Pictures and Narrative By Jim Campbell and Sarah Curtiss
Due to ANN E-I-C Jim Campbell's close relationship with the X
Prize Foundation, and our continuing interest in all things
that push the frontiers of aviation and aerospace, ANN had the
coveted opportunity to be a part of some of the most exciting
events in recent aerospace history... and this week's announcement of the next step
in the X Prize program was certainly a good time for us to be
involved once again. ANN was there... as part of the X
Prize news and video team... not only for the event itself, but for
many of the carefully orchestrated rehearsals, and some of the
intensive planning sessions that tied in some of the media planning
for the public announcement.
Here's a little bit of what we saw and experienced this amazing
week, as hosted at the LA Convention Center...
X Prize Boss Peter Diamandis announces the Google
Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30
million prize purse. Private companies from around the world
will compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon
that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including
roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending
video, images and data back to the Earth.
Google's Larry Page talks about his work with the X
Prize Foundation. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented
international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers
and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods
of robotic space exploration. The X PRIZE Foundation, best known
for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital
spaceflight, is an educational nonprofit prize organization whose
goal is to bring about radical breakthroughs to solve some of the
greatest challenges facing the world today.
Hollywood Producer and X Prize Board member Robert
Weiss spoke passionately about his interest in seeing private space
efforts contionue and expand. Moon 2.0, the second era of lunar
exploration, will not be a quest for "flags and
footprints." This time, the intention is to go to the
Moon to stay. 'The Moon is a stepping stone to the rest of the
solar system and a source of solutions to some of the most pressing
environmental problems that we face on Earth - energy independence
and climate change. Already, governments from around the
world recognize the importance of lunar exploration, and national
space agencies from the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan,
and the nations of Europe plan to send probes to the Moon in the
coming decade.'
To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a team must
successfully land a privately funded craft on the lunar surface and
survive long enough to complete the mission goals of roaming about
the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending a defined
data package, called a "Mooncast," back to Earth.
Apollo 11 Astronaut, Dr. Buzz Aldrin, has been a
tireless advocate for private space exploration and a true firend
to the X Prize effort. A $20 million Grand Prize will be awarded to
the team that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at
least 500 meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand
Prize is $20 million until December 31st, 2012; thereafter it will
drop to $15 million until December 31st 2014, at which point the
competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X
PRIZE Foundation.
A $5 million Second Prize will be offered as well,
providing an extra incentive for teams to continue to compete, and
increasing the possibility that multiple teams will succeed.
Second place will be available until December 31st, 2014 at which
point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google
and the X PRIZE Foundation.
An additional $5 million in bonus prizes can be won by successfully
completing additional mission tasks such as roving longer
distances (> 5,000 meters), imaging man made artifacts (e.g.
Apollo hardware), discovering water ice, and/or surviving through a
frigid lunar night (approximately 14.5 Earth days). The competing
lunar spacecraft will be equipped with high-definition video and
still cameras, and will send images and data to Earth, which the
public will be able to view on the Google Lunar X PRIZE
website.
In a recent Gallup poll, more than two-thirds of
Americans (68%) support a return to the Moon, and further missions
to points beyond. Some practical benefits to lunar exploration
include:
-
Enabling exploration of the solar system and
beyond. Space exploration is expensive because every ounce of
propellant and spacecraft must be launched out of the Earth's
strong gravity field. A natural storehouse of materials, lunar soil
is more than 40% oxygen by weight and oxygen makes up most of the
mass of rocket propellant. Because of its shallower gravity well,
the Moon is the stepping stone to the universe.
-
The Moon can help save the Earth. For more than
30 years, NASA and the US Department of Energy have experimented
with ways to capture abundant clean solar energy in space for use
on Earth. Although the technology for doing this is well
understood, the high cost of launching materials out of the Earth's
deep gravity well has prevented the implementation of these
systems. However, if lunar material is used for space construction,
clean energy could be supplied on a 24-hour basis without carbon
dioxide or other hazards to the biosphere.
-
We can learn about the Earth's geologic past.
Thanks to the Moon rocks and other information returned by Apollo
astronauts, scientists now believe that the Moon was created by a
collision between a planet-sized object and the early Earth. By
exploring our nearest neighbor we are also exploring a remnant of
ancient Earth.
-
We can see more deeply into space. The Moon
provides a large stable platform for astronomical observation
unhindered by atmosphere. The far side of the Moon is the one
"quiet" place in the Solar System that is shielded from the Earth's
cacophony of radio, television and data broadcasts. The body of the
Moon itself provides this shielding, and a radio telescope on the
lunar far side can detect energy from the beginning of the
universe.
-
Driving new technologies and devices. The Moon
may be the most hostile environment we face in the near future.
Surviving and exploring will require major advances in technology.
Many of those technologies will also have practical use back
home.
NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale spoke in
support of this amazing program. The rules of the Google Lunar
X PRIZE require that all teams be at least 90% privately funded,
which will prevent NASA from directly entering into the
competition. As such, NASA's main role in the Google Lunar X PRIZE
will be as a direct beneficiary. It is expected that the
advancements made by the teams pursing the Google Lunar X PRIZE
will allow NASA to save money and expand the capabilities of its
future robotic and human missions to the Moon.
Teams will be required to send a Mooncast detailing
their arrival on the lunar surface, and a second Mooncast that
provides imagery and video of their journey roaming the lunar
surface. All told, the Mooncasts will represent approximately a
Gigabyte of stunning content returned to the Earth.
The required Mooncast consists of digital data that
must be collected and transmitted to the Earth composed of the
following:
-
High resolution 360º panoramic photographs
taken on the surface of the Moon;
-
Self portraits of the rover taken on the surface
of the Moon;
-
Near-real time videos showing the craft's journey
along the lunar surface;
-
High Definition (HD) video;
-
Transmission of a cached set of data, loaded on
the craft before launch (e.g. first email from the Moon).
Peter Diamandis and Apollo 11 Astronaut Buzz
Aldrin: "The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers
and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar
surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all
humanity," said Peter. "We are confident that teams from
around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence
technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space
exploration."
Media interest was considerable... with the story
ultimately published to a worldwide audience. ANN and Aero-TV
fulfilled a number of functions in support of the X Prize
announcement, providing still and video teams to help document the
event for posterity.
Buzz Aldrin, inextricably linked to a sterling
moment in space history, now has positioned himslef solidly in
support of a new future for spaceflight and our "neighbor,"
the Moon. Earth's offshore island, the Moon, provides a
natural storehouse of resources that we can use to enhance life on
Earth and explore our universe. By using energy and material
resources from outside the Earth's biosphere and gravity "well," we
can take positive steps towards solving seemingly intractable
problems on Earth.
The X PRIZE Foundation is an educational nonprofit
prize institute whose mission is to create radical breakthroughs
for the benefit of humanity. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is the
third prize the Foundation has announced since its inception in
1995. In 2004, the X PRIZE Foundation captured world headlines
when Mojave Aerospace Ventures, led by legendary aircraft designer
Burt Rutan and Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, built and flew the
world's first private spaceship to win the $10 million Ansari X
PRIZE. The Foundation has since expanded its mission beyond
space exploration. In 2006, the X PRIZE Foundation launched
the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, a $10 million competition in which
the winning team will demonstrate the ability to sequence 100 human
genomes in 10 days. This will reduce the cost of genome
sequencing and herald a new era of personalized medicine. The X
PRIZE Foundation will continue to offer new prizes for
breakthroughs in the areas of life improvement, equity of
opportunity and sustainability and is widely recognized as the
leading model for fostering innovation through competition.
ANN is thrilled to be covering another milestone
for the talented team that supports the mission of the X Prize.
We'll have more info to come on this program in the near future, as
well as an Aero-TV Special Feature next week, during NBAA2007.