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Can private companies carry NASA back to the Moon?
Can we count on private companies to get us back to the Moon?
But following a problem with a propellant valve, the Peregrine lander from Astrobotic didn’t make it to the Moon and instead burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, having failed to deliver its 20 payloads, including a number of NASA experiments. In 2019, a private Israeli spacecraft called Beresheet attempted to land on the Moon but crashed onto its surface, scattering its cargo, which included thousands of tardigrades — microscopic animals known to survive in extreme environments. Comparable to the expansion of mining into the American West, which completely reshaped the land, unfettered access to the Moon has the potential to both supercharge technological development and create the conditions for exploitation of a natural resource and cultural artifact.
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