Gadgetory

my name is Andrew Barton Technical Operations Director for the google lunar xprize the google lunar xprize is a 30 million dollar prize to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon and move across its surface the total prize purse is 30 million dollars and that's the largest incentive prize ever the milestone prizes were introduced to give teams a boost in their preparations towards liftoff the google lunar xprize started with over 30 teams now we're down to 18 of which five have been selected for the milestone prize accomplishment realm the five selected teams are Astrobotic and moon Express from America indus from india part-time scientists from germany and hospital from japan to reach this stage the teams had to do two things define firstly what their critical technical risks are and secondly how they plan to overcome them teams have to demonstrate their technologies and prove to the judging panel that they've reached their milestones those five teams can share in the six million dollars available if they demonstrate that they've overcome the specific challenges that they were selected for those challenges are spread across three technical areas landing mobility and imaging the lunar environment is incredibly harsh is extremes of temperature radiation the environment is a vacuum there's highly abrasive lunar dust that gets into all of your equipment the ways these small privately funded teams will overcome these challenges will be incredible the milestone prizes run through to the end of sep tember 2014 the 13 teams that weren't selected for the milestone prizes are still eligible for the grand prize the second place prize and the bonus prizes the google lunar xprize is pioneering the future of space exploration we're going back to the moon this time would visit our website google lunar xprize org and follow along as these teams make history