Berlin, December 14, 2020 – Last week the Open Lunar Foundation announced a new initiative: Breaking Ground, a lunar resource trust. The purpose of the trust is to administer and demonstrate formal and effective institutional management of lunar resources between various stakeholders. To accomplish this goal and explore various resource management systems, the Trust will purchase lunar regolites from lunar transportation, lander and raw materials companies.
Breaking Ground today announced that it has signed its first Memorandum of Understanding Using Intuitive Machines (IM). The Memorandum of Understanding lays the foundation for a continuous collaboration between the two organizations to pursue their mutual interest in understanding the operational and rights framework for a long-term, sustainable presence outside the world.
IM is a leading provider and provider of space products and services that enable sustainable exploration of the moon and beyond by robots and humans. NASA has placed two contracts with IM through the Space Agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative to support NASA’s unmanned lunar missions as part of the Artemis program to develop human lunar expedition capabilities from 2024. IM will launch its first Nova-C moon lander, IM-1, will launch in the fourth quarter of 2021 and its subsequent mission the following year.
“Trade policy and the regulatory framework for trading on the moon have many unknowns“Said Timothy Crain Ph.D., vice president of research and development at Intuitive Machines.”As a company at the forefront of lunar transportation and infrastructure, we are committed to working with the community to develop normative frameworks for coordination and mutual agreements. These are the building blocks for future trade with the solar system. We are excited to partner with Breaking Ground to explore this exciting new domain.”
With this type of partnership, Breaking Ground aims to demonstrate thoughtful new types of transactions and wealth management while we all catalyze the lunar economy. The aim is to strike a balance between the various actors and philosophies involved in the extraction of lunar resources. Breaking Ground is not trying to be a universal solution, but rather to prototype effective resource management to ensure that the management of the moon reflects the lessons we have learned from resource management here on earth while also driving innovation.
“Intuitive Machines is a high integrity organization that believes in commercial activity, but I also really want to see a thriving society when we create our first settlements outside the world. They are a perfect partner for answering important questions about resource management in the lunar context. “ said Jessy Kate Schingler, a trustee for Breaking Ground.
More information about Breaking Ground can be found at https://www.openlunar.org/library/announcing-breaking-ground-a-lunar-resources-trust
For more information, please contact: [email protected]