History Making Moon Mission Unveiled
The first team to
complete registration for the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE unveiled
its plans this week at the Space Investment Summit in San Jose,
California. Representatives of Odyssey Moon announced their plans
to make history with the first private robotic mission to the
surface of the Moon and their intent to win the Google Lunar X
PRIZE competition.
Odyssey Moon's inaugural mission will involve a unique small
robotic lander designed to deliver scientific, exploration and
commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon.
Odyssey Moon, a private commercial lunar enterprise
headquartered in the Isle of Man, is the brainchild of Dr. Robert
(Bob) Richards, a founder of the International Space
University.
"We applaud the X PRIZE Foundation and Google for creating the
first privately funded race to the Moon," he said.
"For Odyssey Moon, the Google Lunar X PRIZE was the right thing
at the right time to compel us to unveil our plans. We have a long
term vision, and now with the Google Lunar X PRIZE we have a short
term goal: Odyssey Moon is setting its eyes on the prize."
ichards said that the company's goal is to lower the price of
getting to the Moon by an order of magnitude and in doing so help
catalyze a "Moonrush" to Earth's sister world, which he describes
as an eighth continent rich in energy and resources floating just
offshore.
"Our business plans have been in development for a series of
missions to the Moon during the International Lunar Decade in
support of science, exploration and commerce," said Richards.
"We believe in competition and we believe in this prize. Future
generations will view the Google Lunar X PRIZE as the turning point
of the 21st century, when humanity realized the Moon's critical
role for prosperity and survival in space and on Earth."
The chairman of Odyssey Moon is Dr. Ramin Khadem, a well known
figure in the international satellite industry and former Chief
Financial Officer of INMARSAT, a highly successful mobile satellite
communications company that he helped pioneer and ultimately
privatize.
"We have put together an incredibly talented international team
with substantial technical know how and financial depth who believe
in the long term responsible development of the Moon for the
benefit of all humanity," Dr. Khadem said. He explained that
Odyssey Moon is open to international collaboration at several
levels and welcomes discussion with others who may wish to join
them in their quest for the Google Lunar X PRIZE and the pursuit of
the company's long term business plans for the peaceful development
of the Moon.
Odyssey Moon announced that its prime contractor is MDA of
Canada, an experienced company with substantial space heritage in
providing robotics on the Space Shuttle and International Space
Station, and more recently for satellite servicing and planetary
exploration. Dr. Christian Sallaberger, a Vice President with MDA's
Information Systems Group, explained his company's role. "MDA has a
long track record of delivering high-value cost-effective solutions
to our customers and this has been a key part of our successes in
space over the past 40 years," he said. "We understand the
commercial space world, and we have the technical heritage and
expertise to support Odyssey Moon's plan and make it happen."
The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group,
has joined the Odyssey Moon team to assist in education and public
involvement and with international and science liaison. Society
Executive Director, Dr. Louis Friedman said, "The Moon is a
stepping stone into the solar system, for governments and for the
private sector. Odyssey Moon's leap forward to this stepping stone
could presage a new day of commercial ventures beyond Earth."
Founded in 1980 by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and
Louis Friedman, the Society encourages government, non-government
and private and public participation in the exploration of other
worlds.
X PRIZE Chairman and CEO Dr. Peter Diamandis said he
congratulates Odyssey Moon for being the first team to complete the
registration process and that he is thrilled at the response to the
$30M Google Lunar X PRIZE. "We applaud all the teams who have been
motivated to declare their intentions to compete," Diamandis
said.
"We are proud to participate in the announcement of our first
fully registered team. We hope the announcement will motivate and
inspire even more teams to enter this race; a race that is now
truly international."
Background: Aero-TV Covers The Google Lunar XPrize
Unveiling
About Aero-TV: It's Just About Show Time!!!!
OK, folks, here we go... as noted (last week) this is the
final ramp-up on the way to the full-time daily news and feature
services we'll be offering from ANN's Aero-TV Network programming.
If you've been an observer of the media and associated media
industries over the last few years, it's not hard to mistake the
fact that a massive revolution is taking place. Old sources for
news and information are falling by the wayside, having to change
their modus operandi or risk obsolescence (or extinction).
Electronic media and print media are both under the assault of
progress, and the online world has been a cornerstone for
revolutionary change.
Nearly 10 years ago, when ANN first took wing, we had a feeling
that things were going to change radically. But, we have to be
honest when we admit that we had no idea how radical and
fundamental the change was going to be -- and most important, how
it was going to affect EVERYONE. Now, more than ever, it's time for
us to step up and out as a radically as we dare (and if you know
us, "radical" is barely the tip of the iceberg... grin), not just
because we can, but because we now have the opportunity to play an
even greater role in reshaping news and information services
for aviation and aerospace, as well as how that information is
related to everyone outside of our Aero-world.
We've been ready to go for a while, but to be honest, there's so
much more to this program than we've alluded to, and a lot more to
learn from it than we can relate without spending hours (literally)
doing so. We've been building and planning a massive new
organization within ANN, we're hiring talented new people as fast
as we can find them (a far more difficult task than we
had imagined -- REALLY good people are hard to find), and we're
brainstorming at speeds that would make a deorbiting Space Shuttle
feel like a slug. Suffice it to say that we want to do this right,
rather than right-now, and that the development of this program has
been the most carefully pursued undertaking we've ever undertaken,
even without the additional complications presented by getting
clobbered by a BIG bounced check and even greater losses from the
Columbia bankruptcy (where we got left holding the bag for tens of
thousands of dollars), as well as the innate complexities of such
an aggressive programming addition.
So; the Aero-TV program starts ramping up... right now. We've
been editing and finishing production on the better part of 100 new
Aero-TV features and are chomping at the bit to show you ALL that
we can do... through the initial Three Phase deployment (yeah, this
project is THAT big) of Aero-TV and an all new ANN. Through the end
of the year, we'll be presenting at least one new program each
week, in addition to other programs that may have aired previously,
in order to make sure that you all get a chance to see what we can
do and offer up your comments and suggestions on our
programming.
Let me be REALLY clear about this... we really do NEED your
input, your story ideas and your critique so that we can not
only craft Aero-TV in a way that benefits you the most, but so that
we can grow this critter in the right and proper way to become what
we know it can be... one of the most powerful aviation information
systems extant. This is the very beginning of a FAR, FAR larger
undertaking... no kidding, so please be sure to clue us in
what you like, what you don't, and what you'd like to see in the
future -- I think you'll be blown away by some of the programming
additions that are already underway and the incredible power and
versatility of this medium...
Mark my words, with all hyperbole set aside and the many kudos
we've gotten over the years, and still get on a daily basis, we
truly do believe that ANN's greatest contributions to the world of
aviation are just ahead of us. Cessna CEO, Jack Pelton, upon being
briefed with just a few of the highlights of ANN 10.0 and Aero-TV,
called this plan, "A game changer."
We couldn't agree more.
E-I-C Note: The complete Google Lunar
XPrize feature is embedded in this story, above, with
most of the slick and useful functionality otherwise available on
the main Aero-TV site. The ability to embed a
video on another web page is but one of the hundreds of
amazing little features that we've worked hard on, for many months
now, to implement in different phases of the initial release
of Aero-TV. It is, BY NO MEANS, the only way to enjoy unaltered
Aero-TV programming on other parts of the web... as we have
aggressive plans for future functionality, but this feature allows
those with an interest in a specific Aero-TV News or Feature
program to embed it on a different web site, though we must
note that we reserve the right to forbid such use for those sites
or purposes that we do not feel fit in with the proper mission of
the Aero-News Network, Inc.
Webmasters or Administrators of well-trafficked aviation or
aerospace related sites, are wlecome to contact the Publisher to
start conversations on how they may be able to leverage some of the
immense power of Aero-TV programming for their sites and
constituency by clicking the I Want My
Aero-TV! link.
ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.15.24)
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