In just four days that it listed on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, the Lunar Mission One project has raised more than $1 million since its official launch on November 19. The amount is almost half the amount needed by the British scientists who thought of the venture in 2007.

The project set December 17 as deadline to reach its goal of raising the total amount needed to finance the venture's detailed risk assessment, procurement plans and creation of management teams.

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The project plans to dig in the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin in 2024 to collect samples as well as bury 66 feet down a time capsule composed of memorabilia from Earth. There are two parts of the time capsule, one is a public part and the other is a private part.

The public part will feature items that tells of Earth's history. The public part would be made of digital memory boxes made by individuals such as family lineages, videos, selfie photos and human hair. Only those who contributed to the fund raised via Kickstarter would be allowed to send digital memory boxes to the Moon. To do so, a minimum $100 or £60 donation is required.

Lunar Missions Chairman Ian Taylor, ex-minister of science, technology and space in the United Kingdom, underscores that the bases of scientific exploration are innovation and ambition.

"Lunar Mission exemplifies this - not only in what it will seek to discover, but in reaching out to the wider public for involvement in and financing the project. Ultimately, Lunar Mission One could become an exciting template for galvanising additional resources to explore the Moon and beyond," Spaceflightnow quotes Taylor.

David Iron, founder of the Lunar Mission Trust, tells The Atlantic, "It creates emotional significance and it tickles people's fancy. It's an emotional thing."

Birkbeck College Professor of Planetary Sciences Ian Crawford, who provides scientific advice to the project, says the real intent of the mission goes beyond leaving a memorabilia on the Moon but to encourage more interest in space exploration sparked by the landing of the Rover on Mars, plans for space tourism and human settlement on Mars and landing on a comet.

NASA had deployed six Apollo missions to the moon, but all of it explored the area near the Moon's equator, while Lunar Mission One would land in the South Pole-Aitken basin and open the door to secure samples from the Moon's interior.

Tagslunar mission one, moon, crowdfunding