For centuries now, since the dawn of man, early scientists have sought out remnants of space rock and interstellar interactions here on Earth. Legends of moon stones and pieces of stars have abounded in nearly every culture, but now that astronomers have the technology to leave their own mark on distant planets and satellites, one company is looking to leave a piece of Earth on our very own moon. If all goes according to plan, and the company can be funded by interested parties, a decade from now a spacecraft from the Lunar Mission One will land on the South Pole/Aitken Basin of the moon and create a new history for mankind.
The primary purpose for the mission will come in the form of samples collected of the moon's mantle, when a high-tech drill will bore 66 feet down into the surface and collect fragments for researchers to study. But before the spacecraft leaves, it will deposit a two-part time capsule filled with a public history of life here on Earth, as well as, digital "memory boxes" created by individuals interested in helping crowd-fund the mission via KickStarter. The memory boxes will hold digital files including records of family trees, family photos, selfies, and even a fragment of one's own DNA in the form of human hair.
Originally conceived by British researchers seven years ago, the project Lunar Mission One has sought out an effective means of crowd-funding in the form of the KickStarter site. And since its launch on Nov. 19, the interesting project has already raised more than half of its £600,000 goal, while also gaining mass appeal from space junkies and sentimental-types alike.
"It creates emotional significance and it tickles peoples' fancy" founder of Lunar Missions Trust, the non-profit behind the project, David Iron says. "It's an emotional thing."
But sentimentality aside, the project has a much broader appeal to it as well. By exploring the surface of the moon in a more in-depth way than any previous Apollo missions were able to do, the British astronomy team will add a much deeper understanding to the current knowledge we know of the moon's long history.
"I think about the time capsule in a slightly broader way. There is a lot of educational value in getting people to think about astronomically long time-scales and our place in the universe" scientific advisor to the mission, professor Ian Crawford of Birkbeck College in London says. "The lunar surface contains an important scientific history of the moon, of the Earth and of the inner solar system."
"The time has come to get back to the surface and to bring samples back from places the Apollo missions didn't go to."
