A small start-up has received the green light from the federal government to do something that NASA has not done for more than four decades: land on the moon.

Moon Express, based in Cape Canaveral, Fla., announced Wednesday that it had received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to set a robotic lander on the moon.

That feat would win the Google Lunar X Prize competition for the first private organization to reach the moon and an accompanying $20 million reward.

But more than the prize, company officials say that it will be the opening of a profitable frontier for entrepreneurs. “Rephrasing John F. Kennedy, we choose to go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s a good business,” said Naveen Jain, the Moon Express chairman. “Everything we fight over — whether it’s land or it’s fresh water, whether it is energy — is in abundance in space.”