Tag - rocket

From the Earth to the Moon

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

“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Well in the case of the Google Lunar X PRIZE it is both. Building systems that can operate on the Moon is a difficult task, but so is the task of getting a payload to the lunar surface safely. There have been 19 successful soft landings on the Moon, from Luna 9 on January 31, 1966 to Luna 24 on August 14, 1976, including the Apollo missions. The Apollo missions used the largest launch vehicle ever successfully launched, the Saturn V, to land its payload on the Moon. The Saturn V weighed 2.3 million kg (5 million lbs.) with a payload capacity of approximately 45,000 kg (100,000 lbs.) to lunar injection orbit. The teams competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE won’t need that large of a rocket to get their vehicle to the lunar surface, but the steps on how to get there are the similar.

We can break down the journey to the Moon into five distinct events that all need to happen successfully. Those events are the launch, trans lunar injection, lunar orbit insertion, lunar descent orbit, and landing.

The first team interview from the Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit is finally here! This year I had the chance to sit down with every team to discuss their progress, as well as their struggles, as they work towards completing the $30 million prize. Some teams have met unexpected challenged where others have overcome incredible issues and odds. We all love the robots and the technology but this is a chance for everyone to hear the individual stories and find out more about the human side of the competition. Real people using real science to solve real problems.

25 teams from around the world are currently building robots, rockets, and lunar landers to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE.

This year shows some impressive advancements in the rover designs, propulsion and avionics technology. Teams are stepping it up as the competition thickens and with all the recent headlining developments in space, the Moon does not seem so far away.

As I mentioned in my previous post recapping the Google Lunar X Prize Team Summit, Team Arca has announced some very exciting news in the development of their mission. Where most teams are partnering with companies like SpaceX or China, Arca has decided to build their own rocket. Here is a little info.