Insurance and Risk Transfer for Lunar Missions
Can lunar missions be insured, who bears the risk of failure today, and how could that change?
Chapter summary
Most lunar payloads fly uninsured.
Key takeaways
- 1
The space insurance market, about $500 million to $1 billion of premiums a year worldwide, is built around satellites in Earth orbit, where there are long statistical records.
- 2
For the Moon there are few missions, a high failure rate and no data on surface operations, so underwriters offer limited cover at high rates, when they offer it at all.
- 3
Some launch-phase cover is available (the rocket part of the mission), and a few commercial lander missions have bought partial cover.
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