14 DAY TRIAL // The American space agency has just awarded nearly $30 million to six research teams that are also a part of the Google Lunar X Prize.
NASA wants to purchase any potential data that the six groups might retrieve from the surface of the Moon, as part of the space challenge.
In the competition, competing teams will have to launch a rocket from Earth to the Moon. The delivery system will have to carry a rover, that needs to be able to land on the surface of the natural satellite.
Once there, the robot will need to drive more than 500 meters, and snap high-resolution snapshots of the lunar surface. They will then have to send these data back to their ground controllers.
The first team to do so will win the Grand Prize, worth $20 million. In total, Google and the X Prize Foundation will award about $30 million to competing teams.
The small, firm-fixed price contracts that NASA awarded to six of the groups are meant as a boost, and the $30 million the agency provides are to be added to those provided by Google.
All the teams that want to receive additional funds from the space agency need to compete in demonstrating that their technologies are clearly feasible to support low-cost missions on the Moon.
“The dollar values may be a relatively small contract by NASA standards, but these contracts send a clear signal to the investment community that NASA is ready to purchase lunar data, even from small, entrepreneurial firms,” William Pomerantz explains.
The official holds an appointment as the senior director for space prizes at the X Prize Foundation.
According to the American space agency, competing teams may also be eligible to receive additional funding for conducting technology demonstrations related to lunar space flight here on Earth.
However, officials added that spacecrafts on their way to the Moon, and robots on the satellite's surface, will have priority, as far as funding goes, Space reports.
The Google X Prize seeks to promote young talents, and also to demonstrate that space exploration should not be confined to governmental space agencies and large space corporations.
All teams involved in this endeavor recently made a presentation of their approach at a conference held on the Isle of Man. They discussed the judging procedures and the rules governing the challenge.
Teams can join the competition until the end of 2010. No further registrations will be possible beyond this deadline, the organizers say.