Indian-origin billionaire and NASA set to mine the moon with robotic spacecraft

Moon Express's Indian origin billionaire and NASA have teamed up to build robotic spacecraft to mine the moon, it has been reported.

Moon Express, a Mountain View, California-based company that's aiming to send the first commercial robotic spacecraft to the moon in 2016, just took another step closer toward that lofty goal, CNBC reported.

Earlier in 2015, it became the first company to successfully test a prototype of a lunar lander at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Company's co-founder and chairman Naveen Jain said that the success of this test and a series of others that will take place later this year, paves the way for Moon Express to send its lander to the moon in 2016.

The company had also recently signed an agreement to take over Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral and the historic launchpad will be used for Moon Express's lander development and flight-test operations, he further added.

At the end of March, the company will conduct a completely free flight test with no tethering. The lander will take off from the pad, go up and sideways, then land back at the launchpad.

The lander's first mission would be a one-way trip, meaning that it's not designed to travel back to the Earth.

Looking ahead 15 or 20 years, Jain said he envisions a day when the moon would be used as a sort of way station enabling easier travel for exploration to other planets.