We presented yesterday the team to the media in the amazing CosmoCaixa facility, the main science museum in Barcelona. The place has a special meaning for it is at the foot of Tibidabo mountain and overlooking the city of Barcelona. We had over our heads, at the top of Tibidabo, the Fabra Observatory, the place from where great astronomer Comas Solà observed for the first time the Titan atmosphere.

The members of the team explained their roles in the project and there was big interest from media for the scientific payload that will include for the first time an experiment to prove the feasibility of in-situ extraction of oxigen from lunar regolith. Ignasi Casanova and his team from the Technical University of Catalonia also explained their contribution on Planetary Protection to avoid contamination of lunar environment of organisms brought from Earth. Rafael Harillo, our legal adviser explained the plans to develop the Spanish space legal frame to help not just the team on this competition but also the development of private Spanish initiatives in space. Juan de Dalmau, director of the Aerospace Technology Centre shared the plans about what could be developed in our country and what should be bought and Jordi Rigual explained the sponsorship strategy that will be used by the team in terms of fundrasing.

Large Spanish space companies such as Sener and the aerospace industry representatives from BAIE also assisted to the presentation and expressed their interest on the project. We were about 50 people sharing our interest in space and in the development of this project which represents a joint venture of many space-related fields: management, engineering, science and law.

A nice way to fire the starting gun.

-Xavier Claramunt