on a par with gold.
CEO QUOTE
"We toyed with the idea of collecting the tonne of moon dust from the landing site of the Apollo 11 mission, where the footprints of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin still remain visible. No law forbids this. However, our entire team thought it would be unethical to disturb this historic site and ultimately disrespectful to the heritage of humanity. So the samples will be collected from just anywhere on the Moon, really," said MoonDust founder and CEO Moana Dusk.
"Our coins, medallions and other memorabilia are particularly popular with western customers whose star sign is Cancer, as Cancer is supposedly ruled by the Moon in western astrology; and with Chinese customers who were born in the year of the rabbit (e.g. 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023), as the rabbit symbolises the Moon in Chinese mythology. Our choice of 2023 as the target year for our lunar mission is an opportune coincidence with the Chinese Year of the Rabbit," Moana Dusk explained.
MoonDust is a space technology and memorabilia company which plans to launch a single uncrewed mission to the surface of the Moon to bring moon dust back to Earth in 2023. The company is taking pre-orders in a crowdfunding campaign and plans to retrieve one tonne of moon material with a retail price of USD 10 billion.
STATISTICS
Limited amounts of lunar samples (moon soil / moon rock) have ever been brought back to Earth. NASA has 382 kg of moon material brought back in the Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 missions (1969-1972) but none of this is for sale. The former Soviet Union has less than a kilogram, collected with robotic probes in missions in 1970-1976.
PRICE
NASA estimated in 2003 that its cost of retrieval of the lunar samples was USD 50,800 per gram (in 1973 dollars), which would equal USD 308,000 per gram in 2020 dollars. According to a 2018 article in The Washington Post, 0.2 grams of Soviet lunar soil were sold at auction in 1993 at a price of USD 442,500, which in present-day dollars would give moon dust a valuation of USD 4.0 million per gram.
MISSION REVENUE
The MoonDust marketing team estimate that the one tonne of lunar soil planned to be retrieved in the lunar mission will command an average retail price of USD 10,000 per gram. This would value the one tonne of moon samples at a total of USD 10 billion.
MEMORABILIA & JEWELLERY
The company will be selling moon dust in several different forms:
A) in bulk: by the kilogram;
B) in small samples: by the gram;
C) in the form of moon-plated gold, silver and selenium coins and medallions, covered in several-atoms-thick moondust plating, which would require only a milligram of moo ndust to cover a dime-sized coin. The milligram of moon dust plating will have an estimated retail price of USD 25, allowing the company to mint up to 50 million coins at a retail price of USD 100 per coin.
The company expects that for several years after the return of the mission, moon dust will be a major jewellery ingredient on the global market, on a par with gold.
CEO QUOTE
"We toyed with the idea of collecting the tonne of moon dust from the landing site of the Apollo 11 mission, where the footprints of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin still remain visible. No law forbids this. However, our entire team thought it would be unethical to disturb this historic site and ultimately disrespectful to the heritage of humanity. So the samples will be collected from just anywhere on the Moon, really," said MoonDust founder and CEO Moana Dusk.
"Our coins, medallions and other memorabilia are particularly popular with western customers whose star sign is Cancer, as Cancer is supposedly ruled by the Moon in western astrology; and with Chinese customers who were born in the year of the rabbit (e.g. 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023), as the rabbit symbolises the Moon in Chinese mythology. Our choice of 2023 as the target year for our lunar mission is an opportune coincidence with the Chinese Year of the Rabbit," Moana Dusk explained.
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| The Moon (image source: Wikipedia) |
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