Tag - glxp

The past Saturday (Feb 23) I was lucky enough to be a guest on the popular space-centric online show "Spacevidcast" along with my co-worker and Moonpie eating silver-medalist, Nathan Wong. Benjamin Higginbotham and co-host Cariann Higginbotham are two space enthusiasts driven to spreading the message of space across the web and decided that Nathan and I were cool enough to join their quest and share what the Google Lunar X PRIZE is all about.

This article is part five in a five part series about going back to the Moon with the Google Lunar X PRIZE by Nathan Wong.

Over the past four articles, I have written about challenges and benefits of going back to the Moon, as well as looking at what might be on the horizon in terms of robotic development, but how do we get there from where we are today? Current missions to the Moon must be sustainable in order for this advancement to continue. In fact one of the three major goals of the Google Lunar X PRIZE is to help develop pathways for sustainable exploration. I will look at sustainability from two different viewpoints: technical and financial sustainability. 

This week's team video focuses on team Jurban from the United States. Watch as technical program manager Blaze Sanders discusses how he got involved with the team, and what some of the unique aspects of their vehicle, Jolht, are. Blaze will also be on the MyMoon Webcast Wednesday Dec 13 at 8pm EST, and the interview will be archived for later watching. 

This weeks interview is with Yonatan Winetraub of Team SpaceIL. Team SpaceIL and Odyssey Moon, the first registered team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE, recently announced a merger between the two teams. It will be exciting to see how the capabilities of both of these team can be used to complete the mission objectives. Team SpaceIL is not only looking to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, but to excite a new generation to be rocket engineers instead of rock stars. 

Earlier today, the Google Lunar X PRIZE team Odyssey Moon announced that they have officially teamed up with team SpaceIL to work towards winning the competition together as one entity. SpaceIL will be taking the lead on this one, which means they will be assuming the representative role for both teams, as-well-as the first slot on our team page.

Google Lunar X PRIZE is a truly international competition, with teams headquartered in four continents.  Eight of the teams - about a third of those now participating - are either based in Europe or have a significant contribution from European partners.  While many of these teams have been very successful in engaging with the media and outreach communities at a national level, there’s still a sense at a wider level that Europe hasn’t yet woken up to the major contribution it’s making to this prize.

This week's team interview is with Michael V. Paul of the Pennsylvania State University Lunar Lions team. It seems like PSU has some great intentions for establishing a solid future in commercial space through education. A well thought-out plan as well as a well put-together team lead by tried and tested leaders, with a heritage in the space industry, could be just the thing to get our youth interested in space by making it more accessible to students. Hopefully their well-implemented plan reaches beyond the Google Lunar X PRIZE long after the competition is over and continues to inspire.

This article is part three in a five part series about going back to the Moon with the Google Lunar X PRIZE by Nathan Wong. 

Getting to the Moon and having a spacecraft function properly once there are challenging tasks that 25 teams from around the world are trying to complete. But what does the Moon give us in return? What makes going back to the Moon worthwhile and exciting?Well if you polled the GLXP teams and the lunar science community you would get many varied answers. I am going to just touch on a few of the important benefits that the Moon can provide for us: Science, Power, Water, Analogue Demonstration, and Launch Port Capability.

With all the buzz in the media lately about the status of the teams competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE and who's leading, I thought it would be fun to add a little visual stimulation to compliment all the articles being written.

This article is part two in a five part series about going back to the Moon with the Google Lunar X PRIZE by Nathan Wong.

We learned that getting to the Moon is not simple process, but the challenges do not end once we reach the surface. One of the main challenges associated with the Google Lunar X PRIZE is surface mobility, but there are also other challenges to consider that must be understood and overcome in order to complete any mission successfully. Out of the many difficulties associated with space travel and particularly lunar missions, we will look at five of the more important problems to solve: power, temperature, radiation, dust mitigation, and communications.