NASA has chosen the companies that will be responsible for gathering lunar resources with the intention of bringing them back to Earth. These four firms already have confirmed transport arrangements on upcoming commercial lunar landing missions, and this initiative showcases the benefits of NASA leveraging private industry to fulfill its objectives. This also establishes a new standard for NASA compensating private entities for materials they initially acquired and possessed independently before transferring ownership to the agency.

The selected proposals were judged on two key factors: technical viability and overall cost. Four companies emerged as winners, each utilizing a different transport method, and will work to meet NASA’s requirements. These requirements involve collecting lunar regolith – the equivalent of “soil” on the moon – in quantities ranging from 50 to 500 grams. NASA will manage the retrieval process separately at a later time. The samples were required to be collected prior to 2024, potentially allowing for recovery during NASA’s Artemis missions, though the agency retains the discretion to proceed with retrieval.

The four companies selected are:

• Lunar Outpost, based in Golden, Colorado, submitted a bid of just $1 to complete the contract following the arrival of the Blue Origin lunar lander in 2023.
• ispace Japan requested $5,000 for retrieval via the landing of its Hakuto-R lander during its inaugural mission, currently scheduled for 2022.
• ispace Europe, an integral part of ispace Japan’s global operations, bid $5,000 with an anticipated arrival in 2023 on the second Hakuto-R mission.
• Masten Space Systems proposed $15,000, with an arrival planned for 2023 utilizing its Masten XL lander.

NASA received a total of 22 proposals from between 16 and 17 companies. This process was deliberately structured to demonstrate the advantages of NASA’s public-private partnership strategy and to establish precedents for resource material collection on extraterrestrial bodies such as the moon.

“These commercial partnerships are establishing a precedent both within NASA and externally, regarding the agency’s continued use of this approach,” stated Mike Gold, NASA’s Acting Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations. “Instead of funding the development of the systems themselves, NASA is acting as a customer.”

Specifically, these contracts also define the scope of activities private companies can undertake in collecting lunar material and determine ownership rights once the material is obtained.

“I’ve often noted that while the rocket science and engineering aspects can be challenging, they sometimes appear simpler compared to the policy, legal, and financial hurdles we face,” Gold explained. “It’s crucial to address any legal or regulatory questions proactively to ensure that policy or regulations don’t impede the remarkable innovations emerging from both the public and private sectors. We believe it’s vital to establish the precedent that private entities can extract resources, which NASA can then purchase, and utilize them to support not only NASA’s endeavors but also a new era of public and private development and exploration on the moon, and ultimately, on Mars.”

Essentially, NASA aims to establish a precedent allowing private companies to travel to the moon, and eventually Mars, to mine materials and maintain ownership for subsequent distribution to both governmental and commercial clients.

This explains the remarkably low bid amounts – companies like ispace and Lunar Outpost have business plans that incorporate substantial potential for planetary mining. Furthermore, these lunar landing missions were already in development, and NASA explicitly stated in its request for proposals that it would only cover the cost of the actual collection process, not the mission to reach the moon itself.