<p>Moon Express Inc or MoonEx, co-founded by Naveen Jain, is building the robotic rovers alongside scientists at NASA's Ames Research Centre near San Jose, a report in the Los Angeles Times said.<br /><br />While there is no guarantee that the moon is "flush" with these materials, MoonEx thinks it "may be a gold mine of so-called rare earth elements."<br /><br />"From an entrepreneur's perspective, the moon has never truly been explored," the report quoted Jain, chairman and company co-founder, as saying.<br /><br />"We think it could hold resources that benefit Earth and all humanity."<br />MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles, the report added.</p>.<p>"MoonEx should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013," Jain said.<br /><br />"It's our goal to be the first company there and stay there." MoonEx comprises 25 employees, including former NASA engineers, and has received a NASA contract worth up to USD 10 million.<br /><br />The company is among several others that hope to win the Google Lunar X Prize 30 million dollar competition that requires a privately-funded team to successfully land a robot on the moon's surface.<br /><br />The robot must be capable of exploring at least a third of a mile and must also transmit high definition video and images to Earth before 2016.<br /><br />Jain said the idea of exploiting the moon's resources for private gain is unlikely to be a concern.</p>.<p>"I also think that the moon will be treated no differently than the international water in our oceans," he said.<br /><br />"In this case, no one really owns the water but any company or country can mine the resources … from the international water as long as they follow certain safety/moral guidelines," he said in the report.<br /><br />MoonEx plans to publicly demonstrate its hardware in the coming months.</p>.<p>The company is financially strong and its co-founders include Barney Pell, the head architect behind Microsoft's Bing Internet search engine and Robert Richards, a commercial space entrepreneur.</p>
<p>Moon Express Inc or MoonEx, co-founded by Naveen Jain, is building the robotic rovers alongside scientists at NASA's Ames Research Centre near San Jose, a report in the Los Angeles Times said.<br /><br />While there is no guarantee that the moon is "flush" with these materials, MoonEx thinks it "may be a gold mine of so-called rare earth elements."<br /><br />"From an entrepreneur's perspective, the moon has never truly been explored," the report quoted Jain, chairman and company co-founder, as saying.<br /><br />"We think it could hold resources that benefit Earth and all humanity."<br />MoonEx's machines are designed to look for materials that are scarce on Earth but found in everything from a Toyota Prius car battery to guidance systems on cruise missiles, the report added.</p>.<p>"MoonEx should be ready to land on the lunar surface by 2013," Jain said.<br /><br />"It's our goal to be the first company there and stay there." MoonEx comprises 25 employees, including former NASA engineers, and has received a NASA contract worth up to USD 10 million.<br /><br />The company is among several others that hope to win the Google Lunar X Prize 30 million dollar competition that requires a privately-funded team to successfully land a robot on the moon's surface.<br /><br />The robot must be capable of exploring at least a third of a mile and must also transmit high definition video and images to Earth before 2016.<br /><br />Jain said the idea of exploiting the moon's resources for private gain is unlikely to be a concern.</p>.<p>"I also think that the moon will be treated no differently than the international water in our oceans," he said.<br /><br />"In this case, no one really owns the water but any company or country can mine the resources … from the international water as long as they follow certain safety/moral guidelines," he said in the report.<br /><br />MoonEx plans to publicly demonstrate its hardware in the coming months.</p>.<p>The company is financially strong and its co-founders include Barney Pell, the head architect behind Microsoft's Bing Internet search engine and Robert Richards, a commercial space entrepreneur.</p>