Firstly, we did not reach the idea’s potential for crowdfunding. We concentrated too much on lunar science rather than the central idea for the project’s funding which is all about the archive – and its potential to fund future space science and exploration – and for which this lunar mission is the enabler. As a consequence, the idea’s USP’s (1 The Life on Earth archive awaiting discovery over a billion years, 2 A real bit of you (DNA plus data), and 3 The global nature of the project) were lost in the messaging. There was little pick-up beyond the UK where people assumed it was a UK project. In the US, it was seen as just another Moon mission idea and “not one of ours”. Although our Kickstarter reached the minimum to keep us going at the time, we really needed two or three times that to be reasonably sure of progress. 

Secondly, while we were grappling with the start of an under-resourced new funding campaign – and start the Setup Stage – we found that the UK tax authority (HMRC) took the view that our crowdfunding should have been subject to 20% sales tax (known in the UK as VAT). We had formally received clear professional expert advice that our crowdfunding should not be taxable. Our view was that it was not taxable anyway as the economic reality of the transaction was a capital not a revenue funding. We were not selling DMBs (digital memory boxes) but giving vouchers as rewards for donating to the start of a project for which there was not a direct link to the eventual redemption. There is simply too much time and uncertainty between the issue of vouchers and the proper sale of DMBs. We have been in dispute with HMRC ever since, but its decision at the time left us with no money – we were no longer financially solvent – and we had to stop our funded progress at the end of the Prep Stage and look for completely new funding to continue.

We need to take the project to the point where we have legally binding commitments to implement the main project – its space mission, its science, its revenues and its education. The Setup Stage during which we do this is much the same as before, and requires funding for: 
1. A fully staffed procurement team to acquire the resources for the space mission from Government and industry. This will require experts in: 
a. PPP procurement, to negotiate the complex commercial and financial terms; 
b. Space engineering, to oversee and fund development activities needed to reduce the technology risk, eg of precision landing and robotic operations; 
c. Drilling engineering, to oversee and fund development activities needed to reduce the technology risk, eg of deep drilling borehole strategies; 
d. Project interfaces, to ensure internal coherence of the mission’s components, and external links to other ground and space assets; 
e. Programme and project management, to bring and keep it all together. 

2. A science team, drawn from universities and other research establishments, to confirm the detailed science requirements and prepare for the production of science instruments. Some of the scientists will be full time and they will all be supported by a small management team.

3. A sales and marketing team to acquire early sales revenues to help with project funding and to plan for the main sales campaign.

4. A public archive and education team, to pilot the non-profit activities of the main phase.

Nine years from finding a significant sponsor. It could take about three years to set up the committing arrangements between government, industry and commerce. At that point a formal timetable for the mission should appear – the best guess today is six years from then.

Of course, we always have been, but they need to be able to cope with a deep drill.

Most of those who donated to LM1’s Kickstarter have a voucher for a Digital Memory Box to the value of their pledges. These can be realised when the project has been set up with a commercial arrangement offering space in the private archive, under a PPP. 

The Lunar Missions Trust will continue to hold the list of vouchers with the objective of passing it on as an obligation for the PPP. The more funding we get, the closer will backers be to obtaining their DMBs.

A number of individuals and organisations are recognised sponsors, either in cash or in kind, going back to 2012. The rewards for their contributions were dependent on project progress beyond the Kickstarter’s Prep Stage and remain at risk.

Please see the infographic and paper on Prep Stage Expenditure.

Giving presentations to schools, colleges and clubs. 
Mentoring school projects. 
Planning and holding local events, workshops and competitions. 
Coordinating with other interested organisations. 

The LM1 project brings with it professional knowledge, plans and feasibility studies. It has many supporters – industry, scientists, Chapters, pilot schools with project examples (lower/primary school to post-graduate), over 7,000 existing Kickstarter backers and other sponsors. 

The project is also supported by a team of international advisors, including two former NASA astronauts, the former Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, and experts in space technologies. In addition, over 40 institutions have expressed support for the project, including the Natural History Museum of London, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Geological Society, the British Interplanetary Society, the International Space University and the University of London. 

We had long planned to call the project “The Ark of Life”, to reflect the core value proposition of its business case. Keeping “Lunar Mission One” itself would depend on who leads its resurrection.

The attractiveness of LM1’s benefits, especially financial, are likely to grow in the coming decade or so.

Nonetheless, in the absence of major new funding, we expect to continue as an idea for anyone to take up, especially the central idea of mass lunar archiving of Life on Earth for a billion years.