SpaceDev To Design Lunar Dish Observatory Mission

POWAY, CA, July 21/Satnews Daily/ – SpaceDev (OTCBB: SPDV) has been awarded a contract by Lunar Enterprise Corporation of California for the next phase in designing a mission and spacecraft for a lunar lander program.

The low-cost, unmanned mission is intended to land a small dish antenna near the south pole of the Moon.  From that location it will be in near-constant sunlight for solar power generation, and can perform multi-wavelength astronomy while communicating with ground stations on Earth.

“We are excited about advancing this unique, pioneering project,” said Jim Benson, founding chairman and chief executive of SpaceDev.  “This is great timing because NASA has started implementing the recommendations of President Bush’s Aldridge Commission for building a robust space industry. 

SpaceDev has a long-term vision of building its own private sector space program.  Conducting an innovative lunar lander mission would be as revolutionary as SpaceDev’s role in the success of SpaceShipOne. 

This Lunar Dish Observatory mission will demonstrate that such missions can be performed quickly and inexpensively – expected to be less than $50 million -- by the private sector.  This mission should be attractive to the “new NASA,” as directed by the Aldridge Commission, in terms of innovation, practicality, fast turnaround, and low cost for humanity’s continuing exploration of the moon.”

The main emphasis of this second phase of work will be on the precise and safe landing of the robotic science station.  SpaceDev will evaluate existing and newly available data and technology for landing site selection and landing hazard avoidance.  The lunar mission to advance human understanding of stars and galaxies will be designed with the same approach as SpaceDev’s highly successful CHIPSat science microsatellite for the University of California at Berkeley/NASA University Explorer program.