Mon, Apr 26, 2010
Barcelona Moon Team Officially Enters The $30 Million
Competition
Today, Barcelona Moon Team, a multidisciplinary joint venture
bringing together Spanish entrepreneurial, industrial and academic
capabilities, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X
PRIZE this week. The $30 million competition challenges space
professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and
launch to the moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of
completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks.
Barcelona Moon Team, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, is among
the 21 teams from 11 countries that are vying for their share of
the $30 million prize purse.
Artist's Concept
"Through our official participation in the Google Lunar X PRIZE,
we want to promote collaboration between the Spanish aerospace
industry, academia and the whole of society," said Xavier
Claramunt, space entrepreneur and Barcelona Moon team leader. "GLXP
has the potential to be an amazing project that poses new
challenges and fosters enthusiasm in a growing industry such as the
Catalan and Spanish aerospace sector. GLXP is called to serve as
the key to open the door for the private sector to enter the
exploration and appropriate exploitation of space."
Artist's Concept
The Barcelona Moon Team is the first Spain-based team to enter
the competition and is comprised of ten companies and individuals,
including several Spanish private organizations, technological
centers, space professionals and scientists. The team is led by
Galactic Suite Moonrace, a filial company of Galactic Suite Design
that also promotes and develops the Galactic Suite Space resort,
the first space hotel, which intends to provide a complete
experience of space tourism by combining several elements of Earth
and of orbit. Other team members include: Barcelona-based
technological partners, Juan de Dalmau and the Center for Aerospace
Technology (CTAE); Scientist Ignasi Casanova and his team from the
Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), who support the team in
the aspects of Planetary Protection and scientific payload; and
Jordi Rigual, of New Output (NOP), who provides strategic and
commercial support.
Artist's Concept
"We consider the prize purse to be a stimulus as the budget can
be higher than $30 million, but the real goal of our team is to
promote, in accordance with the reality of the sector, a widening
involvement of private initiative in the development of space
technology and industry, including sectors such as exploration and
tourism, developing steps and synergies for longer term plans for
an appropriate exploitation of space," stated Claramunt.
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