Back to the Moon - a new space race

January 26 five teams participating in the competition Google Lunar XPrize gathered at the California Academy of Sciences, where the company Google announced the allocation of the first tranche of grants totaling $ 5, 25 million . Grants are given without any conditions, as a "gift", they will help private companies to continue their development for the lunar program.




Company Astrobotic with the lunar lander 3x3 meters was just three grants totaling $ 1, 75 million in the categories of "landing", "Mobility" and "Shooting» sup>

The biggest winner at this stage was the company Astrobotic (see. Caption). In addition to her, grants for $ 1, 25 million received Californian startup Moon Express in terms of "landing" and "Shooting».

Other medalists - India's Indus ($ 1 million in the category of "landing"), the German Part-Time Scientists ($ 500 thousand. In the category "Mobility" and $ 250 thousand. In category "Survey") and Japanese Hakuto ($ 500 thousand. In the category " Mobility »).



Testing Lander Moon Express sup>

All these companies will further marathon participants Lunar XPrize, winners will receive $ 20 million for first place and $ 5 million for the second. There are bonuses and $ 5 million for the additional findings, for example, water on the moon.

According to the contest, the winner will be called the team that will be able to safely land a robot on the lunar surface, after which he moved to the 500 meters in the direction of, or in depth and begin streaming the broadcast in HDTV-quality.

Deadline - December 31, 2016.

Google is confident that the construction of a lunar base - it is the nearest years.

The first stage of distribution of grants the company posted in the open access short documentary film "Back to the Moon - a new space race» ( Back To The Moon For Good - The New Space Race i>).



On his plans to build lunar bases announced the US, EU, Russia, China, not to mention the private companies who are also willing to participate.

"The moon - the" eighth continent "- an area larger than that of North America and Brazil together ... and people investigated only 5% of the territory! There's amazing wonders of nature, the most valuable resources, the mysteries that await clues ", - stated on the website Lunar XPrize.

"In the days of Apollo Moon were all just dry stone dead. It turned out that it is not - it is a world with vast resources of platinum, nickel, iron, silver, and all the things that we consider valuable in the world », - says Robert Richards (Robert Richards), CEO of Moon Express, which takes part in the" space race »Lunar XPrize. In recent years, the company has already bought into the ownership of four other contestants.

The new space race begins! How do you think the moon has recoverable reserves of platinum?
Yes No Voted 167 people. 76 people abstained. Only registered users can vote in polls. Sign , please.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/244964/

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