Astrobotic Technology today announced that it has vastly increased the amount of payload that it can deliver to the Moon for researchers and marketers, as part of its maiden expedition in 2012 to win the Google Lunar X Prize. The company will be able to carry 240 pounds (109 kg) to the lunar surface for space agency technologists, academic researchers and marketers. The company previously had offered only 12 pounds of payload to third parties. The payload delivery service is available for $700,000 per pound, plus a $250,000 fee per payload to cover the engineering costs of integrating it into either the expedition’s lander or its solar-powered robot. A technical description of the service is available on the Astrobotic Web site, along with the “Request for Information” asking potential users to characterize how they would use this capability. The RFI is available at: http://astrobotictechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/astrobotic-pa... The Payload Specification document is available at http://astrobotictechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/astrobotic-pa...