[Robotgroup] Google Lunar X Prize

[Royce Hart]

Who's up for landing a roaming, HD-broadcasting robot on the moon? :-) 

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/


    Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition Guidelines

*COMPETITION GUIDELINES:* To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a team must 
successfully land a privately funded craft on the lunar surface and 
survive long enough to complete the mission goals of roaming about the 
lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending a defined data 
package, called a "Mooncast", back to Earth.

*PRIZES:* The total purse of the Google Lunar X PRIZE is $30 million (USD).
. GRAND PRIZE: A $20 million Grand Prize will be awarded to the team 
that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at least 500 
meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand Prize is $20M 
until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15M until December 
31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless 
extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation
. SECOND PRIZE: A $5 million Second Prize will be offered as well, 
providing an extra incentive for teams to continue to compete, and 
increasing the possibility that multiple teams will succeed. Second 
place will be available until December 31st 2014 at which point the 
competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE 
Foundation
. BONUSES: An additional $5 million in bonus prizes can be won by 
successfully completing additional mission tasks such as roving longer 
distances (> 5,000 meters), imaging man made artifacts (e.g. Apollo 
hardware), discovering water ice, and/or surviving through a frigid 
lunar night (approximately 14.5 Earth days). The competing lunar 
spacecraft will be equipped with high-definition video and still 
cameras, and will send images and data to Earth, which the public will 
be able to view on the Google Lunar X PRIZE website.

*MOONCAST:* The Mooncast consists of digital data that must be collected 
and transmitted to the Earth composed of the following:
. High resolution 360º panoramic photographs taken on the surface of the 
Moon;
. Self portraits of the rover taken on the surface of the Moon;
. Near-real time videos showing the craft's journey along the lunar surface;
. High Definition (HD) video;
. Transmission of a cached set of data, loaded on the craft before 
launch (e.g. first email from the Moon).
Teams will be required to send a Mooncast detailing their arrival on the 
lunar surface, and a second Mooncast that provides imagery and video of 
their journey roaming the lunar surface. All told, the Mooncasts will 
represent approximately a Gigabyte of stunning content returned to the 
Earth.
The complete Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition Guidelines are available 
in English, the official language of the prize, on the Google Lunar X 
PRIZE homepage.