RCM Challenge

cavelamb himself · 2007-12-08T03:29:26+00:00

I figure there is enough expertise in this group to successfully tackle this challenge...Now all it takes is money!The latest version of the X Prize is backed by Google: $20 million to the first private enterprise that can land a robotic rover on the lunar surface, send back images and data, and travel at least 500 meters--with more rewards if it can find artifacts from the early days of lunar exploration, when only the U.S. and Soviet governments could afford to send probes.The Apollo landings and the probes that preceded them were, to the X Prize managers, "Moon 1.0"--done by Cold War powers in an expensive rush, with no long-term plan to stay and mine the moon for whatever it had to offer. Now comes Moon 2.0."The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration." say the backers.They now have their first applicant: an operation called Odyssey Moon, founded by Robert Richards, an entrepreneur who's also founded the International Space University in France.