NASA is paying new companies for moon rocks. It's not your opinion.

What amount is a moon rock worth? As indicated by new agreements inked among NASA and four new companies, it's somewhere close to $1 and $15,000. 

NASA promised in September to purchase moon rocks from organizations that can get automated wanderers to the lunar surface and gather up examples of the dusty territory, and the space office requested offers from organizations everywhere on the world. The champs were disclosed Thursday: California-based Masten, Lunar Station of Colorado, and two separate organizations that are both called iSpace — one from Japan and the other from Luxembourg. 

The program, which NASA expectations will be finished by 2024, the very year the organization plans to restore space explorers to the moon, is among the most special in US history. The objective isn't to gather new data about lunar soil arrangement or study how different lunar assets can be utilized. The objective, rather, is to urge the private area to put resources into meanderer improvement. 

Also, maybe the essential objective of the undertaking is to clarify to the remainder of the world that the moon isn't only a spot for investigation and exploration — it's a position of business. 

NASA might be the main association that is at present on the lookout for purchasing moon rocks from privately owned businesses, however the space office permitted the organizations to name their cost. Lunar Station swore to sell their example for only $1, by a long shot the littlest offer. Both iSpace organizations intend to sell their examples for $5,000. Also, Masten will sell its assortment for $15,000. 

It's not yet clear if any of the organizations will prevail in their endeavors. NASA says it will just follow through on 10% of the absolute buy cost forthright. Furthermore, indeed, NASA intends to mail Lunar Station's a check for 10¢, as indicated by Phil McAlister, NASA's head of business spaceflight advancement. The organizations will get another 10% after their meanderers dispatch into space, and the last 80% will be paid out after the organizations demonstrate to NASA that their wanderers have really gathered lunar soil tests of somewhere in the range of 50 and 500 grams, or up to about a pound when burdened Earth. 

The trip to the moon isn't simple. The organizations should purchase a ride on a rocket that can convey their wanderers right to the moon, and they'll require a lunar lander which can ship the meanderers down to the lunar surface. Yet, on the off chance that the meanderers can arrive, the organizations won't be needed to take the dirt examples they gather back to Earth. McAlister said it's likewise indistinct if NASA intends to bring them home at all since that is not the purpose of the program. 

"We believe it's imperative to build up the point of reference that private-area substances can separate these assets and NASA can buy" them, NASA leader Mike Gold told columnists Thursday. 

The monetary motivation for the four organizations pursued NASA's new lunar asset program isn't actually clear, yet the entirety of the organizations are as of now well in progress creating different lunar investigation advancements. 

Masten, for instance, has a $75.9 million agreement with NASA through an alternate program, named CLPS, to convey supplies to the moon in 2022 utilizing its XL-1 lunar lander.