Google to sponsor lunar lander prize
Posted: Thu, Sep 13, 2007, 5:58 PM ET (2158 GMT)
Internet search engine company Google has agreed to sponsor $30 million in prizes for the first privately-developed lunar rovers. The Google Lunar X Prize competition, announced Thursday in Los Angeles, will award $20 million to the first private spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon, rove at least 500 meters, and return a series of high-resolution panoramic images and videos. A $5-million prize will go to the second company to achieve the feat, with the remaining $5 million set aside for bonus prizes, such as discovering water ice. The prize competition will be run by the X Prize Foundation, which ran the $10-million Ansari X Prize competition for privately developed manned suborbital spacecraft. The prize expires at the end of 2014. A group at Carnegie Mellon University has already announced its intent to compete for the prize.
Internet search engine company Google has agreed to sponsor $30 million in prizes for the first privately-developed lunar rovers. The Google Lunar X Prize competition, announced Thursday in Los Angeles, will award $20 million to the first private spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon, rove at least 500 meters, and return a series of high-resolution panoramic images and videos. A $5-million prize will go to the second company to achieve the feat, with the remaining $5 million set aside for bonus prizes, such as discovering water ice. The prize competition will be run by the X Prize Foundation, which ran the $10-million Ansari X Prize competition for privately developed manned suborbital spacecraft. The prize expires at the end of 2014. A group at Carnegie Mellon University has already announced its intent to compete for the prize.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Friday, March 19
What’s Next For NASA? Get Answers At Space Forum Today
Central Florida News 13 — 1:52 pm ET (1752 GMT) Hubble and the space shuttle in IMAX 3-D
CNN — 1:52 pm ET (1752 GMT) Discovery Starts Packing For Space
Central Florida News 13 — 1:49 pm ET (1749 GMT) "Hubble 3D" Will Rock Your Worlds (All of Them)
WRC-TV Washington DC — 1:49 pm ET (1749 GMT) Space shortlist announced
Russia Today — 1:45 pm ET (1745 GMT) |