Google Lunar Xprize has awarded $5.25 million in awards to
five teams working to land a private spacecraft on the Moon.
The Milestone Prizes were developed to provide incentive for
researchers to develop new methods to land on our planetary companion. These
prizes are awarded in three categories, mobility, imaging and landing systems.
"The $30M Google Lunar Xprize is asking teams to
accomplish a feat that has never been achieved - the safe landing of a private
craft on the lunar surface that travels at least 500 meters and transmits
high-definition video and imagery back to Earth," Robert Weiss, vice
chairman and president of Xprize, said.
Astrobotic, a space research and development firm based in
California, was the top winner of the Google Lunar Xprize. The company was
granted an award of one million dollars for their advancement of landing
systems, along with $500,000 for development of mobility, and another $250,000
for novel imaging systems.
Icebreaker, the spacecraft designed by Astrobotic, consists
of two segments - a lander rover named Polaris and a separate lander. The
vehicle will launch from Earth aboard a Falcon 9 rocket booster, built by
SpaceX, and the spacecraft will spend four-and-a-half days traveling to the
Moon. Once there, the craft will land, and the two halves of the spacecraft
will part ways. The Polaris rover will then start its exploration of the lunar
surface, searching for ammonia, methane, and water.
"Why? Our Moon - the 'eighth continent' - has a land
area larger than Brazil and North America put together... and people have only
been to 5% of it! There are amazing natural wonders, valuable resources, and
unsolved mysteries waiting to be discovered," Lunar Xprize managers announced.
Volatile elements found on the lunar surface, and
concentrated at the poles, could potentially be used by future explorers to
manufacture fuel and life support for space exploration. Each of the winners
demonstrated hardware capabilities needed for lunar exploration, and presented
technical data to judges in the contest.
The Google Lunar Xprize is offering a grand prize of $20
million to the first company or organization able to meet the requirements of
the contest, and beam HDTV images back from the Moon for the public to watch.
This must be accomplished by the end of 2016 in order to win the prize.
Companies are required to accomplish the task with less than 10 percent of
their funding coming from government sources.
Moon Express, another American company, was awarded one
million dollars for landing technology and $250,000 advances in imaging. Team
Inus of India won one million dollars for development of landing techniques.
Hakuto of Japan won $500,000 in the challenge, for their work on mobility of
lunar craft.
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