Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, has revealed that internationally recognized planetary scientist Dr. Alan Stern will be the Chief Scientist and Mission Architect for the company.

The announcement was made as lunar scientists from around the world gather at the NASA Ames Research Park for their annual Lunar Science Forum, convened by the NASA Lunar Science Institute.

Dr. Stern is the former NASA Associate Administrator for Science and is an outspoken advocate for commercial space who believes in the power of private enterprise to complement government efforts.

While at NASA he presided over $4.5B of planetary science, astrophysics, heliophysics, and Earth science missions while, also serving as the Principle Investigator of the agency's New Horizon's mission to Pluto.

"I am thrilled to be working with the Moon Express team as Chief Scientist," he said. "Moon Express has the business model, talent, and the resources to blaze a commercial trail to the Moon and revolutionize the way we do lunar science and exploration. The lunar future is bright."

Named by Time Magazine as one of the world's most influential people, Dr. Stern has pushed many boundaries of science with innovative experiments and mission initiatives, including booking 8 suborbital spaceflights on Virgin Galactic and XCOR spaceships for space research.

As Chief Scientist of Moon Express, Dr. Stern is helping the company design lunar missions that will support the company's commercial operations leading the company's research into materials on the Moon that could have scientific and economic value for Earth and space exploration.

"We are honored to have a scientist of Alan Stern's caliber working with us," said Moon Express co-founder and CEO Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards. "Alan's unique combination of optimism, deep experience, and no-nonsense style helps propel Moon Express forward while remaining focused on the achievable."

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