The flight will take off during the next 3 months and, contrary to expectations, it will be carried out by a European company
In 2007 Has announced Google in collaboration with the X-Prize Foundation for awarding a prize of 30 million dollars to private groups and non-governmental organizations from all over the world that will succeed in landing a robotic vehicle on the moon that will transmit photographs from the surface. The group must carry out the task by December 31, 2012, a task carried out from this date until December 31, 2014 will be awarded a small prize of 15 million dollars.
The announcement of the ARAC company surprised many - although many groups Submit requests to participate In the competition, this is the first time that a team announces a planned flight and this is done earlier than the players in the industry expected. It should be noted that for this purpose the ARAC company entered into a partnership with the competitor Pablo De Leon, a serious contender within the Ansari X competition.
ARAC's robotic vehicle is theEuropean Lunar Lander (abbreviated as ELL) weighing 42 kg. The robotic vehicle will reach space on the STABILO rocket, which was developed for two years and recently completed a series of successful experiments. The flight is called "Mission 4" and will be launched within the next 3 months.
According to the plan, the rocket will rise to a height of 18 km with the help of a balloon, where its engines will be ignited and it will fly into space at an altitude of 100 km. Later, the missile will separate from the robotic vehicle and drop into the ocean. The vehicle will perform a number of tests on its systems, perform measurements, take pictures and broadcast live video to Earth.
What about the other competitors?
Under the terms of the competition, the second team to complete the task will win five million dollars. In addition, an additional five million dollars will be distributed to the team that finds remains from the Apollo landings or the Soviet Union's lunar missions, or to the team that locates signs of frozen water on the moon, and also to the team that manages to make the space vehicle continue to operate for the longest time of all the competitors in the competition.
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I wonder why the Kitsin computers haven't woken up yet and informed us that the last date to complete the task is after the end 🙂
Google finances not part of the prize but most of it. The X-Prize Foundation handles all the administrative/marketing side because of its experience with the previous competition.
And as far as Israel is concerned, we do not have this ability, all the more so for private companies. There are only a handful of American and European companies with the funding and know-how to undertake this kind of mission, and they are also not eager to invest in this kind of adventure.
giving:
To your first question - simply money. Google finances part of the prize.
To your second question - we are in the stands - watching the others
1 What is the connection to Google if someone will explain
2 Where are we in this story (us = Israel)