Google Lunar XPrize competition enters milestone phase
There's $30 million available to 18 teams vying to be the first nongovernment entity to land a rover on the moon. Five of those teams are eligible for a $6 million boost this summer.
It's been more than 30 years since last we walked on the moon, 1972's Apollo 17 providing those historic footprints. China's Chang'e 3 lander and Yuto rover went back this spring, marking a long-awaited return to the lunar surface, but survived just a few weeks before suffering a tragic malfunction that left the rover completely immobile.
It's a brutal place, the moon, but it's time to try again, and the Google Lunar XPrize is making that happen. Google you're probably familiar with, while XPrize is a nonprofit organization that excels at finding solutions to extremely complicated problems through the use of public competitions. It was a public competition that inspired Charles Lindbergh to make the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, and it was 2004's Ansari X Prize that resulted in the creation of SpaceShipOne and, ultimately, Virgin Galactic.
Now, 10 years later, another XPrize is headed outside the atmosphere. The Google Lunar XPrize (or GLXP) is a collection of cash rewards serving to encourage privately funded teams to launch a rover from Earth, send it to the moon, and move at least 500 meters across the surface, beaming high-definition photos and videos all along the way.
The combined $30 million in prizes have created something of a commercial space race, with over 30 teams initially vying to be the first to make this private moon shot. Along the way that number has whittled down to 18 active participants still hoping to send their creations skyward. Of those, XPrize has selected five that are eligible for a further $6 million in so-called milestone prizes.
Between now and September, these five teams will be demonstrating the various aspects of their technologies, including the ability to land on the moon (without crashing), drive across the lunar surface (without breaking), and successfully capture images of all that heavenly glory. These tests will take place here on Earth, but each successful completion will earn its team the funds required to get to the moon.
Here are the five teams eligible for the milestone prizes: