Moon Express Plans Robot Outpost For Mining Minerals On Lunar South Pole

The first colony on the moon might be full of robots instead of people, if a plan from the private space company Moon Express works out. It is aiming to build an unmanned lunar outpost, supported by a fleet of spacecraft explorers that would launch from low Earth orbit and deliver supplies to and land on the moon, according to The Verge. The MX explorer fleet would rely on the Electron rocket that the space company Rocket Lab has designed to launch out of New Zealand in order to get into space before heading to the moon. The lunar station, at the moon's south pole, could come as soon as 2020. The plan is to have robots staying around the clock on the moon to mine it for resources like minerals and then sell them, The Verge explains.