iSpace wants to put a white rabbit on the moon

There are a handful of ways to get to (i)space these days.

If you’re iSpace and it’s Hakuto-R initiative, you raise $100 million, buy two trips to the moon on SpaceX flights (2020 and 2021!) and develop rovers and a lunar lander that doubles as a way to get first-person footage of the near side of the moon.

Aaron Sorensen from iSpace explained that his company’s lander was designed to explore the surface of the moon. “We’re planning to go to the near side of the moon. Eventually we’ll go to the polar side, that’s where water is frozen in the soil.”

That frozen water serves two purposes: It can provide not only hydrogen and oxygen that can be utilized as fuel, it can also support life should humanity ever begin shuttling people beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

There are commercial applications – hence the visit to CES – including allowing partners, possibly game developers, to create software that would capture first-person viewpoint footage as the rover crawls over the lunar surface. That footage could be used in games or movies as proprietary scenery, Sorensen suggests.  There are also near-limitless opportunities for sponsorship deals, starting with the Japanese glue manufacturer, whose adhesive was used for solar panels.

By the way, you know the old tale about the moon being made of cheese? In Japan, the folklore is that there’s a white rabbit living on the moon. Hakuto is Japanese for white rabbit. Pretty cool, huh?

Liked it? Take a second to support Amber Healy on Patreon!