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The moon is all the rage
these days. China wants to
send people there. So too
does the United States and
NASA. In fact, just about ev-
ery country with a space pro-
gram has some sort of lunar
ambition that it hopes will
play out over the next few
years.
Now, there’s a new en-
trant in this contemporary
space race, a nonprofit or-
ganization called the Open
Lunar Foundation. The San
Francisco group is made up
of tech executives and engi-
neers — many of them with
former ties to NASA — who
have serious ambitions to
create a lunar settlement.
The driving goal behind
the foundation is to start a
development that would not
be beholden to a particular
country or billionaire. In-
stead, as the group’s name
suggests, Open Lunar wants
to create technology for ex-
ploring and living on the
moon as a type of collabora-
tive effort.
“Our highest ambition is
catalyzing and enabling a
peaceful and cooperative lu-
nar settlement,” said
Chelsea Robinson, the chief
of operations and staff for
Open Lunar. “At this time
when there are so many
commercial and govern-
ment actors advancing their
efforts on the moon, we are
excited to demonstrate a
civic approach to participa-
tion.”
Open Lunar began a few
years ago as something of a
thought exercise. A group of
friends in Silicon Valley were
taking stock of the dramatic
improvements in aerospace
technology along with the
falling cost of rocket
launches, thanks to compa-
nies such as Elon Musk’s
Space Exploration Technol-
ogies Corp. and Peter Beck’s
Rocket Lab.
The friends came to the
realization that it might
soon be possible to create a

small lunar settlement for

about $2 billion to $3 billion.

It’s a hefty sum, but a very

achievable one in an era that

abounds with wealthy space

enthusiasts. And so, the

friends decided to explore

the idea of going to the moon

in earnest.

“The picture that

emerged out of those meet-

ings was that you could cre-

ate a permanent, economi-

cally self-sustaining pres-

ence on the moon that could

be done for the single-digit

billions,” said Steve Jurvet-

son, a venture capitalist who

provided the initial Open

Lunar funding. “I got excited

by that idea and the compel-

ling nature of the people in-

volved.”

Some of the most promi-

nent members of the group

include astronaut Chris

Hadfield, who has spent

time on the International

Space Station; Will Marshall

and Robbie Schingler, co-

founders of satellite maker

Planet Labs Inc.; Simon

“Pete” Worden, former direc-

tor of NASA’s Ames Re-

search Center; and Jurvet-

son, who has invested in

both SpaceX and Planet

Labs.

Hadfield is listed as a di-

rector of Open Lunar in non-

profit filings, while the oth-

ers are advisors to the foun-

dation. These individuals,

along with dozens of other

people, have spent the last 18

months meeting in private

to figure out what sort of

early missions would make

the most sense.

Working ideas include

smaller, cheaper missions to

put various probes and ro-

botic systems on the lunar

surface rather than one

massive mission.

It was Robinson, a long-

time nonprofit organizer,

and Jessy Kate Schingler, a

software engineer who most

recently worked at a rocket

start-up, who turned the

brainstorming into a formal

organization. Schingler took

on the role of director of pol-

icy and governance.

Now, the foundation’s

small team has been hiring

full-time hardware and soft-

ware engineers for Open Lu-

nar and putting the rest of

the executive structure in

place.

“Lunar activity is explod-

ing,” Jessy Kate Schingler

said. “There are govern-

ments and companies in-

tensely focused on going, but

there is no third pillar repre-

senting the possibility of do-

ing things differently. If we

don’t roll up our sleeves and

get involved, then by defini-

tion the future of human set-

tlement in space will reflect

the status quo of those cur-

rently in power. To see things

done differently on the

moon, we had to start ex-

perimenting now.”

The exact plans for the

foundation are a work in

progress. So far, the non-

profit has a war chest of

about $5 million, but the goal

is to raise more funds to pay

for hardware that could go to

the moon and to work on

policy programs, Robinson

said. Further down the line,

Open Lunar will look to raise

(much) more money to sup-

port its goal of developing a

collaborative interplanetary

settlement.

The foundation will bor-

row from the playbook of

open-source technology as it

tries to accelerate the explo-

ration and settlement of the

moon. Open Lunar’s mem-

bers have been discussing

ways to have people from

many countries come to-

gether to work on projects.

And they have plans to share

data and hardware designs

from their missions, mirror-

ing the development of

open-source software such

as Linux and Android.

On the most idealistic

level, Open Lunar wants to

try to set precedents that

would encourage a more

harmonious settlement of

the moon rather than turn-

ing it into a destructive free-

for-all among nation states.

“We want to take the best

of what humanity has to of-

fer and put our best foot for-

ward,” Robinson said, “and

take our first self-sufficient

step off Earth.”

Though this may all

sound far-fetched, there’s

reason to think Open Lunar

may be able to pull off some-

thing like an open-source

moon habitat. Hadfield

brings plenty of space-living

expertise. Marshall is a

world-class scientist who

spent years working at

NASA Ames on projects in-

cluding low-cost lunar land-

ers and the Lunar Crater

Observation and Sensing

Satellite mission that con-

firmed the presence of water

on the moon. At Planet

Labs, he and Robbie Schin-

gler helped build the largest

satellite constellation in his-

tory with hundreds of shoe-

box-size devices that orbit

the Earth and snap photos

of its surface.

While mostly serving in

advisory roles, they’ve man-

aged to recruit engineers

with rocket, robotics and

software expertise to Open

Lunar and are plugged into a

network that includes some

of Silicon Valley’s wealthiest

people. Meanwhile, Jessy

Kate Schingler has spent

years working on space pol-

icy and has studied experi-

mental forms of governance.

Given Silicon Valley’s be-

havior over the last few

years, some people will no

doubt view a project like

Open Lunar with a skeptical

eye. It’s nice to think that a

group of well-intentioned

private citizens might do a

better job of settling a new

world than governments,

bureaucrats and military

strategists. The reality,

though, has been that Sili-

con Valley’s idealism often

gets overrun by greed and

ambition.

Still, many of the people

behind Open Lunar have

built reputations as some of

the most deliberate thinkers

around space exploration.

Some have long track re-

cords organizing youth

space groups, advising the

United Nations on space pol-

icy and campaigning against

the weaponization of space.

If anyone were to create an

open-source lunar program,

it might be the team behind

this project.

“I want to look up at the

full moon and have it mirror

back to me not just light like

it has for millennia,” Rob-

inson said, “but mirror a vi-

sion for how we want our fu-

ture to operate here on

Earth.”

Vance writes for Bloomberg.

Moonstruck tech titans enter space race

San Francisco group

envisions a lunar

settlement costing

$2 billion to $3 billion.

By Ashlee Vance

CANADIAN ASTRONAUTChris Hadfield manipulates a robotic arm during a 2001 space mission. The Open

Lunar Foundation wants to create technology for lunar settlement by taking a civic, cooperative approach.

NASA