depart to the Moon is formally hip again , thanks in no small part to Google , which is offering $ 20 million to the first private troupe that can shoot down on our nearest neighbor , drift around a number , and ray images back to Earth . The latest challenger for thatsweet sweet X - Prize moneyis a Nipponese troupe , which has just receive a launch vehicle for the lustrous metal cheese grater scouter it design to send to the Moon late next year .
On Tuesday , Google Lunar X - choice contestant Team HAKUTO , a product of the Japanese startup ispace Inc , announcedit’ll be partnering with the India - base Team Indus to get its lunar wanderer to the Moon . Team Indus already has a declaration to launch its own wanderer , aboard a rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organization , in December 2017 . For Team HAKUTO , whose rideshare with US - based team Astrobioticrecently fell through , the partnership comes just in the notch of time — the windowpane to ensure a launch vehicle to compete for the X - Prize closes at the end of the yr .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZjL5l4ji0Q
Also known as “ NASCAR on the Moon , ” Google ’s $ 30 million Lunar X - Prize seeks to spur private companies to acquire technologies for cringe around on , studying , and perhaps even strip - mining Earth ’s penny-pinching neighbour . The lion ’s part of the plunder money , $ 20 million , will go to the first private company that can land on the Moon , do a 500 meters ( 1,640 feet ) -dash , and send high - definition photos and video back to Earth .
Another $ 5 million will be awarded to the 2d place team , while an extra $ 5 million of trophy money is uncommitted to team that meet “ fillip ” challenges , which includetraveling to the Apollo sites , and discovering water supply ice . To be free-enterprise , teams must demonstrate that 90 percentage of their military mission costs are in camera funded .
The news that Team Hakuto will be contend for the Lunar X - Prize come just a few calendar week after a German team , PT scientist , announced it had batten down a drive to the Moon next year , so get quick for Audi on the moon ( no , gravely ) . The American company Moon Express will also be discombobulate downwith the benediction of the Federal Aviation Administration , as will Israeli non-profit-making SpaceIL .
Time is break away out for the rest of the 16 Lunar X - Prize squad to buy their tickets to orbit . But even if there are only four contestant , this should still be quite a spectacle .
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