About the Google Lunar X PRIZE

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an international competition in which teams compete to carefully land a robot on the Moon’s surface, travel 500 meters (1/3 of a mile) over the lunar surface, and then send high definition video, images, and data back to Earth . The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million and the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. Teams have to be registered to compete by December 31, 2010 to be eligible. The unique aspect about the competition is that the teams have to be at least 90% privately funded. (1)

To add extra motivation for the Google Lunar X PRIZE teams to move swiftly, the grand prize value will go down to $15 million whenever a government-funded mission successfully explores the lunar surface, which is currently anticipated to occur in 2013. After the first team completes the mission objectives then the second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $4 million will be awarded in bonus prizes for achieving other specific mission objectives, including operation at night; traveling more than 5km over the lunar surface; detection of water; and precision landing near an Apollo site or other lunar sites of interest (such as landing/crash sites of man-made space hardware). Also, another $1 million will be awarded to the team that demonstrates the greatest attempts to promote diversity in the field of space exploration. The Google Lunar X PRIZE will expire when all the prizes are claimed, or at the end of 2015.  To date there are 20 teams registered to compete from all over the globe including: Isle of Man, Italy, Barcelona, U.S., Romania, Denmark, China, Netherlands, Germany, Russian, and Berlin. (2)

The Google Lunar X Prize also offers a selection of preferred partners to the teams to make it easier and less expensive to compete for the prize. These companies are willing to offer considerable discounts to any and all Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams. These partners include: Space Exploration Technologies, SETI Institute, Universal Space Network, Space Florida, and AGI.(3) Overall this competition is an exciting and fascinating way to generate new business in the area of commercial space exploration.

Sources

1.http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize
2.http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize/rules-and-guidelines
3.http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize/preferred-partners

 

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