Google is
going to the moon, seriously.
In the
latest of wacky, unconventional initiatives, the search giant unveiled the
Google Lunar X Prize, which will award $30 million to the first privately funded
team to put a robotic probe on the moon’s surface that beams back pictures and
other data before
Dec. 31, 2014.
Why the
moon? Google says on its Web site: “Because space exploration has historically
produced much of the scientific community's most ambitious research. And
because the moon can be a resource for the Earth, being composed of some of the
most important elements.”
Moon
mission are back in vogue around the world. No human has step foot on the lunar
surface since 1972 when the last Apollo mission concluded. NASA has plans to
return man to the moon by 2020.
China is aggressively pursuing a space
program to put a sinonaut on the moon. And
Britain,
Russia and other spacefaring nations
have lunar missions on the drawing board.
A number
of privately funded space programs are already in the works, as well, since
Burt Rutin won the elusive XPrize in 2004 by putting a manned craft in
suborbit. Since then, Richard Branson has established Virgin Galactic which
aims to ferry private citizens into orbit. And Galactic Suites claims its on
target to open the first orbital hotel by 2012, in which guests will pay
upwards of $4 million for three-day stays.
Google
says Lunar XPrize is about stimulating education, as well as scientific and
technological innovation.
“The
Google Lunar XPrize's mission is twofold: Apart from stimulating private
research and development of a lunar robotic lander, the Lunar XPrize also hopes
to stimulate interest in space and space exploration through motivating private
groups around the world to develop technology that can used by all of
humanity,” the company wrote on its Web site.
While
several teams are in the hunt for the prize, the contest is fraught with
challenges. The Apollo program cost the
U.S. more than $10 billion, and
required nearly 10 years and a half-million people to overcome the numerous
technical and logistical challenges. While privately funded craft have made it
to suborbit, between 160 and 2,000 kilometers, only government-funded or backed
craft have escaped Earth orbit.
Even if a
private team lands on the lunar surface, they won’t be the first robotic probe
there. The
Soviet
Union
accomplished the unthinkable in 1970 by landing a remote-controlled rover on
the Moon. Lunokhod 1 and 2 performed well beyond their design specifications
and life expectancies. The Lunokhod program also required nearly a decade of
development work and the first attempt in 1969 failed when Lunar 17 rocket
exploded shortly after takeoff.
The
Lunokhod was so far ahead of its time that mobile robotic probes weren’t
attempted again until 1997 when NASA successfully landed the Sojourner and
Pathfinder rovers on Mars.
