X-Prize Lunar Lander Competition a Go

Tiger4 writes "The X-Prize foundation and NASA have signed off on a $2.5 million prize for proof of concept lunar lander vehicles. From the article, 'NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale told MSNBC.com that the point of the competition was to "take advantage of new innovative technologies that have been developed" since the last lunar landing, during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972." There are two levels of competition, "In the Level 1 competition, the vehicles must be in the air for at least 90 seconds during each leg of the round trip, and land on a flat, even surface. The Level 2 competition is harder -- requiring 180 seconds of flight each way, with a rocky, lunar-style landing site.' NASA and X-Prize people are still working on the final rules, but they are already signing up teams and expect to see vehicles in time for the X-Prize exhibition in New Mexico, October 18-21, 2006."

Comments

This is the Government...

[Ruff_ilb]

$2.5M is NOTHING to them. Nothing.

I hate to play this card, but by the end of 2006, we will have spent a (conservative) estimate of $315 billion in Iraq.

Heck, compare this to non-government entities. If ol' Bill could get college students to write him a completely new OS for 2.5M, he'd probably jump at the chance.

Re:Consolation Prize

[fishbowl]

>Do you understand the point to the X-Prize at all?

I don't. It occurs to me that anyone capable of claiming such a prize should be doing it *anyway.*

It would be more impressive if somebody did it without regard for the prize. Didn't even claim the prize, didn't even enter the contest, just fulfilled the requirements ahead of any of the contestants.

That would be hilarious.

Hey, NASA can do cheap, too...

[jpellino]

There's a story in "Chariots for Apollo" about the potential problem of hitting the descent stage engine bell on a uncharted rock. They had to consider that landing on a rock could damage the bell, push the bell into the ascent stage, etc... But they had neither the time nor the money to design and execute a test + spare LM to see what would happen. One day as they were moving the LM on a crane, the rig slipped, and the whole thing landed, engine bell down, on a pile of crates. No significant damage. One of the managers turned to the team and said someting like "You just got your million dollar test for free."

Bigger prize

[Council]

Am I the only one who sort of wants them to say, "Hey! Anyone who goes and builds a moon colony gets all our money."

Enough with this baby-step stuff.