Project M was a proposed NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 project headed by Stephen J. Altemus, to send a Robonaut

Robonaut

Robonaut is a humanoid robotic development project conducted by the Dextrous Robotics Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas...

 to the Moon. This was hoped to be achieved in just 1000 days from the official go ahead. Project M has since been scaled down into Project Morpheus

Project Morpheus

Project Morpheus is a vertical test bed vehicle developed by NASA. The lander is large enough to carry 1,100 pounds of cargo to the moon. The project is an outgrowth of Project M, a NASA initiative to land a humanoid robot on the lunar surface in 1000 days. Morpheus is the second of four risk...

.

A prototype lander has been built in partnership with Armadillo Aerospace

Armadillo Aerospace

Armadillo Aerospace is an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal is to build a manned suborbital spacecraft capable of space tourism, but it has stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight. The company was founded by John Carmack.On October 24, 2008, Armadillo...

.

History

NASA projected the project could have cost less than $200 million. An additional $250 million would have been needed for the launch vehicle. The project could have been accomplished in a thousand days or less once it had been approved. The project would have used a variation of lander developed by Armadillo Aerospace.

External links

• NASA Project M whitepaper
• Project M Youtube channel