Updates Google Lunar X-Prize Updates

[RGClark]

With the withdrawal of Astrobotic from the competition Moon Express becomes the leading team. They have secured sufficient funds for a launch:

Moon Express raises $20m for 2017 voyage to the moon.
Robot spacecraft planned to land on moon’s surface this year.
Company will become first private enterprise to travel beyond Earth’s orbit.
Sam Levin in San Francisco Tuesday 17 January 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jan/17/moon-express-raises-20m-for-2017-voyage-to-moon

Bob Clark

 

[Notebook]

The race to put a privately funded spacecraft on the Moon has just five teams left in the competition.
The surviving groups all met an end-of-2016 deadline to obtain launch contracts - and these have now been verified by the organisers of the Google Lunar X-Prize.
To stand a chance of winning the $20m top purse, however, the teams will need to leave Earth by 31 December.
The winner will be the first to roam at least 500m, and stream hi-res imagery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38731862

N.

 

[Nicholas Kang]

Team Indus is out now.

TeamIndus, The First Indian Space Start-Up, Drops Out Of Moon Race

NEW DELHI: TeamIndus, a private company that hoped to reach the moon by December 31 this year, has dropped out of the global race for the Google Lunar X Prize. TeamIndus was competing for the $35 million prize money, for which five teams from across the world are in fray.

Sources said TeamIndus was unable to mobilize the funds or technological resources to put the mission together. It was planning to build India's first privately funded spacecraft, which would have been able to achieve a soft-landing on moon, piggybacking on Indian space agency ISRO's PSLV rocket.

Sources in the ISRO said they were ready to provide the rocket, but TeamIndus has failed to meet its contractual requirements and pay the installments.

Only 4 left in the round. Israeli non-profit SpaceIL, US firm Moon Express, Synergy Moon, an international collaboration of space enthusiasts and Japan's space robotics expert HAKUTO are in the race.

 

[barrygolden]

would have been neat to see this Falcon Heavy take a rover to the moon. could have used a modified dragon using super Draco engines to land and maybe have a Tesla drive around

 

[Urwumpe]

I would really laugh hard if the Part Time Scientists reach the moon faster than the remaining Google X-Prize competitors... They are featured in TV ads here, despite formally failing.

 

[jedidia]

would have been neat to see this Falcon Heavy take a rover to the moon. could have used a modified dragon using super Draco engines to land and maybe have a Tesla drive around

Would 35 million even be enough to cover a falcon heavy launch?

 

[Nicholas Kang]

It ended...

without a winner.

An Important Update From Google Lunar XPRIZE

“After close consultation with our five finalist Google Lunar XPRIZE teams over the past several months, we have concluded that no team will make a launch attempt to reach the Moon by the March 31st, 2018 deadline. This literal “moonshot” is hard, and while we did expect a winner by now, due to the difficulties of fundraising, technical and regulatory challenges, the grand prize of the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE will go unclaimed.

XPRIZE is exploring a number of ways to proceed from here. This may include finding a new title sponsor to provide a prize purse following in the footsteps of Google’s generosity, or continuing the Lunar XPRIZE as a non-cash competition where we will follow and promote the teams and help celebrate their achievements.

In conclusion, it’s incredibly difficult to land on the Moon. If every XPRIZE competition we launch has a winner, we are not being audacious enough, and we will continue to launch competitions that are literal or figurative moonshots, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We are inspired by the progress of the Google Lunar XPRIZE teams, and will continue to support their journey, one way or another, and will be there to help shine the spotlight on them when they achieve that momentous goal.”

Other news source: Spacenews.com, New York Times

They are so near to the Moon, yet so far...

 

[boogabooga]

I've never understood these contests in which the prize is less than the investment.

 

[4throck]

Sad but expected. Space history shows that cooperation is needed, not just competition.

Sure, compete on the rover, but cooperate regarding the launcher, communication network, etc. If the contest was designed that way, it might have worked.

 

[Urwumpe]

Sad but expected. Space history shows that cooperation is needed, not just competition.

Sure, compete on the rover, but cooperate regarding the launcher, communication network, etc. If the contest was designed that way, it might have worked.

It might have worked much better, if we would already be hauling payloads to the moon on a regular schedule.

 

[Andy44]

It ended...

without a winner.

Cue the horns, "wah wah"...

---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:04 PM ----------

I've never understood these contests in which the prize is less than the investment.

Even when the prize is claimed, so what? It's been like what, 14 years since Spaceship1 went suborbital, and we're still waiting for rich people to start taking suborbital sightseeing rides.

Compare with Lindberg's transatlantic flight; he was followed quickly by regular long distance passenger service and a huge booming aviation economy that continues to this day.

 

[Notebook]

Lindbergh...

The world's first nonstop transatlantic flight (though at 1,890 mi, or 3,040 km, far shorter than Lindbergh's 3,600 mi, or 5,800 km, flight) was made eight years earlier by British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, in a modified Vickers Vimy IV bomber. They left St. John's, Newfoundland on June 14, 1919 and arrived in Ireland, the following day.[36]

Not being jingoistic or anything, old chap!

Recognise he was solo:thumbup:

 

[Notebook]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat-42825070/google-cancels-30m-competition-to-travel-to-the-moon

N.

 

[GLS]

I guess this belongs here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1650408611464753153

Extra:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1650506233575604227

 

[kuddel]

[...]Based on the currently available data, the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed that the lander was in a vertical position as it carried out the final approach to the lunar surface. Shortly after the scheduled landing time, no data was received indicating a touchdown. ispace engineers monitored the estimated remaining propellant reached at the lower threshold and shortly afterward the descent speed rapidly increased. After that, the communication loss happened. Based on this, it has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the Moon’s surface.[...]

Source: https://ispace-inc.com/news-en/?p=4655

I don't know why the HAKUTO-R Mission doesn't have it's own thread, but here seems to fit