首家私人月球探测公司诞生，提供月球殡葬服务。

Moon Express在上周迎来了一个具有独特里程碑意义的时刻——该公司成为首家获得美国政府批准执行月球探测任务的私人公司。公司有哪些外太空服务计划？为希望把月球作为最终安息之所的人，将遗体运往太空。

公司联合创始人兼董事长内维恩·简对《纽约邮报》（New York Post）表示，将骨灰运往月球的费用为每公斤300万美元，这意味着将一个普通人的遗骸运往月球，费用在500万至800万美元之间。虽然价格高昂，但这项服务却有极高的需求。简对《纽约邮报》表示：“我们已经有一个很长的清单。”

Moon Express的星际野心，不止限于殡葬服务。公司将在明年启动首次探月任务，届时将向月球发送一台机器人探测器。这台探测器将在月球上行驶至少500米，并拍摄高清视频传送回地球，作为Moon Express竞争谷歌月球X大奖（Google Lunar X Prize）的一部分。该奖项的金额最高为2,000万美元。

公司最终的计划包括月球资源采矿，如稀土元素和其他可能有价值的矿物等，这些矿物可以在地球上加工使用。

Moon Express联合创始人兼CEO鲍勃·理查斯在声明中表示：“我们现在可以以探险者的身份，自由地向地球的第八块大陆月球扬帆起航，寻找新的知识与资源，扩大地球的经济范围，为全人类谋福利。”理查斯还指出在月球上开采水资源的可能性，称水是“太阳系的石油”（但目前仍无法确定月球上是否有水存在）。

近几年，私人太空竞赛日益激烈，其中尤以埃隆·穆斯克的SpaceX最为突出。该公司希望实现火箭回收再利用，进而大幅降低发射成本，在太空竞赛中取得领先。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Moon Express reached a unique milestone last week when it became the first private company to be cleared for a mission to the moon by the U.S. government. Among its plans for outer space services? Taking human remains into the final frontier for those who want to make the moon their final resting spot.

Company co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain told the New York Post that the cost of shuttling your ashes to the moon will run a cool $3 million per kilogram, which means taking a typical human’s remains would cost somewhere between $5 million and $8 million. And despite the price, demand is high. “We already have a long list,” Jain told the Post.

Moon Express’ astral ambitions go far beyond burial services. The company’s first lunar mission will launch next year and will dispatch a robotic probe to the moon. There, the probe will have to travel at least 500 meters and beam HD video back to Earth as part of Moon Express’ bid to win the Google Lunar X Prize -0.21% , which tops out at $20 million.

The firm’s eventual plans involve mining lunar resources like rare earth elements and other potentially valuable minerals which can then be processed for use on Earth.

“We are now free to set sail as explorers to earth’s eighth continent, the Moon, seeking new knowledge and resources to expand the Earth’s economic sphere for the benefit of all humanity,” said Moon Express co-founder and CEO Bob Richards in a statement. Richards also pointed to the possibility of mining water on the moon, calling it “the oil of the solar system” (although it’s still not quite clear if water definitely exists on the moon).

The private space race has been heating up in recent years with notable efforts like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is seeking to break ahead of the pack by reusing previously launched rockets and thus dramatically cutting launch costs.