An outer-space delivery firm that's working to put a privately owned lunar rover on the moon is offering to "mail" personal keepsakes as a way to help fund the partnership's rocket launch.
Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University are trying to get their lunar rover to the moon to win $US20 million ($A21.6 million) in an international contest sponsored by Google to promote privately funded lunar exploration.
Astrobotic, a spin-off company of CMU, has leased a rocket built by a private California firm, Space X, to carry the lunar rover and is offering the MoonMail service to help pay for the trip.
On its website, Space X advertises a moon rocket lease for $US61 million, with a 10 per cent discount for any of the groups competing in the Google competition.
On Thursday, Astrobotic launched moonmail.co, a website where people can sign up to send their keepsakes in tiny MoonMail packages to the moon, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
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The cargo is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Defense. As such, Astrobotic expects people will send non-volatile items like wedding rings, locks of hair or other tiny heirlooms.
A keepsake mailer - a tiny hexagonal capsule sells for $US460. The largest - a 2.5cm by 5cm hexagonal - sells for $US25,800.
The rover, nicknamed Andy, is a solar-powered, knee-high, four-wheeled robot.
Under terms of Google's LunarX prize, the winning rover must travel about about 500 metres on the lunar surface by the end of 2015.
The device must also be able to transmit video of its progress to Earth.
