Planet Earth may be chock-a-block full of data, but a new Kickstarter project called Moonspike is aiming to send your data and personal messages to the moon aboard its own rocket.
The Moonspike project claims to be the first crowdfunded campaign to send a rocket to our planet’s largest and only natural satellite, and is looking to raise a pretty reasonable amount of US$1m, but in 30 days.
According to the Kickstarter campaign page, the vast majority of Moonspike’s time and resources will go into building the two-stage Moonspike rocket, which the company says will be based on existing space technologies.
The rocket’s payload, however, is a much more unassuming but impressive titanium spike capable of surviving the rough impact of the lunar surface yet weighing only 1g.
The lunar penetrator. Image via Moonspike
Called the ‘Lunar Penetrator’, the tip is able to survive a force of 30,000Gs. The idea being that this gizmo will embed itself and a small storage device within the moon until the end of the universe.
In conversation with The Verge, the company says that there will not be any scientific data collection undertaken. Rather, the Moonspike will be a time capsule for any future moon explorers to look at. And, of course, the company will also have the bragging rights of having sent a rocket to the moon.
Because of the inevitable high costs of space travel, the Moonspike project’s US$1m target is considered a starting point for the more likely amount required – around US$7m.
One of Moonspike’s co-founders, Kristian von Bengtson, says that the entire process of completion will be made available to those who have backed the campaign.
“You’ll see the research and development in production,” von Bengtson says. “Within the first year, we’ll have navigation systems, prototypes of turbopump systems, and a whole range of technologies on our site. We’re going to show everyone how it’s done.”
An illustration of the Moonspike rocket. Image via Moonspike
Lunar surface image via Shutterstock
