InsideGoogle

Google Running Lunar Space Prize

Google has announced the Lunar X Prize, a $30 million prize that will be awarded to the first team of developers to successfully launch a private robotic rover on the moon. Much like the previous Ansari X Prize, which inspired many teams to launch a private space flight, Google hopes to jump start research in this area with its prize, which will go to the first team to land the rover and complete certain specific objectives.

According to the summary of the Google Lunar X Prize competition guidelines, the winning team must successfully land a privately funded spacecraft on the lunar surface that survives long enough to complete the mission goals: roaming about the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending a defined digital data package - called a “Mooncast” - back to Earth.

The $30 million to be awarded is segmented into a $20 million grand prize, a $5 million second prize and a $5 million bonus.

Contestants have until Dec. 31, 2012, to qualify for the $20 million grand prize, which will drop to $15 million for missions accomplished any time between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2014.

Teams will be required to send a Mooncast detailing their arrival on the lunar surface, and a second Mooncast that provides imagery and video of the journey roaming the lunar surface. Collectively, data sets broadcast from the Moon to the Earth must equal roughly a Gigabyte of content.

Popular Mechanics has a list of five reasons Google’s plan will ultimately fail.

September 16th, 2007 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General | 3 comments