Earlier on this news channel we reported on a serious request for help from NASA to develop a tricorder for extraterrestrial use and indeed a few Elektor e-zine readers responded and may well be on their way to Florida by now. Not sure if a new initiative from Dutch student organization MoonMission 2030 was triggered by this news item, but it for sure NASA is involved again and this time they have egg on their face. In fact, we all have.


 
All MoonMission2030 wants is to clean up a plastic bag. The fact that this bag is located on the moon makes things more complicated. It was left behind after the landing of one of the Apollo Moon missions and so became one of the many pieces of human litter and tech debris left in space. The plastic bag was used as a cover to protect the LRRR, a piece of equipment that helped in gaining a lot of valuable information about the position and orbit of our Moon.
MoonMission 2030’s real goal with this mission is to combine (1) spacetravel and (2) caring for the environment, as well as to challenge everyone to find new ways of pushing the limits for both of them. The journey to the moon is one of symbolic meaning; if we can succeed in cleaning up the moon a little bit (sorry, NASA), it can’t be that hard to do the same here on Earth.

MOONMISSION 2030 is not rocket science and needs help and volunteers offering technical assistance, specifically in the fields of hardware / software / data transmission. CubeSat experts wanted too.

Email: arnout@moonmission2030.com
Facebook: facebook.com/moonmission2030
Twitter: @moonmission2030
(Do not send postcards MoonMission 2030 c/o NASA)