It looks like it’s the time for new X PRIZE people to introduce themselves! I’ve been around for the past couple of months already, and we’ve been quite busy here preparing the Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit that took place in Strasbourg two weeks ago.

So, let me tell you a little bit more on how I got involved in the Google Lunar X PRIZE! Since I was a student at Supaero, French Graduate School of Aerospace Engineering, I have been following the X PRIZE Foundation's achievements with excitement. After the success of the Ansari X PRIZE, I even teamed-up with a group of people working to start a French space tourism promotion and development association!

When the Google Lunar X PRIZE was announced in September 2007, I was working at the European Space Agency (ESA) on a future soft precision lunar landing mission (Moon NEXT) as part of the Aurora Program. When I read about this new prize, I immediately knew I wanted to be part of this incredible adventure! I had the unique chance to leverage the experience I earned working at ESA to bring my own contribution to the first ever private lunar mission. And I figured out that working at the X PRIZE Foundation would be a lot of fun!

And indeed it is! Working for the X PRIZE Foundation is the chance to do a lot of great things: I will probably talk a little bit more about those in some following blog entries, but to give you the highlights, within just a few months of work, I have had a chance to travel back to Europe for the Team Summit and to meet the teams, to meet inspiring people like Anousheh Ansari and several NASA Astronauts (not to mention the X PRIZE people that are absolutely amazing!), to see a Space Shuttle Launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and above all to work with a great team of dedicated and passionate people in DC…So yes, definitely, working at the X PRIZE Foundation is a blast!!

Space Shuttle Launch from Banana Creek…Go Discovery!

Being the only European on the Google Lunar X PRIZE staff, I found myself responsible for organizing the student competition that took place during the Team Summit. With enthusiastic teams of masters-level students from most of the best aerospace universities in Europe (namely from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), as well as one from the USA (Florida), and ISU of course, the competitions was a great success! The students worked during the entire day and finally gave their presentations to an amazing panel of judges, featuring Peter Diamandis (X PRIZE Foundation), Pete Worden (NASA), Michael Simpson (ISU), Bernard Foing (ESA), and Tiffany Montague (Google).
Congratulations to the teams from ISU and Stuttgart for winning the competition – and then a VIP access both to the next X PRIZE Cup and Shuttle Launch – and to Supaero for winning the technical prize! You can browse their presentations online, as well as pictures, videos, twitter live posts, team blogs, … on the student competition page.

One of the students of the ISU the student team is now working as an intern at Odyssey Moon, the first officially announced Google Lunar X PRIZE Team! You can read his first impressions on what it’s like to work for Odyssey Moon and on the student competition on his blog post.

I will try to post inside views on what’s going on with the Google Lunar X PRIZE and some other space-related prizes such as the Lunar Lander Challenge, but also discussing a little bit about the cultural differences that strike me while working in the United States, from a French perspective.

And also, I will sometime post in French too! Mainly to connect more directly with fellow French space enthusiasts - but it is also a good opportunity for those of you who took French class some time ago to practice it! Space exploration is more and more an international adventure, and so should it be!

Alors pour finir, un petit mot en français pour encourager d’autres équipes européennes ou françaises à rejoindre la compétition et à remporter la nouvelle course vers la Lune !!

- Pierre-Damien