A Silicon Valley startup, founded by an Indian-American entrepreneur, plans to mine the moon and is in the process of building robotic rovers that will search the lunar surface for precious metals and rare metallic elements. Moon Express Inc or MoonEx, co-founded by Naveen Jain, is building the robotic rovers alongside scientists at Nasa's Ames Research Centre near San Jose, a report in the 'Los Angeles Times' said. While there is no guaranty that the moon is "flush" with these materials, MoonEx thinks it "may be a gold mine of so called rare earth metals."
"From an entrepreneur's perspective, the moon has never truly been explored," the report quoted Jain, the chairman and company co-founder, as saying. "We think it could hold resources that benefit Earth and all humanity." MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles, the report added. "MoonEx should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013," Jain said, "It's our goal to be the first company there and stay there."
No comments:
Post a Comment