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Ten teams signed up for Google Lunar X Prize |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Saturday, 23 February 2008
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 The Google Lunar X Prize unveiled nine new teams that will be competing in its privately-funded moon race, bringing the total of teams vying for the $30 million in prizes to ten. The new groups will be creating a fray with what was previously the only announced applicant: Odyssey Moon.
The Lunar X Prize organizers also announced a new partnership with Space Florida. The group is campaigning to put Florida on the commercial space flight map, after loosing ground to states like Texas and New Mexico. Space Florida is putting forward an addition $2 million bonus prize if the winning team launches from Florida - that's in addition to the $20 million that team would recieve for being the first to complete the objectives set forth by the X Prize Foundation.
A number of teams are aiming to launch in 2009 or 2010, and the extra $2 million that they would recieve from Space Florida could be the incentive that pushes them to launch from Florida. Said Google co-founder Alexander Brin, "A million dollars is not trivial to any one of these teams, let alone two million dollars. ... I definitely think somebody's going to make it and I think it's going to happen earlier than we expect."
The new competitors are:
- Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ACRA): This Romanian group competed in the Ansari X PRIZE and will enter their "European Lunar Explorer" in the new competition.
- Astrobotic: Headed by William "Red" Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University, the team expects their "Artemis Lander" and "Red Rover" spacecraft to touch down first on the moon.
- Chandah: Adil Jafry leads this team as chairman and CEO of Tara, the largest independent retail electricity provider in Texas. Chendah's spacecraft is called "Shehrezade."
- FREDNET: Developers, engineers and scientists make up FREDNET, headed by Fred Bourgeois III, president and CEO of Applios Inc.
- LunaTrex: A mix of U.S. rocket, robotics, aviation, energy and propulsion experts, the LunaTrex team led by Peter Bitar (founder of Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems) is entering "Tumbleweed" into the competition.
- Micro-Space: Richard Speck of Micro-Space, Inc. and his team hopes their "Human Lunar Lander" will secure the grand prize.
- Quantum3: This team intends to land "Moondancer" at the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 — the first manned moon mission — touched down in 1969.
- Southern California Selene Group: Their "Spirit of Southern California" spacecraft will rely on early communications satellite technology along with the latest developments in electronics and sensors.
- Team Italia: This Italian group intends to launch a colony of light, mobile robots on a lander for quick distribution on the Moon's surface.
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