Google Lunar X Prize

The Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP) or as others called it Moon 2.0 , it is a space competition which offer an inducement prize for the winners , and it's organized by X Prize Foundation and the project sponsored by Google. The first objective for Google Lunar XPRIZE is to encourage more the space entrepreneurs to make a new era of technology to let us access to the Moon and beyond. The mission calls for privately funded spaceflight teams to effectively dispatch a robotic spacecraft which can land and go over the surface of the moon while sending to the each a specified images and other information.

Last year, Google declared that the deadline for winning the price is December 2017.

The competition’s $30 million prize purse will be offered to the teams who are capable to land a privately funded rover on the moon, and able to travel 500 meters, and transmit back high video and images and information. 20 million dollar which is the Grand Prize will be offer to first team that completed the mission successfully and in time and the second team who finish to mission will be offered $5 million dollars.

To win one of these prizes, in the first the teams must show and prove that ninety percent of their mission costs were funded by private sources. In the end of 2016 is the deadline to announce a verified launch contract to remain in this competition and they complete their mission by the end of 2017. Also there is a several bonus prizes are available for further technical and scientific achievements, for example surviving the lunar night or visiting an Apollo landing site and more.

Sure all want to know the benefits of getting to the moon and having a spacecraft function and why google offer a great price for it. As an engineer I will tell you a few of the important benefits that we can have it from the moon such as Power, Science, water, Analogue Demonstration, and Launch Port Capability.

The moon can provide us the power with two ways, first the solar and second the nuclear. Many studies show that we can use the lunar surface material to make many of the components used in solar panels. Imagine if the large areas of the moon are developed into solar farms then energy which we can use it in the earth or spacecraft charging. Also we there is evidence that Helium-3 may be available in usable quantities for nuclear fusion

Water detection is another Bonus Prize for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. They find a large quantities of water on the Moon would be the most beneficial for future human missions to the Moon. As you know the water is heavy and expensive to send to space, so the ability to harvest water on the Moon rather than spend the money to ship it from the Earth would allow for more science payload or smaller cost efficient vehicles to be used.

The Moon is a good source to provide us with great science data. Many scientists are interested to see what condition lunar heritage items are in, for example the Apollo landers, to understand and discover what effects the lunar environment has on items after a long exposure time. Two of the Google Lunar X PRIZE Bonus Prizes deal with visiting lunar heritage items. Learning more about these environmental effects will allow us to better design the next generation of vehicles or human habitats.

The Moon can give us with a test bed for future long duration surface missions, such as ones to Mars. The longest time we have spent on the surface of another body in the solar system is measured in days, but a mission to Mars would require approximately 18 months on the surface. Testing not only engineering, but also life science aspects of this mission on the Moon would increase the chances of success.

The Moon is consider as a great location for launching rockets. The Moon has 1/6th the gravity of the Earth, which would reduce the amount of fuel needed to reach other destinations in the solar system exponentially. Fuel for this launch port could come from water as previously discussed, but the lunar surface itself is made up of rocks, which contain about 20% oxygen in the form of silicates. Many research groups around the world have techniques for separating the oxygen from these rocks and storing them for either life support or propulsion. If we are able to process large amounts of oxygen on the Moon, we would only need to bring one propellant to the Moon instead of two.

Going back to the Google Lunar XPRIZE, there are sixteen teams, from all over the world, who dare to dream big, to push the limits of what’s possible and to make a new history. They want to develop a robot that can successfully land on the moon’s surface, and travel at least 500 meters and then, transmit information back to Earth. All for a chance to win the largest incentivized prize ever –the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE. There are many teams such as ASTROBOTIC which is an American team , Amalia Finzi which is an Italy’s team and Team Moon Express ( won two Milestone Prizes And the Imaging Prize ) and many others teams .

As a futurist enthusiastic I think this kind of private initiatives are too important for the inspiring to the next generation of scientists, space explorers, engineers and sure for adventurers. It's important for us to discover more about space and to make new discoveries which can be the solutions for many problems and the moon can provide us many benefits also it's an attractive place for research and exploration.