The Mission's background
In 2007, David Iron was informally asked by a senior Government representative to find a new way of funding space science and exploration projects. As a financing adviser for technology projects, David was already a recognised expert in public/private partnerships for space satellite projects such as Skynet 5. He could see that there was untapped interest in space within the general public – particularly for science and exploration. All that was needed was the right mission, the right incentive, and the right people to make it happen.
Instead of a small number of organisations paying a large sum of money each, Lunar Mission One would be funded by a large number of people each paying a small amount of money to be part of its private archive in the Moon. In this way, the project belongs to anyone who takes part, whoever they are, wherever they are. It is a truly international mission.
Lunar Mission One’s deep drilling mission to the Moon’s South Pole is perfectly in line with existing space agency ambitions and the science objectives of planetary scientists around the world. By 2014, David had built a network of support from experts around the world, all of whom were prepared to work on Lunar Mission One.
The time was right to pitch the mission to the public, to see if they liked it enough to fund its initial phase. On 19 November, the mission was presented at the Royal Society in London, and online on the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter. Within a day, more than $300,000 USD had been raised. By the end of the campaign 7000 people from more than 70 countries around the world had backed the project, raising more than $1 million USD.
Clearly, crowdfunding Lunar Mission One’s main project is a real possibility. Lunar Mission One has entered its Setup Phase where the management team is preparing the main contracts to deliver both the space mission and the revenue programme.