NASA said Thursday it has selected four companies, including Japanese startup Ispace Inc. and its subsidiary in Luxembourg, to collect samples from the Moon's surface as part of the U.S. space agency's lunar exploration program.
Ispace in Tokyo has proposed a $5,000 price tag for space-resource collection after it puts a lander on the Moon's northeastern side facing Earth in 2022. Ispace Europe SA plans to send a lander to the lunar south pole in 2023 for collection, with the same per-sample price tag.
The remaining two companies, which are based in the United States, both aim to send landers to the lunar south pole in 2023.