Moon Express (MoonEx; vehicle model prefix: MX) is an American privately held company formed in 2010 by a group of Silicon Valley and space entrepreneurs.
It had the goal of winning the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, and of ultimately mining the Moon for natural resources of economic value.
Since late 2018, and as of February 2020[update], Moon Express focused on supporting NASA under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) contract.
[3] In August 2010,[4] Robert D. Richards,[5] Naveen Jain,[6] and Barney Pell co-founded Moon Express, a Mountain View, California-based company that plans to offer commercial lunar robotic transportation and data services with a long-term goal of mining the Moon for resources,[7] including elements that are rare on Earth, including niobium, yttrium and dysprosium.
[12] In September 2013, MoonEx added Paul Spudis as Chief Scientist and Jack Burns as Science Advisory Board Chair.
[17] In 2015, the company announced that it would lease part of Florida's Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36 for 5 years, and relocate operations there.
[20][21] On October 31, 2017, NASA extended the no-funds Space Act Agreement with Moon Express, for the Lunar CATALYST initiative, for 2 more years.
[40] All MoonEx robotic spacecraft use low-toxicity fuels, advanced carbon composites and silicates and a Moon Express PECO rocket engine.