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LUNAR MISSIONS TRUST CLOSURE - UPDATE MAY 2023

Following the sad death of our Chairman and the ill-health of our Founder, we
have decided to close the Lunar Missions Trust.

The Lunar Mission One idea – with its Ark of Life record, stored within a
billion-year time capsule provided by the Moon itself, and delivered as part of
a deep drilling mission for science, engineering and education – remains freely
available for anyone to pursue in the future.  We will maintain its details in
our archived website for as long as it is feasible.
Our Footsteps on the Moon image bank is aboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar
lander.  It should be launched soon in Florida by a Vulcan Centaur rocket of the
United Launch Alliance.


LUNAR MISSION ONE: AN ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT FUTURE CHANGES - 2019


Drawing a close to the project initiated by Kickstarter – but keeping the idea
alive as The Ark of Life


Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal: 
"The project is plainly ambitious and challenging, but its special cultural and
scientific features should generate wide interest and support. It deserves to
succeed."


We have made a real effort to fulfill the LM1 vision – both ambitious and
challenging! Yet since the end of LM1’s Kickstarter funded preparatory phase in
2015, we have been proceeding without any cash with only limited progress. We
have always made clear that beyond the Kickstarter phase, further substantial
funds and backing were required to enable the project to advance. We have long
known of, and waited for, a prospective sponsor but so far it has not been able
to deliver. The Trustees (who are all volunteers) have decided to wait no
further, and to take two main courses of action.

The first is to seek one High Net Worth Individual, who could personally provide
the at-risk cash to recover momentum and could lead to other single sources of
high-level funding. The individual could be from anywhere around the World and
is likely to be a billionaire. The call for new sponsorship is available from
here.[Link removed May 2023]

The other course of action is to halt the core LM1 project but to keep alive the
inspiring underlying LM1 idea. The future mission, including its archive with
Digital Memory Boxes for Kickstarter backers, will await external funding and
other developments. None of the volunteers we have spoken to want to stop their
activities. So, the idea can be sustained through them.

Our chapters and pilot schools continued in 2018, and a group of chapter leads
formed an Intercontinental Group – one from each of North America, South
America, Europe, Africa, Asia (Indian subcontinent) and South East Asia – to
help with the global connections of LM1’s public engagement.

Meanwhile LM1 presented last year at conferences or exhibitions in Dallas (USA),
UK (Sidmouth, Bristol, Nottingham, Plymouth, Belfast), Stockholm (Sweden),
Dublin (Ireland), Amiens (France) and Bilovec (Czech Republic). These activities
may continue in the future. 

The context and rational of both the idea and the project remain. From our 2017
update: “LM1 is ideally placed to benefit from both increased lunar focus and
more private enterprise aiming for the final frontier. LM1 scientists remain in
the forefront of discussions on lunar exploration hosted by space agencies,
especially NASA and ESA.” We have recently seen considerable activity on and
around the Moon and it is clearly now the focus of international missions. 

The top aim of the LM1 idea is, and always has been, to raise new funding for
public space science and exploration. Its revenue justification comes from the
private archive – mainly from the DNA carried as hair. The USPs (Unique Selling
Points) have not changed: (1) a billion-year time capsule of Life on Earth, (2)
a genuine part of “you”, and (3) the global scale of public engagement. All
these points remain both unique and selling. 

The Trustees will maintain the list of Kickstarter backers, and in particular
the list of those with Digital Memory Box vouchers, for if and when a new
project can be set up. We also intend to maintain the “Footsteps on the Moon”
images for their launch and lunar placement by Astrobotic’s Peregrine
spacecraft. 

For interest, this report describes how we spent the Kickstarter money, while
this Forbes article highlights the issue we have faced with the UK tax
authorities, which terminated funded progress at the end of the Kickstarter
stage. Our higher judicial appeal will be heard in March at the Royal Courts of
Justice in London, and we plan to wind up LM Ltd after that and use any money to
pay off its trade creditors. All our legal work for these proceedings is being
done on a no-win-no-fee basis. 

The LM1 website is now archived with no further updates, but is available online
for reference and detailed information for those who wish to investigate it. The
Trust will maintain an archive of the project’s financial and commercial
records.

We should like to maintain a social media presence, and seek a volunteer for
regular updates of information that corresponds with the LM1 idea. We propose
that future developments should come under a new name, the “Ark of Life”, which
more accurately reflects what LM1 is about and which was selected by our market
research exercise back in 2012. 

Lunar Missions Trust - January 2019




TAX UPDATE


It is with much regret that we have lost our higher legal appeal against the UK
tax authority. We are very disappointed with the ruling and that the court did
not understand the economic structure of our Kickstarter crowdfunding, by
treating our capital funding as if it was revenue funding.  VAT should not have
been paid for vouchers whose value could only have been nominal at the time of
issue.

As a result of this ruling, we now have no alternative but to close down Lunar
Missions Ltd.  In any event, the company has had no cash since October 2015 when
the tax authority decision brought the commercial project to a premature end.

Lunar Missions Trust will continue as the custodian of the Lunar Mission One
idea on a fully volunteer basis, as it has done since 2015.  Our Footsteps on
the Moon image bank will still be carried to the Moon by Astrobotic’s first
lander; stay in touch for more details on this mission.

Lunar Missions Trust - October 2019


QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

WHY DID THE PREP STAGE NOT SUCCEED?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.

IF YOU FIND A NEW SPONSOR, WHAT WILL YOU SPEND THE FUNDING ON?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.

WHAT IS THE LATEST TIMELINE FOR THE SPACE MISSION?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.

ARE YOU OPEN TO JOINING FORCES WITH OTHER MISSIONS?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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

WHAT ABOUT MY DIGITAL MESSAGE BOX?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.

APART FROM THE KICKSTARTER BACKERS, WHAT HAPPENS TO THE OTHER
SPONSORS?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.

WHAT DID YOU SPEND THE KICKSTARTER MONEY ON?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

Please see the infographic and paper on Prep Stage Expenditure.

WHAT ARE VOLUNTEERS CURRENTLY DOING?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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

WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO ENTICE FUTURE PARTNERS?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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. 

WILL YOU KEEP THE LM1 NAME?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.

WHAT IF NO SPONSOR APPEARS?KEYBOARD_ARROW_UP

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.


LUNAR MISSION ONE WEBSITE ARCHIVED

The LM1 site has been achived as at January 2019 for you to find out about the
project in more detail.

VISIT ARCHIVE SITE

Lunar Mission One © 2019-2023 - A trading name of Lunar Missions Trust.
Registered in the UK, company no: 8661432 [closed 2023] 

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