PLAYA VISTA, CA (December 20, 2010) – NASA announced today that it has purchased data related to innovative lunar missions from three private firms, each competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. The three teams, Astrobotic Technology Inc of Pittsburgh, PA; Moon Express Inc. of Mountain View, CA; and the Rocket City Space Pioneers of Hunstville, AL, were each awarded $500,000 in the contract. These mark the first of many contracts through NASA’s Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program.
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth. For more information on this groundbreaking competition we bring you videos from each of these company’s team leaders and the official Lunar X Prize video.
About the Google Lunar X Prize – Moon 2.0
Tim Pickens, team leader of Rocket City Space Pioneers talks about what excites him about the X Prize.
Tim Pickens of Rocket City Space Pioneers shows off his rocket powered bicycle. Check out his iPod-controlled 4-blade helicopter too.
Bob Richards, a man of otherworldly passion, talks at ideaCity08 about his company Odyssey Moon. He also heads up the team at Moon Express.
Astrobotic Technologies Chairman and Chief Technical Officer, Dr. Red Whittaker, talks about their Red Rover and the challenges of creating a vehicle to navigate the moon.
[...] For more on current space exploration check out our post about the Google Lunar X Prize. [...]