LunaCorp

Aimed to send its own, unmanned Lunar Rover to the moon in 1999, financed entirely by the private sector.

Created: 2020-05-09

Updated: 2023-07-19

Company - LunaCorp

Founded
Country: 1989; USA

Funding: Yes, ?

Product/Service

Classification: Surface Spacecraft

Category: Commercial Rover
Advertising

Fields: Moon

Status: Dormant

First launch: Dormant

LunaCorp plans to create multiple commercial and consumer opportunities to support the expedition. And although the company says it has backing from many NASA engineers, its thrust is toward private-sector space exploration.

In its separate orbit, LunaCorp recently announced plans to round up $200 million in corporate support to fund its exploration of the moon in 1999 via a robotic Lunar Rover now being developed by the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University.

The company is negotiating with several U.S. companies to raise money for the effort by selling the rights to live TV coverage of the surface of the moon for a variety of purposes. It also is marketing many other commercial and consumer tie-ins to the Lunar Rover Expedition.

Plans call for a contest to be the first person to guide the rover off its lander and onto the lunar surface. LunaCorp also hopes to let consumers send digitized messages or photos to the moon via a time capsule it hopes to drop onto the lunar surface Jan. 1, 2000.

LunaCorp's goal is to raise $45 million by selling rights to live TV coverage of its lunar landing, $45 million by selling scientific organizations and companies rights to research, and $60 million from an undisclosed theme-park operator. The park operator is considering building a consumer attraction around the lunar explorer, including beaming live images of the moon to the ride.

Hopes to raise an additional $81 million through corporate sponsorship of contests, promotions and sweepstakes surrounding the Lunar Rover trip, including a ``Desert Trek'' simulation land tour next summer, and $8 million more from sales of Lunar Rover-related merchandise and multimedia products.

RadioShack Jumps Into the Space Game by Sponsoring LunaCorp

The second major event in the last two years to spur space commercialization was the announcement in June of 2000 by RadioShack that it was going to become the first major sponsor of LunaCorp's planned private Icebreaker mission to land a rover on the Moon to search for water-ice deposits, and also serve an entertainment market.

On June 15, 2000, LunaCorp and RadioShack held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. to announce this historic partnership. RadioShack committed up to $1 million in first year funding to LunaCorp's efforts, with additional amounts as plans progressed.* RadioShack's interests were not altogether altruistic - they recognized the brand building opportunity an actual space adventure could provide.

"This project presents not only an original branding opportunity for RadioShack as opposed to signs in baseball stadiums, but also allows us to provide an educational and personal involvement opportunity for nearly one million customers who visit RadioShack every day," said Jim McDonald, senior vice president of marketing for RadioShack. Wall Street's reaction to this innovative marketing ploy was swift and positive. In the two weeks following the announcement, RadioShack added more than a billion dollars to its market capitalization. Equally important, for that two week period, RadioShack's stock sped ahead of rivals Best Buy and Circuit City, stocks that it had been in lockstep with over the preceding year.

The RadioShack Father's Day Commercial

Dennis Tito was not the only commercial package that flew to ISS in May, 2001. Onboard the TM-32 Soyuz was also a RadioShack bag, and a videocassette to film a Father's Day commercial, the first commercial filmed entirely in outer space.

How this commercial was pulled off is an abject lesson in minefield walking, and highlights the still highly political nature of commercial spaceflight. RadioShack wanted a space success story in the year 2001, to follow up its June, 2000 announcement of sponsorship of LunaCorp's Icebreaker mission to the Moon.

LunaCorp came up with the idea of flying a small payload to ISS and filming a commercial onboard the station. The payload chosen was a small talking picture frame.

The problem was that RadioShack agreed to do this in March, 2001, less than two months prior to the launch of the TM-32 taxi mission. LunaCorp quickly signed an agreement with Energia and MirCorp to fly the payload, and then began the process of "space qualifying" the picture frame, which in this case Teflon, and coating the circuit board with special shielding to guard against any possible outgassing in case the picture frame was subject to a vacuum.

LunaCorp then prepared picture frames for the two "fathers" on the ISS, and had them personalized with pictures and talking messages from their respective daughters. One of the "fathers" is Russian cosmonaut Yuri Usachev, pictured below in a still from the RadioShack commercial.

LunaCorp next approached NASA with the concept for the commercial and asked permission to use the American "father" onboard. NASA declined to allow any American to appear in the commercial, claiming that Federal law precluded any commercial use of the likeness of any American astronaut. So, the commercial became an all-Russian affair, with TM-32 pilot Talgat Musabayev presenting the talking picture frame to Yuri Usachev. The resulting commercial aired extensively in the United States in early June, 2001.

The story does not end there, however, as there were additional commercial products aboard the TM32 taxi flight. As it turns out, both Lego and the magazine Popular Mechanics flew products and banners, and both video and still images were taken. Although stills of both of these events appeared in the media, neither company was able to produce a television commercial similar to that made for RadioShack.

Further, Pizza Hut had previously flown a thermally stabilized pizza to ISS and filmed Yuri Usachev eating it. Unfortunately, the Americans on board ISS were involved in the filming, and NASA ·refused to allow Pizza Hut to create a commercial using the footage. Only RadioShack, by using the Russian "side" of ISS, was able produce a commercial that actually aired (including in Game 4 of the NBA finals).

Link

Sources

Most sources should be linked in the texts and headings as revealed by mouse-over, but here are they listed for visibility.

[1] https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/19960422/SUB/604220895/ventures-offering-a-chance-to-pitch-upon-a-star

[2] https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/19960422/SUB/604220895/ventures-offering-a-chance-to-pitch-upon-a-star

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title	Type	Date	Summary
DOING BUSINESS IN SPACE: THIS ISN'T YOUR FATHER'S (OR MOTHER'S) SPACE PROGRAM ANYMORE	Publication	2001-01-01

Similar Organizations

Astrobotic (CubeRover)

CubeRover, MoonRanger

Commercial Rover

Development

Astrolab

FLEX

Commercial Rover

Development

Astronika

GALAGO

ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Space Mining, Commercial Rover

Concept

Astroport Space Technologies

Surveyorbot

Space Construction Company, Landing Pads, Commercial Rover

Development

Austere Engineering

GROWLER

Space Mining, Resources - Asteroid Mining, Commercial Rover

Austere Engineering

Concept

Blastoff

Lunar 1

Commercial Rover, Commercial Lunar Lander, Space Entertainment

Blastoff! (Spacelab)

Dormant

Canadensys Aerospace Corporation

Commercial Rover, Hardware

Development

Ceres Robotics

CR3 Rover

Commercial Rover, Surface Habitats

Early stage

Dereum Labs

Jaguar 1

Commercial Rover, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), In-Space Manufacturing

Development

Diatomic Space

ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Commercial Rover

Cancelled, Early stage

Draper Laboratory

SERIES-2 Lander

Transport Service (LEO-Moon), Commercial Rover, Commercial Lunar Lander

Development

Dymon

YAOKI

Commercial Rover

Development

Exobotics

Commercial Rover

Cancelled

Finite Space

Commercial Rover, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), In-Space Manufacturing

Early stage, ?

Four Point

Autonomous Transport Platform (ATP)

Space Mining, Resources - Asteroid Mining, Commercial Rover

Development, Concept

Futura

DRACO

Commercial Rover, Space Construction Company, Space Construction Equipment, Robotic Arm, Landing Pads

Development

General Motors

Lunar Vehicle

Commercial Rover

Concept

GITAI

Space Robotics, Commercial Rover, Robotic Arm, Hardware

Development

GMV

Commercial Rover, Space Robotics, Software, Hardware, Robotic Arm

Development

GURACORP

Gura Terra Space Rover

Commercial Rover

Concept

Intuitive Machines

Commercial Rover

Development

ispace

Rover

Commercial Rover

Development

Kepler Aerospace

Commercial Rover, Commercial Lander

Concept

Komatsu

Commercial Rover, Space Construction Company, Space Construction Equipment

Concept, Development

Dynetics

Dynetics Human Landing System

Commercial Rover

Development

Lexus

Commercial Rover

Idea

Lockheed Martin

Lunar Mobility Vehicle (LMV)

Commercial Rover

Concept

Lunar Outpost

MAPP, HL-MAPP

Commercial Rover, Surface Habitats, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Software & Mission Control

Development

Mawson Rovers

Commercial Rover

Development

MDA

Canadaarm3, SKYMAKER

On-Orbit Servicing, Space Robotics, Commercial Rover, Resources - Energy, In-Space Assembly, In-Space Manufacturing

Development

Moon Industry

Commercial Rover, Space Mining

Early stage

Moon Mark

Space Entertainment, Commercial Rover

Development

Neurospace

HiveR, CubeRover

Commercial Rover

Development

Nissan Motor Co

e-4ORCE

Commercial Rover

Concept

Northrop Grumman

Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR)

Commercial Rover

Concept

Offworld

Surveyor, Excavator, Collector, Hauler, Dozer

Resources - Asteroid Mining, Commercial Rover, Space Mining

Development

Origin Space

M2 Lunar Rover

Commercial Rover

Development

PTS

Audi Quattro Lunar Rover

Commercial Lunar Lander, Commercial Rover

Concept

Puli Space

Puli Lunar Rover

Commercial Rover, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Resources - Asteroid Mining

Development

Redwire

Commercial Rover, Hardware, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Space Mining, Commercial Lander

Concept

Seven Sisters

Commercial Rover, Space Mining, Beyond-LEO Remote Sensing, Lunar Data Analytics

Early stage, ?

Space Applications Services

LUVMI, LUVMI-X

Commercial Rover

Development

Space Industries

LREV

Raw Resources, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Resources - Oxygen, Commercial Rover

Development, ?

Space Mining Technologies

Resources - Oxygen, Commercial Rover, Raw Resources

Early stage

Spacebit

Asagumo

Commercial Rover

Development

SpaceHopper

SpaceHopper

Commercial Rover

Development

SpaceTIS

Resources - Asteroid Mining, Space Mining, ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization), Commercial Rover, Orbital Transportation

Early stage

STELLS

MPR (Mobile Power Rover)

Commercial Rover, Power Beaming, Resources - Energy

Development

Team AngelicvM

Commercial Rover

Cancelled

Team Indus

Commercial Rover

Development

Teledyne Brown Engineering

Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV)

Commercial Rover

Concept

Tesla

Commercial Rover

Concept

Toyota

LUNAR CRUISER

Commercial Rover

Development

USNC

Pylon

Resources - Energy, Nuclear Fission Power, Commercial Rover, Orbital Transportation

Development

Uplift Aerospace

Luna-Crete, Constellation Vault

In-Space Manufacturing, Space Construction Company, Space Construction Equipment, Commercial Rover, Space Mining

Early stage

USN Solar Sky Mining

Space Mining, Resources - Asteroid Mining, Commercial Rover

Early stage

WeSpace

Lunar Autonomously Flying Robotic Systems

Commercial Rover, Hopper, Drone, Moon Drone

Development

Xtend Design

Luniaq

Commercial Rover

Concept

Hopstronautix

Space Entertainment, Advertising, In-Space Manufacturing, Space-Flown

Hopstronautix

Early stage, ?

Dormant, Early stage