这个公司厉害了 月球快递或成首个探月私人公司
Moon Express raises $20m for 2017 voyage to the moon
A US company has secured funding to become the first private entity to travel to the moon, with a planned 2017 voyage that will be an international milestone in space exploration.
一家美国公司已筹集到资金确保其成为首个赴月的私人公司,他们计划于2017年开启月球之旅,此举将成为国际空间探索中的里程碑.
Moon Express, a Florida-based firm, said it had raised $20m in financing, which will allow it to send a robotic spacecraft to the moon's surface later this year.
总部位于佛罗里达州的月球快递公司称,他们已筹集到2000万美元,这笔资金足够他们在今年晚些时候向月球表面发射一个无人航天器.
The funding is a major step in the company's efforts to become the world's first private enterprise to travel outside the Earth's orbit.
这笔资金是助其成为全球首个赴月的私营企业的关键一步.
Last year, Moon Express gained historic approvals from the US government after submitting a request for its voyage to the Federal Aviation Administration. An outer space treaty, which was adopted by the United Nations and regulates exploration of the celestial world, requires governments to authorize and supervise "non-governmental entities" seeking to travel in outer space.
去年,月球快递向联邦航空管理局递交申请后,获得了美国政府的批准,这是一个历史性的决定.联合国通过的《外层空间条约》规范了对太空的探索,要求各国政府对进入太空的"非政府实体"进行授权和监督.
"We now have all the resources in place to shoot for the Moon," Bob Richards, Moon Express's CEO, said in a statement announcing the funding achievements. "Our goal is to expand Earth's social and economic sphere to the Moon, our largely unexplored eighth continent, and enable a new era of low cost lunar exploration and development for students, scientists, space agencies and commercial interests."
月球快递公司首席执行官鲍勃•理查德斯在一份声明中宣布了募资成果,他说,"现在我们所需的一切赴月资源都已到位.我们的目标是将地球的社会和经济领域拓展到基本没有被开发的第八块大陆——月球上,为学生、科学家、太空机构以及商业利益开启低成本探索开发月球的全新时代.
Moon Express has said it aims to mine the moon for minerals, and the tech entrepreneur Naveen Jain, its co-founder and chairman, has said he hopes to lower the costs of space travel and help pave the way for the colonization of the moon, and eventually of Mars.
