What a Kilogram on the Moon Costs Today
What does NASA pay per kilogram for commercial delivery to the lunar surface, and what does a failure do to that price?
Chapter summary
CLPS task orders have ranged from about $47 million to over $300 million per mission, for NASA payloads of tens to a few hundred kilograms.
Key takeaways
- 1
Dividing price by NASA payload mass gives roughly $0.7–1 million per kilogram on small landers, close to the $1.2 million per kilogram that Astrobotic advertised for Peregrine.
- 2
Because half of commercial landings have not gone to plan, the effective price per kilogram that actually arrives and works is about twice the contract price: a year of four landings at a 50% success rate turns $480 million into about 200 kilograms delivered, or $2.4 million per working kilogram (Setcoin model).
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