The Google Lunar XPRIZE , sometimes referred to as Month 2.0 , is a 2007-2018 enrichment prize space competition hosted by X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge calls for a privately funded team to be the first to land a robot spacecraft on the Moon, make a 500-meter journey, and send it back to the high definition video and images of Earth. Prizes expire in early 2018 when no team can schedule, confirm, and pay for launch attempts.
By 2015, XPRIZE announces that the competition deadline will be extended until December 2017 if at least one team can secure a verified launch contract starting December 31, 2015. Two teams get such launch contracts, and the deadline is extended. In August 2017, the deadline was extended again, until March 31, 2018.
Entering 2018, five teams remain in the competition: SpaceIL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Team Indus and Team Hakuto, after ensuring the launch contract is verified with Spaceflight Industries, Rocket Lab, Interorbital Systems and ISRO (together for the last two teams).
On January 23rd, 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that "no team can make a launch effort to reach the Moon by the deadline [March 31, 2018]... and US $ 30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE will be unclaimed." On April 5, 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that Lunar XPRIZE will continue as a non-cash competition.
Video Google Lunar X Prize
Competition summary
Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced at Wired Nextfest on September 13, 2007. The competition offered a total of US $ 30 million in prizes to the first privately funded private team to land a robot on the Moon that successfully traveled more than 500 meters (1,640 ft) and sent back images and high definition video. The first team to do so will claim a grand prize of US $ 20 million; while the second team to complete the same task will receive a second prize worth US $ 5 million. The team also earned extra money by completing additional tasks beyond the basic requirements required to win big or second prizes, such as traveling ten times basic requirements (over 5,000 meters (3 mi)), capturing images of Apollo program hardware or objects man-made on the Moon, verify from the surface of the moon, the recent detection of water ice on the Moon, or survivors of the lunar night. In addition, a US $ 1 million diversity award will be awarded to teams that make significant strides in promoting ethnic diversity in the STEM field.
To provide an additional incentive for the team to complete their mission quickly, it was announced that the prize would be reduced from US $ 20 million to US $ 15 million whenever government-led missions landed and explored the moon's surface. However, in November 2013, organizers and teams agreed to cancel this rule, as the launch of China's Chang'e 3 probe - which landed on the Moon in December 2013 - is approaching.
By 2015, XPRIZE announces that the competition deadline will be extended until December 2017 if at least one team can secure a verified launch contract starting December 31, 2015. Two teams get such launch contracts, and the deadline is extended.
XPRIZE announced 5 finalists on January 24, 2017. SpaceIL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Team Indus, and Hakuto have been awarded a verified launch contract for 2017 (with SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Interorbital Systems, and ISRO). All other teams have until the end of 2016 to secure a verified launch contract, but fail to meet this deadline.
Google Lunar XPRIZE expires on March 31, 2018. Another extension of the deadline is ruled out by Google, although none of the last four teams can launch their vehicles by the end of March. Therefore, the prize is not claimed, as stated by Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of X Prize.
Maps Google Lunar X Prize
Overview
Peter Diamandis, founder of the project, wrote on an official web page in 2007:
The goal of Google Lunar X Prize is similar to Ansari X's Prize: to inspire a new generation of private investments in the hope of developing more cost-effective technologies and materials to overcome the limitations of space exploration currently considered mediocre..
History
Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced in 2007.
Gift origin
Similar to the way in which Ansari XPRIZE was formed, Google Lunar XPRIZE was created from the former Peter Diamandis attempt to achieve the same goal. Dr. Diamandis served as CEO of BlastOff! Corporation, a commercial initiative to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon as a blend of entertainment, internet, and space. Although ultimately unsuccessful, BlastOff! initiative paved the way for Google Lunar X Prize.
Initially, NASA was the planned sponsor and the prize was only US $ 20 million. Because NASA is a federal agent of the United States government, and thus funded by US tax money, the prize will only be available to teams from the United States. The original intention was to propose the idea to other national space agencies, including the European Space Agency and the Japanese space agency, in the hope that they would offer similar gift purses.
However, the budget setback stopped NASA from sponsoring gifts. Peter Diamandis then presented the idea to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founder of Google, to the XPRIZE fundraiser. They agree to sponsor it, and also to add prizes of up to US $ 30 million, allow for second place prizes, as well as bonus prizes.
Timeout extension
The prize was originally announced in 2007 as "a contest for placing a robot rover on the Moon in 2012," with a $ 20 million prize for the winner if the landing is achieved in 2012; the prize drops to $ 15 million by the end of 2014, at which point the contest will end. The five-year deadline is optimistic about the schedule. Jeff Foust commented on the Space Review that as late as 2012 approached, "no team appears near a reasonable offer to win it." In 2010, the deadline was extended by one year, with the prize expiring at the end of December 2015, and the grand prize reduction of $ 20 million to $ 15 million change from initially 2012 to "if a government mission lands on the lunar surface."
On December 16, 2014, XPRIZE announced another extension within the prize deadline from December 31, 2015 to December 31, 2016. In May 2015, the foundation announced another extension of the deadline. The deadline for winning prizes is now December 2017, but depends on at least one team showing on December 31, 2015 that they have a secure contract for launch. On October 9, 2015, the SpaceIL team announced their official launch contract with SpaceX, extending the competition until the end of 2017.
On August 16, 2017, the deadline was extended again until March 31, 2018. No remaining teams can claim Google X-Prize money due to inability to launch before the last deadline.
Objection to the Inheritance Bonus Prize
Some observers have objected to the entry of two "Bonus Bonus Gifts," especially the Apollo Heritage Bonus Prize, which will provide an additional US $ 1 million to the first group to successfully deliver images and videos from the landing sites of one of the Apollo Program landing sites, such as Tranquility Base, after landing on the lunar surface. The site is widely regarded as significant archaeological and cultural, and some have expressed concern that teams that are trying to win this inheritance bonus may inadvertently destroy or destroy such sites, either during the mission landing phase, or by driving the plow around the site. As a result, some archaeologists went on record calling on the Foundation to cancel the inheritance bonus and banned the group from targeting landing zones within 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the previous site.
In turn, the Foundation notes that, as part of the competition's educational goals, this bonus encourages debate on how to respectfully visit the landing sites the previous month, but that does not see itself as a proper adjudicator for relevant and interdisciplinary international issues. This response made the detractors dissatisfied. The Foundation points to a historical precedent set by the Apollo 12 mission, which landed near the 3 previous robot probe surveyors. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean approached and inspected Surveyor 3 and even extracted parts of it to be returned to Earth for study; new scientific results from the inheritance visit, about the exposure of man-made objects to space conditions, are still published in prominent papers nearly four decades later. However, since Surveyor 3 and Apollo 12 were NASA missions, there was no controversy at the time.
In January 2011, NASA's manager for the moon's commercial space noted on Twitter that work is being done to provide insight and guidance on how moon lunar sites can be protected while still allowing visits that can generate critical science. And in July 2011, NASA issued Recommendations to Space-Entities: How to Protect and Preserve the Historical and Scientific Value of the US Lunar Government Artifacts . This guide was developed with the help of Beth O'Leary, a professor of anthropology at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, and a recognized leader in emerging archeology. However, these are just guidelines and recommendations and can not be implemented beyond the possibility of "moral sanctions." An organization called For All Moonkind, Inc. are now working to develop an international agreement that will include applicable provisions designed to manage access to the Apollo site and protect and preserve such sites, as well as others on the Moon, as a common legacy of all humans.
Nevertheless, some Apollo astronauts themselves have expressed support for the bonus, with Apollo 11 Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin appearing in the early announcement of Google Lunar XPRIZE and reading the placards signed by the surviving majority of Apollo Astronaut.
Rewards do not win
On January 23, 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that "no team can make a launch effort to reach the Moon by the deadline [March 31, 2018]... and US $ 30 million > Google Lunar XPRIZE will be canceled. "
Competitors
Registration on Google Lunar X Prize closed on December 31, 2010. A full list of 32 teams was announced in February 2011. In January 2017, there were only five officially registered Lunar X Prize team members who proceeded to pursue the prize goal, as other teams had leaving the competition completely, failing to reach a competition competition milestone, or joining another team: Initially 32 teams are registered, with 16 teams already actively participating in all activities and only 5 teams fulfilling the rules requiring verified launch contracts before 31 December 2016.
Shortly after the announcement of the team's full list, a Prize Foundation official noted that a total of thirty-one teams entered the partial registration program by proposing a "Letter of Intent" to compete; Twenty did sign up or join another registered team, while eleven did not even register.
Terrestrial Milestone Gifts
Overview
In November 2013, the X-Prize organization announced that several important prizes will be given to the team to demonstrate key technologies before the actual mission. As much as US $ 6 million is provided throughout 2014 to achieve the following milestones:
Selected team
In February 2014, the panel of judges selected five teams that could compete for multiple interim prizes based on their proposals to achieve specific goals. The team and their main award are:
The five selected teams are required to achieve the milestones outlined in their submission through mission testing and simulation, to be awarded temporary prizes. The teams have until October 2014 to complete the prize requirements. The winners are officially awarded on January 26, 2015 in San Francisco.
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More
Seven other competitors can not get a verified launch contract on December 31, 2016, which led to their disqualification from Google Lunar X Prize, but plan to launch their craft independently, though not in competition but for research and commercial purposes.
See also
- Ansari X Prize
- Lunar Lander Challenge
- Lacus Mortis
- New Space
- SpaceX's monthly tourism mission
- 2020 Blue lunar south polar landing mission
References
External links
- Google Lunar X Prize home page
- Google Lunar X Prize Video Playlist on YouTube
- NASA's Weapon Prize Challenge Competition Program
- WIRED Science on GLXP
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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