Astrobotic
Happy End of June, everyone! Just thought I'd let you know that you can send photos and/or other files to the Moon's surface aboard a NASA-sponsored mission flying sometime next summer! Thanks to the Pittsburgh-based company Astrobotic, a lander known as Peregrine will launch aboard a Vulcan Centaur rocket (which itself would be making its maiden flight on this mission) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July of 2021—and touch down on the lunar surface with 200 pounds (90 kilograms) of cargo. Among that payload mass will be a container carrying time capsules that you can purchase through Astrobotic's MoonBox page.
If you don't feel like buying an actual container to put mementos in on the journey to the Moon, FutureGrind.org is collecting digital content to be saved on an SD card that it will place on the Peregrine lander. Based on the prices listed on the MoonBox page mentioned in the previous paragraph, Future Grind spent quite a bit of money to purchase space to put that memory card in. So it makes a lot of sense that it would try to recoup its investment while at the same time allowing the public to upload images and/or other files of its own that will be put on the card! For $20, you can submit a 5-megabyte file (which is just the right storage space if you want to send a raw photo file taken by a nice digital camera) to Future Grind for inclusion. If you want to send extra files, you have to pay $20 for each additional content that you want to fly aboard Peregrine. Future Grind will send you a cool certificate and post-mission photo confirming that the SD card is on the lunar surface in response.
To state the obvious: If you want to submit 11 personal images to head to the Moon next year (like I did last weekend, though I plan on paying for more), that's $220 you'd have to dish out. But it will be completely worth it should things obviously go as planned in 2021, and Astrobotic becomes the first private space company to land a robotic probe on the lunar surface! I'm rooting for ya, Peregrine. Godspeed on Mission One (the name of next year's flight)! And thank you to Future Grind for this awesome opportunity!
United Launch Alliance
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