By offering an incentive of just over £15m, the non-profit organisation XPRIZE, in league with Google, have induced a global flurry of innovation in their competition to design a spacecraft fit for moon travel.
Google Lunar XPRIZE Launch. Courtesy of XPRIZE.
While the mission deadline is for December 31st 2017, the privately funded teams have until December 31st of this year for their launch contracts to be verified by XPRIZE; this process is crucial before they can fully participate in the competition.
So far, Moon Express, SpaceIL, and Synergy Moon are the only three competitors with secured launch contracts; Synergy Moon’s was verified on August 30th. However, there are still 13 other teams that are still in the running for exploration of what could become Earth’s celestial continent.
Synergy Moon testing their rockets. Courtesy of XPRIZE.
In fact, the German automobile manufacturer Audi has teamed up with the Part Time Scientists to create their spacecraft, the Lunar Quattro. It features intelligent thermal management, e-tron power, lightweight engineering, quattro drive, and of course, a stylish yet practical Audi aesthetic.
The Audi Lunar Quattro. Courtesy of Audi.
In order to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, the contestants’ unmanned rover has to land successfully on the moon’s surface, and also travel up to 500 meters. Furthermore, it must transmit high-definition images and videos back to Earth before the mission deadline.
Words by Patrice Sweeney
