In fun news from science, the Lunar Mission One Kickstarter that was first launched earlier this year has reached its goal, and it will be putting an aircraft on the surface of the South Pole of the Moon - bringing memorabilia along!
There have been many dreams of space travel from the beginning of time, but, due to different issues mostly regarding money, the 1969 moon landing was the first and last of its kind for a long time - but, in the age of the Curiosity Rover, the Lunar Mission One Kickstarter has reached its goal to make launching things into space more attainable!
A few months ago, a couple of guys who own a fast food joint in London decided to get creative and launch one of their combos of burgers and fries (or chips, how they call it in the United Kingdom) into the stratosphere to show they took delivery seriously; of course, that was just a publicity stunt, but the Lunar Mission One Kickstarter is definitely real.
According to Wired, the Lunar Mission One Kickstarter was first envisioned by British Consortium, Lunar Missions Ltd to launch a project that would attempt to collect enough money to build a robot to go into space and create a giant time capsule on the North Pole of the moon, about 100 meters into the land. The goal was £600,000, which amounts to 938,170 American dollars.
The primary mission consists of landing a robotic probe on the moon and then drilling it down into its land (in lunar rock that's billions of years old).
"Lunar Mission One has deliberately been launched as an independent venture which is not controlled by government agencies," said Ian Taylor, one of the people behind the project, speaking of reaching their goal. "This project will be built using public support alongside the skills and expertise of some of the world's leading scientists, engineers and technologists."
The project was also partly created to awaken interest in young people towards careers in STEM (the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math) and generally cause curiosity on them regarding space travel.
According to The Daily Mail, funders of the Lunar Mission One Kickstarter project who collaborated with more than 60 pounds (almost $100) could also buy certain space on different memory disks that will be sent out to the moon, being a part of a time capsule to be planted on the Earth's satellite.
Those donors who would give out more than that could also have a sample of their DNA sent into space - though how much would be necessary for that opportunity was undisclosed.
The fun and inspiring news regarding the Lunar Mission One Kickstarter was taken by surprise and admiration - according to NBC News, Stephen Hawking, one of the world's most famous scientists and the author of "A Brief History of Time," congratulated the team and the project's backers for the initiative, wishing them success.
