Google's $30,000,000 Lunar X PRIZE 217
chroma writes "It's been a long time since anyone has explored the surface of the moon. But now Google has teamed up with the X PRIZE Foundation to offer a $30,000,000 bounty to the first privately funded organization to land a robotic rover on the moon. Google, of course, has offered the free Google Moon mapping service for a few years now. Looks like the other search engines have some catching up to do in the space exploration department."
Re:Just one question. (Score:5, Informative)
They seem to hemorrhage money sometimes.
Re:$30,000,000 is a lot (Score:5, Informative)
I beg to differ. You can buy a human-safe launch, stay on the ISS, and return to Earth for $30m. You can get a lift to LEO with an LM-2C for $20m [spaceref.com].
Re:The "Moon" is a ridiculous liberal myth. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Prize Not Quite Adequate (Score:2, Informative)
Laser Angioplasty
Memory foam
Cardiac Imaging System
Infrared Thermometer
De-icing senors for air craft
Thermal Video
Space Technology for Firefighting - Lightweight air cylinders patterned on technology originally developed for rocket motor casings
Advanced Pacemaker
Implantable Heart Aid
Vision Trainer
Vehicle Controller - Lunar Rover technology enables quadriplegics to me mobile
Temperature Pill
I mean the list goes ON AND ON the truth is NO ONE knows that the return on investment would be. I sure wish I could be the one investing Im sure I'd get my money back.
Re:Just one question. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Prize Not Quite Adequate (Score:4, Informative)
In this case, to put it in perspective, 100,000$ in 1919 is 1.3 million [westegg.com] in today's dollars. A realistic price for this mission by small teams is 50-100 million, with a high risk of failure. For that kind of money, you're not going to get a bunch of little teams like you got for the regular X-prize, which was a (proportionally) extremely simple task. You're not even going to get the idealists. The budget rules out the vast majority of them, and the few idealists who love space issues enough to put forth that kind of cash -- like, say, Musk -- are already going to be putting their money toward space in their preferred method (with their own companies) instead of competing for some prize. That kind of money for investment in this prize would have to come from Wall Street, which wants a return on it's investment.
Not going to happen.
Re:A colosal waste (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/benefits_of_space_program.html [ethicalatheist.com]
http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html [thespaceplace.com]
http://techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/at_home.html [nasa.gov]
http://www.fas.org/news/usa/2000/usa-001012.htm [fas.org]
http://www.look-to-the-skies.com/space_program_spinoffs.htm [look-to-the-skies.com]
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9811/02/space.medical/index.html [cnn.com]
And on and on and on.
Re:$30 million is very little (Score:2, Informative)
Easy, they don't pay (Score:5, Informative)
I think the odds of this being won in the next 20 years (and they only have 5 years to do this) are pretty small. This is similar to Branson's prize he's offering for removing CO2 from the atmosphere at some rather significant rate; the challenge to be surpassed in meeting the qualifications are high enough that there is little chance of having to make a payout.
If they do have to make a payout, the publicity is huge, and it's certainly possible that they have some commercial return in mind...perhaps rights to the rover design. I think the field of contenders will be small and weak, because the challenge is significant and the prize amount is unlikely to match the cost. At least for the original X-prize there was a hypothesized market for system developed as a result.
Of course, if I'm going to say this on Slashdot, I'd better be prepared to back it up:
The guidelines [googlelunarxprize.org] are that it must soft-land on the moon by the end of 2012, roam 500+ meters, and send back video and pictures. The basic prize is $20 million. If it can be done by 2014, the prize is $15 million. There is an additional $5 million if a second lander (by any competitor) to land by 2014. There is a bonus $5 million for extra duties like roaming 5000+ meters, photographing existing man-made objects on the moon, surviving the 14 day lunar night, or discovering water-ice.
The requirements and bonus objectives are roughly inline with the design parameters of the Mars Exploration Rovers. I'm sure a private group can build a device with that kind of capabilities for less than $30 million. However, I'm positive they can't get it to the moon for that little.
Landing a meaningful payload on the moon requires a fairly decent-sized launch vehicle. If we assume a mass similar to the old Surveyor Lunar landers, which were about 1/3 as heavy as the MER's (landing mass, not mobile mass) and not mobile, then we can start looking at launch vehicles capable of sending it on it's way.
The Surveyors were launched on Atlas-Centaur rockets, which have an LEO payload of about 5000 pounds. There isn't anything directly comparable currently on the market. There's few offerings that are too small. A Falcon 1 ($8 million, 1500 pounds) won't cut it. A Falcon 9, on the other hand would be significant overkill, with 21,000 pound LEO capacity and a $35 million price tag.
A Russian Dnepr would probably be the best bet. These converted ICBM's are what Bigelow hired to launch his two prototype inflatable modules with. It has an 8000 pound LEO capacity and costs $15-20 million.
So you're left with $5-10 million (because the last $5 million are only available to a second mission) to develop and build the rover (piece of cake), but also a reliable landing platform and an earth departure stage. The latter can probably be adapted from existing upper stage products, but the first two are being done from scratch.
I just can't imagine that much work being accomplished, even with heavy use of volunteer labor, for that price.
However, if somebody out there has got the money to front and wants a mechanical engineer to work for peanuts part time on such a nerdy project, the above doesn't mean I'm not interested.
The USSR did this in 1970 (Score:5, Informative)
The USSR sent robots to the moon in 1970 and 1973. [wikipedia.org] Big, car-sized rovers. They worked well, too. Lunokhod 1 was operational for 322 days, and and Lunokhod 2 for about four months. $1 travelled about 10km, and #2 travelled a total of 37km, so those large vehicles got around quite a bit.
It would be possible to redo that mission today. Lunokhod 3, never launched, is in a museum. Improved versions of the Proton booster used in 1970 are available from International Launch Services. The lunar landing module would have to be newly constructed, but the design is proven.