Google Lunar X-Prize

"Rovey", a moon rover from the Google Lunar X-Prize

The Google Lunar X-Prize ( GLXP ) was a competition that ran from 2007 to 2018. It was awarded by the US company Google for a moon landing by the end of March 2018. The aim, similar to the Ansari X Prize and the America's Space Prize , was to promote private space flight activities; The organizer was the X-Prize Foundation , a foundation set up by Peter Diamandis .

In May 2008 the first ten participating teams presented their projects. The latest date for a moon landing according to the terms of the Google Lunar X-Prize was postponed to the end of 2017 in May 2015, for the last time in August 2017 to the end of March 2018. On January 23, 2018, the foundation announced that the main prize will not be awarded as none of the last five teams would reach the moon by the deadline. By then, several teams had raised a total of US $ 300 million to complete the set tasks, and prize money for intermediate goals achieved totaling more than US $ 6 million had been paid out.

Prize amount and distribution

The total amount of the prize money to be won was $ 40 million. Several teams were able to win prizes, as there were also cash payments for milestones. The prices were partly offset against each other.

Grand Prize

To win the Grand Prize, the winner must be the first to land a probe safely on the moon and travel at least 500 meters on the moon's surface in a rover . For this, 20 million US dollars were awarded. The competition was originally set to run on December 31, 2014, with the full prize money only to be paid out by December 31, 2012 and then a reduced prize money of 15 million US dollars. In the meantime, the competition has been extended to December 31, 2017. A reduction in the prize money to US $ 15 million was envisaged if a government-funded mission were to explore the lunar surface in front of the X-Prize team. This rule would have come into force with China's Chang'e 3 , but it was decided to remove this clause.

Second Prize

To win the Second Prize, the winner must land safely on the lunar surface and send data, images and videos to Earth. The prize money here is five million US dollars and was advertised until December 31, 2014.

Milestone Prizes

In order to prove a suitably robust hardware and software before the start, there were the Milestone Prizes in the categories Imaging, Mobility and Lander Systems. The prize money for the Milestone Prizes was an advance payment on the main prize money to be won. The prize money won should then be deducted from the Grand or Second Prize if the goal is achieved. Teams that would not win the Grand or Second Prize should have kept the Milestone Prizes prize money. Achieving Milestone Prizes was not necessary to win any of the grand prizes.

The US $ 250,000 Imaging Milestone Prize went to teams that were able to demonstrate working optical sensors and systems. These had to u. a. have various mechanical skills and meet the image specifications set by the organizer. In addition, the transmission of the data to earth had to be possible.

The objectives of the Mobility category included a. functioning drive systems such as wheels or thrusters, hardware and software for determining the position and determining the distance covered and transmitting this data to the earth. The prize money was $ 500,000.

The Lander Systems category included all hardware and software that enabled navigation and control to the moon as well as a gentle moon landing. The prize money in this category was one million US dollars.

Bonus prizes

Up to a total of five million US dollars, bonus prizes were awarded for various special tasks, such as For example, for a rover trip of over five kilometers, finding and photographing artifacts from the Apollo missions, or surviving a moonlit night.

Conditions of participation

Participation in the Google Lunar X-Prize was heavily regulated. The aim was on the one hand to maintain the seriousness of the competition and on the other hand to increase the scientific added value.

Starting in 2007, the filing fee was US $ 10,000. It was then gradually increased to US $ 30,000 in late July 2009 and finally to US $ 50,000 in late 2009.

State influence

A set of rules that grew in scope over time stipulated that the total state influence (calculated on the total costs) was not allowed to exceed a share of 10%. Participation for a university that built its developments entirely on state funding was therefore excluded. This served the goal of promoting the development of a private aerospace sector with a long-term business orientation.

Regulations

In order to register a team, the X-Prize Foundation had to be presented with a concept for implementation and financing in addition to the registration fee. After extensive examination, this was either approved or rejected. Furthermore, all concept changes, sponsor contacts, contracts and press releases had to be communicated to the GoogleLunarX Prize Foundation every three months. All teams were required to keep the public informed of their progress at regular intervals.

Participating teams

At the beginning of the competition 33 teams were registered, in 2012 there were 22 more:

team	country	rover	Orbiter	team leader	link
Astrobotic	United States	Red Rover		Dr. William "Red" Whittaker
Team Italia	Italy	Ascensio Machinae Ad Lunam Italica Arte (AMALIA)		Prof. Amalia Ercoli-Finzi
FREDNET	Multinational			Fred J. Bourgeois, III
Moon Express	United States	MoonEx-1	MX-1E	Bob Richards
STELLAR	United States	Stellar Eagle		Keith Goeller
JURBAN	United States	JOLHT		Dr. Jayfus T Doswell
Independence-X	Malaysia	Independence Lunar Rover - 1 (ILR-1)		Mohd Izmir Yamin
Omega Envoy	United States	SAGAN		Ruben Nunez
SYNERGY MOON	Multinational	Tesla Robotic Rover		Miroslav Ambruš-Kiš
Euroluna	Denmark / Switzerland / Italy	ROMIT		Palle Haastrup
White label space	Multinational			Steve Allen
Selenokhod	Russia	Selenokhod		Nikolay Dzis-Voynarovskiy
Barcelona Moon Team	Spain			Xavier Claramunt-Domènech
Rocket City Space Pioneers	United States			Tim Pickens
Team SpaceIL	Israel	Sparrow		Yariv Bash
Team Puli	Hungary			Tibor Pacher
SpaceMETA	Brazil			Sergio Cabral Cavalcanti
Team plan B	Canada	Plan B		Alex Dobrianski
Penn State Lunar Lion Team	United States	The Lunar Lion		Michael V. Paul
Angelicum	Chile			Klaus von Storch
Team Indus	India			Rahul Narayan
Phenicia	United States		Storming the High Heavens	William P. Baird

The following teams left the competition before 2012:

team	country	rover	Orbiter	team leader	link
Part-time scientists	Germany	Audi Lunar Quattro (ALQ)	ALINA - Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module	Robert Boehme
SCSG ( Southern California Selene Group )	United States	Spirit of Southern California		Harold Rosen
Quantum3	United States	Moondancer		Paul Carliner
Micro space	United States			Richard Bacon
Advaeros	Malaysia / Multinational	Picard		Hanidy Yusof
C-Base Open Moon	Germany	c-rove		Neven Dološ
Mystical moon		Black Magic		Merlin
SELENE	Germany / People's Republic of China	LuRoCa 1	SELENA 1	Markus Bindhammer
Next giant leap	United States			Michael Joyce
Odyssey Moon	Multinational / Isle of Man	MoonOne (M-1)		Michael Potter
ARCA	Romania		European Lunar Explorer (ELE)	Dumitru Popescu

Course of the project - announcements of the participants

In early February 2011 it was announced that the team Astrobotic planning his Red Rover with a Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX to transport to the moon. The start was initially planned for December 2013, but was then postponed to October 2015. The project was not implemented.

The Barcelona Moon Team signed a contract with the China Great Wall Industry Corporation in March 2012 to carry out the launch with a Long March missile . This project did not come to an end either.

In January 2015, five teams received a Milestone Prize . The development of key technologies that were indispensable for a successful landing was honored (see also section Milestone Prizes). The teams were considered as follows: US Team Astrobotic (1.75 million US dollars), Hakuto from Japan (0.5 million US dollars), Moon Express from the USA (1.25 million US dollars), the Part- Time Scientists ($ 0.75 million) and the Indian team Indus ($ 1 million).

Start reservations before the end of the competition

Some teams were able to enter into contracts to start their devices before the end of the competition.

date	Team (s)	rocket	comment
2017	Moon Express	Rocket Lab Electron	A total of three launches have been agreed, two for 2017 and a third for later.
December 2017	SpaceIL	SpaceX Falcon 9	The launch has been booked through the private US space company Spaceflight Industries .
2017	Synergy Moon	Interorbital Systems Neptune	The company's first rocket launch.
2017	Team Indus	PSLV-XL	The start is carried out by ISRO .
2017	Hakuto	PSLV-XL	Piggyback payload of the Team Indus launch.

Follow-up activities

After the official end of the competition, five teams decided to fly their lander without the prize money and thus bring the project to a close.

date	Team (s)	rocket	Remarks
April 11, 2019	SpaceIL	Falcon 9	Attempt to land on the moon with the Beresheet probe , but it crashed; first privately organized flight to the lunar surface.
End of 2020	Moon Express	Electron	Since Moon Express has not yet received a contract under NASA's CLPS program , the funding of the mission is unclear.
2021	Hakuto-R	Falcon 9
	Part-time scientists	Falcon 9	Two rovers should be set down on the moon, visit the historical landing sites of the "Apollo" program and send pictures and videos to earth. The start was initially planned for the beginning of 2020, then for 2021. Audi and Vodafone were won as partners. However, funding for the mission could not be secured; In July 2019, PTScientists filed for bankruptcy .
	Team Indus	Falcon 9	The Indus team has joined forces with the US company OrbitBeyond and is participating in NASA's CLPS program. OrbitBeyond received a NASA order for a moon mission in September 2020 in May 2019, but canceled the order a little later due to "operational difficulties".

Web links

Commons : Google Lunar X-Prize  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official Homepage (English)
• collectspace.com: Google Sponsors Lunar X PRIZE to Create a Space Race for a New Generation (English, Flash required)
• Alexander Stirn: Google Lunar X-Prize: The private moon landing becomes a question of price. In: Spectrum of Science. July 18, 2014, accessed July 21, 2014 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Die Welt: The Private Rally to the Moon , May 19, 2008.
2. ↑ Deadline for $ 30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE Extended to End of 2017. Google Lunar XPRIZE, May 22, 2015, accessed December 9, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Google Lunar X-Prize: Moon, we're coming 2017! - Golem.de , December 9, 2015.
4. ↑ Space.com: Deadline for Google Lunar X Prize Moon Race Extended Through March 2018 . 16th August 2017.
5. ↑ Google Lunar XPRIZE: An Important Update from Google Lunar XPRIZE . 23rd January 2018.
6. ↑ Milestone Prizes. Google Lunar XPRIZE, accessed December 9, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition Guidelines ( Memento from September 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English), version from September 16, 2007, accessed on December 9, 2015
8. ↑ Summary of Rules and Requirements. Retrieved December 9, 2015 . 
9. ^ A New Player in the Return to the Moon. Google Lunar XPRIZE, November 13, 2013, accessed December 9, 2015 . 
10. ↑ googlelunarxprize.org
11. ↑ googlelunarxprize.org
12. ^ The Teams. Google Lunar X-Prize, accessed November 30, 2012 . 
13. ↑ astrobotictech.com
14. ↑ teamfrednet.org
15. ↑ moonexpress.com
16. ↑ teamstellar.org
17. ↑ juxtopia.org
18. ↑ independencex.wordpress.com
19. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
20. ↑ synergymoon.org
21. ↑ euroluna.dk
22. ↑ whitelabelspace.com
23. ↑ selenokhod.com
24. ↑ barcelonamoonteam.com
25. ↑ rocketcityspacepioneers.com
26. ↑ spaceil.com
27. ↑ pulispace.com
28. ↑ spacemeta.com.br
29. ↑ adobri.com
30. ↑ lunarlion.psu.edu
31. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
32. ↑ teamindus.in
33. ↑ teamphoenicia.org
34. ↑ Norbert Lossau: German technology will soon be rolling over the moon . In: Welt Online . July 16, 2016 ( welt.de [accessed July 27, 2016]).
35. ↑ ALINA rocked Berlin - SpaceWatch Middle East. In: SpaceWatch Middle East. July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2016 (American English). 
36. ↑ part-time-scientists.com
37. ^ A Farewell from the Southern California Selene Group. May 24, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008 . 
38. ^ Quantum3 Withdrawing from Competition. August 19, 2008. Retrieved August 20, 2008 . 
39. ↑ Farewell from Advaeros. September 12, 2010, accessed August 8, 2011 . 
40. ↑ Open Moon says Goodbye ( Memento from August 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
41. ↑ openmoon.info
42. ^ New Giant Leap was taken over by Moon Express: Charles Black: Commercial Moon explorer takes next giant leap. (No longer available online.) Wired June 6, 2012, archived from the original on July 9, 2012 ; accessed on November 30, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
43. ↑ nextgiantleap.com
44. ↑ Odyssey Moon now forms a joint team with the SpaceIL team under their name: Michael Potter: SPACEIL and ODYSSEY MOON Announce Joint Teaming Agreement to Pursue $ 30 Million Google Lunar X PRIZE New Combined Team Will Utilize Innovative Commercial Partnership Model. November 20, 2012, accessed November 30, 2012 . 
45. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
46. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
47. ↑ Astrobotic Technology Announces Lunar Mission on SpaceX Falcon 9 astrobotic.com, February 6, 2011.
48. ^ The race for a private moon landing enters the hot phase derstandard.at, February 9, 2011; Lunar X Prize Team Hitches a Ride From SpaceX wired.com, February 8, 2011 (accessed February 10, 2011).
49. ↑ bizjournals.com
50. ↑ GLXP News: Barcelona Moon Team Signs Agreement for Chinese Launch. Parabolic Arc, March 19, 2012, accessed March 27, 2012 . 
51. ↑ Google Lunar XPrize: Prize money in the millions distributed , January 28, 2015 (accessed on August 17, 2015).
52. ↑ Private Moon Landing Set for 2017. Accessed May 13, 2020 . 
53. ↑ Moon Express Buys Rocket Lab Launches for Lunar Missions - SpaceNews.com. October 1, 2015, accessed May 13, 2020 . 
54. ^ Ticket to the moon. January 25, 2017. Retrieved March 19, 2017 . 
55. ↑ Israeli Google Lunar XPRIZE Team Is First to Sign Launch Agreement For Private Mission to the Moon On SpaceX Falcon October 9, 2015, accessed May 13, 2020 . 
56. ↑ SYNERGY MOON Team Member Interorbital Systems to Serve as Launch Provider. Google Lunar XPRIZE, August 30, 2016, accessed September 8, 2016 . 
57. ↑ ^{a b} Alnoor Peermohamed & Raghu Krishnan: Team Indus gets slot on PSLV rocket for its journey to moon. In: Business Standard . November 2, 2016, accessed November 4, 2016 . 
58. ↑ Jeff Foust: Companies skeptical commercial lunar landers can fly NASA payloads this year , in: Space News, February 22, 2019.
59. ↑ Shalom, Earth satellite. Retrieved February 20, 2019 . 
60. ^ NASA Selects First Commercial Moon Landing Services for Artemis Program. NASA, May 31, 2019, accessed May 13, 2019 . 
61. ^ Commercial Lunar Payload Services Update. NASA, July 19, 2019, accessed August 22, 2019 .