SoCal Selene Group Drops Google Lunar X Prize Bid 64
anzha writes "On Saturday, after the vaunted First Team Summit was completed in Strasbourg, The Southern California Selene Group announced publicly that they are dropping out of the Google Lunar X Prize. Citing very strong differences in opinions over how the X Prize was being run, the team felt they could no longer participate. On the flip side, the X Prize Foundation announced at the team summit that there are four new teams. With the drop out, there are now thirteen official competitive teams. Assuredly, there are more to come."
Its sad (Score:5, Interesting)
non-compete? (Score:4, Interesting)
Have none of them thought of it, or are they not allowed to? Perhaps a reader from JPL might tell us? I know there are a few from comments in the Phoenix thread the other day.
Re:Its sad (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:non-compete? (Score:2, Interesting)
As mentioned in one of the replies, to perform this kind of mission requires a significant amount of investment. the restriction comes from the source of that investment, no more than 10% can come from government sources.
If you look over the bios of SCSG, their members are (almost) all experienced in space-specific design, and understand the cost and difficulties involved. Even a highly funded team probably don't realize that just because something is claimed to be "space qualified" doesn't mean you can actually use it in space.
Re:Its sad (Score:2, Interesting)
Until we have a good solution for the aforementioned problems, human space mission should not be considered.
Re:non-compete? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Its sad (Score:4, Interesting)
FleaPlus' point was that people can die either way. Are you saying the problem isn't that people can die, but how they might die, e.g. cancer versus drowning? That seems like a choice better left to the individual who wants to be an astronaut, not to society.
Re:Its sad (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Its sad (Score:2, Interesting)
And after all this guesswork I found this: Sickening Solar Flares [nasa.gov]