2 years, 2 months ago
How many teams are competing for the Google Lunar Lander X Prize? What are the criteria for the victory?
Separate topics with commas, or by pressing return. Use the delete or backspace key to edit or remove existing topics.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$1 Answer
Canadian team Odyssey Moon became the first contestant to sign up for the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwsfAsP8QM&feature=player_embedded
I already Answered a similar Question in the month of August of 2009, where I listed the teams that were ready to compete in the Google Lunar X PRIZE back then. It is a $30 million competition intended for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth. Take a look at my Answer...
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/science-and-mathematics/how-popular-is-the-lunar-x-prize-race-to-the-moon
Since that date, the amount of entering new teams and dropping teams have slightly changed. Today there are 20 enlisted teams, 2 other dropped out of contention. Here is the current list of teams competing in the race:
Odyssey Moon
Astrobotic
Team Italia
Micro Space
Next Giant Leap
FredNet
ARCA
Chandah
Advaeros
STELLAR
JURBAN
Independence-X
Omega Envoy
SYNERGY MOON
Euroluna
SELENE
White Label Space
Part-Time-Scientists
Selenokhod
C-Base Open Moon
In order to understand the criteria of this competition I will rephrase the comment I did back when I Answered that first Question, past August:
---Quote---
There are two deadlines, in case one of the teams lands on the moon after certain date. All teams that wish to participate must register by December 31, 2010. The first team to land and complete the mission objectives before December 31, 2012. Will be awarded the full prize of $20 million.
After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million; the second team to do so will be awarded $5 million and another $5 million will be awarded in bonus prizes (for example, taking images of the Apollo lunar modules, finding water or riding over the surface some 5.000 meters). The final deadline in any case for winning the prize will be December 31, 2014. After that date the competition will be over.
So it is fair to say that the winner will be announced once a team accomplish the feat during the next two or four years.
---/Quote---
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/files/images/lunar/tshirtwinners/WINNER-1.png
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwsfAsP8QM&feature=player_embedded
I already Answered a similar Question in the month of August of 2009, where I listed the teams that were ready to compete in the Google Lunar X PRIZE back then. It is a $30 million competition intended for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth. Take a look at my Answer...
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/science-and-mathematics/how-popular-is-the-lunar-x-prize-race-to-the-moon
Since that date, the amount of entering new teams and dropping teams have slightly changed. Today there are 20 enlisted teams, 2 other dropped out of contention. Here is the current list of teams competing in the race:
Odyssey Moon
Astrobotic
Team Italia
Micro Space
Next Giant Leap
FredNet
ARCA
Chandah
Advaeros
STELLAR
JURBAN
Independence-X
Omega Envoy
SYNERGY MOON
Euroluna
SELENE
White Label Space
Part-Time-Scientists
Selenokhod
C-Base Open Moon
In order to understand the criteria of this competition I will rephrase the comment I did back when I Answered that first Question, past August:
---Quote---
There are two deadlines, in case one of the teams lands on the moon after certain date. All teams that wish to participate must register by December 31, 2010. The first team to land and complete the mission objectives before December 31, 2012. Will be awarded the full prize of $20 million.
After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million; the second team to do so will be awarded $5 million and another $5 million will be awarded in bonus prizes (for example, taking images of the Apollo lunar modules, finding water or riding over the surface some 5.000 meters). The final deadline in any case for winning the prize will be December 31, 2014. After that date the competition will be over.
So it is fair to say that the winner will be announced once a team accomplish the feat during the next two or four years.
---/Quote---
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Armadillo Aerospace is an aerospace rocket company that entered a different competition; their goal is to build a manned suborbital spacecraft with the space tourism capability in mind. They also got ambitious plans for orbital spaceflight. The company competed in diverse competitions in the past, like the Ansari X Prize to put the first independent man on orbit. This competition was won by the StarshipOne from the famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan, in 2004.
Armadillo also entered other competitions with diverse rocket launching projects, such as the Wirefly X-Prize Cup in 2006; Wirefly X-Prize Cup in 2007; Lunar Landing Challenge in 2008; Lunar Lander Challenge in 2009; and the proposed Rocket Racing League.
Sources:
http://www.mahalo.com/scaled-composites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Racing_League
Which group is Armidillo associated with? Armidillo has the most experience with solid oxygen rockets.