14 Teams Registered To Compete In $30 Million Google Lunar X
Prize
The X Prize Foundation announced Thursday four new teams in the
Google Lunar X Prize, a robotic race to the Moon to win $30 million
in prizes, bringing the total number of registered teams to 14.
This international group of teams will compete to land a privately
funded robotic craft on the Moon that is capable of roaming the
lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and
data back to the Earth.
At a Team Summit for the Google Lunar X Prize, held at the
International Space University in Strasbourg, France, the 14 teams
met with X Prize Foundation officials, the competition's preferred
partners, and potential future customers. The two-day event also
included a Google Lunar X Prize-themed competition for university
students from several European countries and the United States.
"I'm delighted that we have four new teams joining the
competition," said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the
X Prize Foundation, who led the meeting. "Our 14 teams are not only
geographically diverse, but have an astounding diversity of ideas
and plans. We are thrilled to announce the first Asian X Prize
team, the first mystery team for the Google Lunar X Prize, and the
first X Prize team from a Historically Black Colleges and
Universities partnership."
"We are excited to host the first Google Lunar X Prize Team
Summit," said Michael Simpson, President of the International Space
University, the school in Strasbourg where the Team Summit was
held. "This is truly an international competition, and what better
place to showcase the diversity of these teams than here at the
International Space University. We look forward to being a part of
the innovation we expect to see from these global players."
Also participating in the Team Summit was a representative from
Google Headquarters, Tiffany Montague. "Google is proud to partner
with the X Prize Foundation on the Google Lunar X Prize," she said.
"We believe in entrepreneurship and pushing the boundaries of human
discovery, and we know that the new discoveries that come from this
effort will benefit us all in the years to come. We have been
impressed by the extraordinary response to this Prize, particularly
the number of registered teams we have had to date, and we're
pleased to welcome the four new teams today."
The four new teams are:
- Advaeros: Team Advaeros is led by Hanidy
Yusof, who founded the Malaysian company Advanced Aerospace
Industries. Advanced Aerospace Industries is a small Research and
Development company dealing with smart systems for navigation,
robotic application, aeronautical and space related activities.
They are a team of enthusiastic technical people who work together
for the future dreams of flight, both for fun and for knowledge.
They plan to design their own launch vehicle, focusing part of
their team on craft design, and the rest on launch vehicle
design.
- JURBAN: Started in 2000, the Juxtopia Group,
Inc. is a not-for-profit research organization whose mission is to
improve human learning performance with science and technology that
adapts to individual learning needs, enhances cognitive
performance, and augments human learning capabilities anytime,
anywhere, at any pace, and for anyone. The Juxtopia Urban Robotics
Brilliant Application National (JURBAN) challenge is a Juxtopia
Group program. The JURBAN Challenge Program trains underserved and
disadvantaged students to build autonomous service robotic systems
that have significant impact in their community. Led by Dr. Jayfus
T. Doswell, the JURBAN team will be made up of professional and
student engineers.
- STELLAR: Based in North Carolina and led by
Dick Dell, Team STELLAR includes team members from Insight
Technologies, the Advanced Vehicle Research Center, and North
Carolina State University. The team plans to highlight educational
outreach, and includes volunteers from two schools that participate
in the FIRST Robotics competition, which is a national high school
competition based in the United States.
- Mystery Team: Google Lunar X Prize teams have
the option of officially registering but remaining anonymous until
July 20, 2009. One new team has chosen to keep their identity a
secret for the moment, but they are still working hard on their
mission plan.
They join the 10 currently registered teams:
- Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association
(ARCA): Based in Valcea, Romania, ARCA is a former Ansari
X Prize competitor.
- Astrobotic: Based in the United States,
Astrobotic is led by Dr. William "Red" Whittaker, winner of the
DARPA 2007 Urban Challenge.
- Chandah: Based in the United States, Chandah
means "Moon" in Sanskrit.
- Team FREDNET: A multi-national team, FREDNET is a 100% open
source team.
- LunaTrex: Based in the United States, LunaTrex
is developing a craft named "Tumbleweed."
- Micro-Space: Based in the United States,
Micro-Space is a former Ansari X Prize competitor and is a current
competitor in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
- Odyssey Moon: Based in the Isle of Man,
Odyssey Moon is a private commercial lunar enterprise and is
developing the "MoonOne (M-1)" spacecraft.
- Quantum3: Based in the United States, Quantum3
is comprised of three former top NASA officials.
- Southern California Selene Group: Based in the
United States, SCSG is led by Harold Rosen, who led the effort to
build the first successful geostationary satellite, Syncom.
- Team Italia: Based in Italy, Team Italia
involves several Italian universities and companies.
"The Team Summit has been an excellent opportunity to get to
know these teams," said Diamandis (above). "We could not ask for a
better group of competitors."
The Team Summit also featured a one day competition for student
teams from European and US universities. The students competed in a
paper design contest based on the Google Lunar X Prize. Each team
presented both a technical and a business plan to a panel of judges
including officials from European and US space agencies and
industry experts.
There was a tie for first place between the International Space
University and the University of Stuttgart, with both teams
displaying comprehensive, interdisciplinary excellence, and
particularly noted for the maturity and creativity of their
financial presentations, which featured ideas like the development
of a modular lunar spacecraft design and a concept for future
asteroid missions. Supaero was honored with a special mention for
the quality of their technical concept, which featured a unique
2-wheeled rover with inflatable wheels and antennae.