ASTRONAUT: (SINGING) I was strolling on the moon one day.

(SINGING) In the merry, merry month of December.

No, May.

May.

CRAIG BENZINE: This is footage from Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon.

Do, do, do, do, do.

Boy, is this a neat way to travel.

Isn't it great?

Dum, dum, dum, dum.

Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum.

CRAIG BENZINE: It's been over four decades since we set foot on the lunar landscape.

The US hasn't put anything on the moon since 1972.

There's been a couple of orbiters, but nothing on the surface.

But our long absence might be coming to an end.

I like to skip along.

Not me, boy.

CRAIG BENZINE: In this play list, we're going to take a look at our place in space, and figure out where we're headed.

But first, we're going to see how we're going to get back to the moon.

But it might not be us fleshy humans going there.

Instead, it might be a fleet of autonomous robots, and a can of soda.

First soda to the moon!

You'll just have to watch to understand.

It'll be clear later on, I think.

Watch the moon, or watch-- No, no, the video.

CRAIG BENZINE: Oh, me?

MATT WEBER: No, this video we're in.

[music playing] JOHN THORNTON: Astrobotic is a space delivery services company.

We're like FedEx to the moon.

We take packages from around the world, we bolt them up on our lander, which is the delivery system, and that's like our pickup truck that's dropping payloads off on the way to the moon, and on the moon, itself.

This is John Thornton, CEO of Astrobotic, a company that specializes in robotic space technology.

ANNOUNCER: With innovative robots and low-cost missions, we bring the moon to you.

CRAIG BENZINE: It doesn't seem like you'd get a lot of business for delivery to the moon.

JOHN THORNTON: You would be surprised.

There's actually a huge demand around the world for lunar delivery.

We haven't been back in many, many years.

There's only been three nations that ever landed on the surface of the moon.

We offer the possibility for nations, and individuals, and research organizations around the world to land on the moon, and do real science and exploration at a cost that's much, much, much lower than anything we've seen, historically.

Well, we should probably clarify.

They haven't actually delivered anything yet.

Right now they're scheduling their first mission for the second half of 2017.

And all of this is for the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

The Lunar XPRIZE is a competition to get a privately funded robot on the moon, drive it 500 meters, and take HD video, with $30 million in prize money.

16 teams from 13 different countries will be designing their own rovers and competing for the prize.

Astrobotic has already taken home $1.75 million in Lunar XPRIZE money by demonstrating their landing capabilities, and completing construction of a rover capable of traversing the required distance, and transmitting video.

CRAIG BENZINE: But the biggest hurdle is getting there.

Traveling to the moon is expensive.

You've got to pay for the rocket, and all that fuel.

MATT WEBER: So to get the funds for the rocket, Astrobotic is teaming up with other companies in competition for the XPRIZE, and getting them to pitch in for gas.

Or liquid hydrogen, or whatever it is they use for rocket fuel.

In exchange, they will split the prize money they win.

So right now, what we're doing is we're selling the manifest, filling the book.

So it would be like if you have a cargo ship, we're filling the cargo ship.

If you're flying a plane, we're selling plane seats right now.

And it's actually really dramatic and interesting, how much demand there is around the world to go to the moon.

Unlike missions to the moon in the past, this one will be mostly autonomous.

Yeah, they're sending robots, not people.

But this presents a new set of challenges for the team.

JOHN THORNTON: To go to the moon is challenging, because it's a pretty good distance away.

It's about a six second round trip for radio communication, back and forth.

So there are portions of the mission that have to be autonomous.

So our lander, for example, as we're landing down on the surface, that's a fully autonomous maneuver.

So it's identifying terrain, looking for hazards, and identifying a safe landing site, all autonomously on board the spacecraft as it's coming down.

So when it's landing, you just have to hold your breath.

You just have to be like, well, I hope that it works.

You press the button to go, and you hope it works.

Wow.

And from there, the robot takes it the rest of the way.

So we just tested the lander earlier this year, aboard a vehicle called Xombie, which is a vehicle that flies in the Mojave Desert.

It's a vehicle that was built by Masten.

So we use that to test our guidance navigation and control system.

CRAIG BENZINE: What kind of technology is involved to make it autonomous there?

Has it, like, got cameras scanning?

So it's a series of lasers.

There's a main laser that's scanning, and then two stereo cameras.

And the combination of that, with an inertial measurement unit, and a star tracker, and some other sensors, that gives you the pose of the vehicle as it's flying.

The lasers and the cameras are used to scan the terrain, look for hazards like rocks and slopes, and anything that can interfere with a safe landing site.

And then once we have a nice flat landing site identified, the robot then controls itself, and does a divert maneuver as necessary to settle down to a nice soft landing.

CRAIG BENZINE: One of the things that will be landing is Andy.

Is this Andy, right here?

So this is Andy.

CRAIG BENZINE: And this is Red Whittaker, professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

In 2007, his self-driving vehicle, Boss, took home first place in the DARPA Grand Challenge.

Now he's using his experience with autonomous vehicles to help develop Andy, and take home the Lunar XPRIZE.

DR. WILLIAM "RED" WHITTAKER: It is a very capable rover by way of mobility, intelligence, hardening for the challenges of space, and does much more with so much less than rovers to date.

So what do you mean by, it does so much more?

What does it do that other rovers couldn't do?

On average, a rover on another planet progresses at about 1 centimeter a second.

CRAIG BENZINE: You're probably wondering why they move so slow.

It's for safety, mostly.

MATT WEBER: Yeah, you don't want to breaker or get stuck when you can't send a mechanic to come fix the rover.

CRAIG BENZINE: It's also better for taking pictures, planning routes, and saving power.

Andy, on the other hand, because of its wide stance, a low center of gravity, and a novel suspension system, can maintain stability over rough terrain.

And it has an innovative method for combining landing imagery with 3-D data, which will allow Andy to construct an exploration route more effectively.

DR. WILLIAM "RED" WHITTAKER: The baseline for Andy is 5 centimeters or 10 centimeters per second, maybe an order of magnitude beyond what exists.

And exploration is a function of how far you can go into what aggressive interesting places are possible.

JOHN THORNTON: So the lander lands.

It lands in a place called Lacus Mortis, which translates to a lake of death.

Sounds dramatic.

CRAIG BENZINE: Ooh, why did you choose that place?

JOHN THORNTON: The reason that we go to Lacus Mortis is that there is a very unique feature called a skylight there.

CRAIG BENZINE: A skylight is basically a hole in the lunar surface, where the ground has collapsed, and exposed an extinct lava tube, or a hollow space underground.

JOHN THORNTON: They've found upwards of 300 of these on the surface, but what's unique about this one is it's on the order of 100 meters across, 100 meters deep.

And what's interesting, is this one, the wall of the skylight has collapsed.

So instead of being more like a vertical tube, where you'd have to jump or repel to get inside, potentially, all you'd have to do is drive down the ramp to get down to the bottom.

And it's thought that if you can get to the bottom of a skylight on the moon, that it could be an entryway to a cave underneath the surface.

And why is a cave so interesting?

That's because it's natural protection from the elements.

Just for the same reason that humans settled in caves here on Earth, first, humans may settle in caves on the moon for the very first time, because of the natural protection.

It's protection from micro-meteorites that come in, there's no atmosphere to burn them up.

Its protection from radiation that comes from the sun.

And also protection from the thermal extremes on the surface.

It's 120 degrees Celsius during the day, which is above boiling, and liquid nitrogen cold at night.

So it could be a really great environment, which is why we go there for mission one, and explore it with a rover.

CRAIG BENZINE: Most of the payloads they'll be bringing up there will be experiments and research tools.

On its maiden voyage, the lander will carry a bunch of rovers, and of course, a can of soda.

One payload that we have signed up right now is a company called Astroscale.

So they've partnered with one of the largest drink manufacturers in Japan, and they have a drink called Pocari Sweat.

ANNOUNCER: [speaking japanese] And they want to be the first drink to land on the moon, and more importantly for them, they want to be a time capsule.

So right now they're collecting messages from the children of Japan, and compiling them into this time capsule that will be sent to the moon for all time.

And the idea is that there's a special lock on the top of that can, that contains the messages.

And that lock can only be opened by a specially shaped ring, that they're passing out now to the kids who send the messages in.

Oh, wow.

And the idea is that that is a key to the future generation of space travelers who will go to the moon and unlock the time capsule.

So it's an example of a marketing type of payload that could fly.

Another example of payloads that could come with us are other XPRIZE teams.

So our intent with the XPRIZE is to bring multiple teams with us on a single launch, that way we basically can release all the rovers at once, down on the surface.

They all drive out as fast as they can, so it's almost like Formula One or NASCAR, happening live on the moon.

So it's a race?

Is it an actual race?

It is a full-on race.

It will be a race at that point?

It is a full-on race.

Yeah, just like NASCAR, except centimeters per second.

Currently, Astrobotic has eight companies signed up to send their payloads to the moon.

But it's not all moon races and soda pop.

After the XPRIZE mission, they've got a second mission where they're going to send another rover to search for water on the moon.

JOHN THORNTON: So this is Polaris.

This vehicle will go on Mission 2.

This is a four wheel skid-steer machine.

We liken this to the pickup truck of the moon.

What we expect to fly with this platform for Mission 2, is a drill that will drill for ice at the pole of the moon.

Because if you can find water on the moon, you have water for astronauts to drink.

You can split water into its constituents, and then you have oxygen, so you can breathe it.

And you can also use water as rocket fuel.

So it could be one of the first commodities in space, much like oil is here on Earth.

CRAIG BENZINE: What do you see as the future of moon landing, and space travel in general?

So the future of the moon is one that's very accessible.

To date, there have been only three nations that have ever landed on the moon.

It's the US, the Soviet Union, and just recently, China.

Our goal is to open that up to the world.

So with our first mission, we will have multiple nations that are landing for their first times.

It's almost like their Apollo moments on the surface of the moon.

As that becomes more common, you'll see more companies doing it, more people around the world.

We want the moon to become accessible.

We want to become like the next continent of the world, where people can go, explore, ultimately play and live sustainably on the surface of the moon.

CRAIG BENZINE: And you think that's very possible?

JOHN THORNTON: I do think it's possible to live on the moon.

It will take, probably, a couple decades to get there, but I think it's very viable, given today's technology.

So, would you want to travel to the moon someday?

Maybe rent out a moon cave.

Play some moon golf.

Drink some moon juice.

Moon somebody.

Let us know in the comments.

You can do a moon moon.

Moon mooning.

Mm-hmm.

But that seems kind of dangerous.

Yeah, you're going to have to clench.

[laughter] The vacuum of space.

Thanks for watching.

Be sure to like and subscribe.

If you liked and you want to subscribe.

And support us on Patreon, and maybe we'll be able to rent some space on that rocket and get to the moon, too.

We're almost there.

A few dollars more, just a few dollars more.

Just a couple bucks.

Last week Craig and I went into the woods and conquered nature.

We totally did.

Not really.

But here's what you had to say about it.

Simon Brown says that it pained him to see me use the sharp edge of the knife.

Well, don't worry about it.

It wasn't my knife.

Sorry about the knife, Brian.

BRIAN: Jerk.

High-Waisted Pantaloons wondered how much harder we would try if we didn't have a warm home to go back to.

Probably a lot harder.

But if our survival actually depended on it, I think we could probably try harder.

Definitely.

I mean, whether or not I could catch a fish, I don't know.

I definitely would have tried harder to start a fire, before moving on to the next step.

I think I could have done it, but they made me move on.

It's their fault.

Yeah, well, we only a limited time.

Come on.

We only have so much time, guys.

Look at all the videos we make.

And I guess if you were doing it in a life and death situation, you'd have the rest of your life, basically, to figure out how to start a fire.

Which might be a short life, if it was winter.

But, yeah, I think I would have tried a little harder, especially with the twine, I would have tried to make of a bigger pile of twine, and I would have made a better pile of kindle ready for me.

And, yeah, I would have tried harder.

MAN: Tinder.

Tinder.

MAN: Tinder or kindling.

Kindling, I said kindle.

MAN: Yeah.

[laughter] Well, I brought my Kindle.

Kindling, I mean kindling not Kindle.

Gabi Yao wondered if I was related to Gandalf from "The Hobbit."

Not directly.

I'm related to his cousin Randolph.

Randolph the Puce.

Thanks for watching.

Next week we've got another video for you that is out of this world.

Thanks for watching.

[laughter]