Pittsburgh Firm "Astrobotic" Sends Mail to the Moon

Astrobotic Technology Inc., a 6-year-old Pittsburgh firm, announced the launch of their Moon Mail program, which gives the public a chance to send small keepsakes to the moon.  

"For the first time ever, people from all over the world can take their keepsakes, mementos, and fly them all the way directly to the moon," said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton according to CBS Pittsburgh.

In partnership with Carnegie Mellon, Astrobotic is trying to get a lunar rover to the moon to win $20 million in an international contest sponsored by Google to promote privately funded lunar exploration. The firm leased a rocket built by Space X, a private California firm, to carry the lunar rover.

Nicknamed Andy, the rover is a solar-powered, knee-high, four-wheeled robot. Under terms of Google's LunarX prize, the winning rover must travel about a third of a mile on the lunar surface by the end of 2015 and be able to transmit video of its progress to Earth, according to Times Live.

The Moon Mail service is being offered to the public to fund the trip.

The program is "an opportunity to commemorate major life events - graduations, weddings, birthdays, a loved one's memory - with a lasting symbol on the moon," said a press statement.

"With Moon Mail, people from around the world can send a memento on Astrobotic's lunar lander," Thornton said.  "They'll make history by participating in the first commercial Moon landing."

"We're a delivery service. We're just like FedEx or UPS. We take your packages and send them to the moon."

According to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the price ranges from US460 dollars for a tiny hexagonal capsule to US25, 800 dollars for the largest, a 2.5cm by 5cm hexagonal. The Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Defense would be regulating the cargo.

Astrobotic believes it is the first company in the world to make an offer to people to send their mementos like wedding rings, locks of hair or other tiny heirlooms to the moon. 

 "The moon is a forever place. It's up in the sky and you can see it every single night, so we can send pieces of ourselves, stories, and mementos that mean something to us as individuals, and it will be forever immortalized on the surface of the moon."