Google/X-Prize Moon Contest

Now here's something worth talking about:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070913/ap_on_hi_te/google_moon_prize

"Google Inc. is bankrolling a $30 million out-of-this-world prize to the
first private company that can safely land a robotic rover on the moon
and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth, the Internet
search leader said Thursday.

"The rules call for a spacecraft to trek at least 1,312 feet across the
lunar surface and return a package of data including self-portraits,
panoramic views and near-real time videos. ...Whoever accomplishes the
feat by the end of 2012 will receive $20 million. If there is no winner,
the purse will drop to $15 million until the end of 2014 when the
contest expires. There is also a $5 million second-place prize and $5
million in bonus money to teams that go beyond the minimum requirements."

This prize seems well conceived to me -- challenging, but not
outrageous, and the second-place and bonus prizes are a nice touch,
mitigating the risk of coming in second and encouraging more diverse
entries. I predict that this will generate quite a bit of buzz, and
sometime between 2010 and 2012, somebody will win -- maybe even two
somebodies.

Comments?

--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work.
Learn more and discuss via: http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/

Better coverage he
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070913/sc_nm/space_prize_dc

Best,
- Joe

--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work.
Learn more and discuss via: http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/

Sorry for the multiple posts -- I'm just too excited to gather all my
ducks before shooting them. Here's the home page for the new prize,
which will probably offer the best information about it:

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

Also, according to
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200709...onsor30million
lunarxprize, a number of support companies are stepping up to make
thingns easier: SpaceX will provide launches either at cost or at a 10%
discount (reports vary), and use of the Allen Telescope Array will
provide downlink service at no cost (!).

So this really amounts to nothing more than a lander, a robot, and $7M
or so for the launch. I'm starting to think my 2010 estimate was too
conservative!

--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work.
Learn more and discuss via: http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/

Joe Strout wrote:

Comments?

Sure, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are complete assholes.

Why don't they just bankroll a billion dollar launch vehicle?

Why not? Because they are two of the most corrupt ****s around, and are
more interested in fighting over the Star Trek suite on their Boeing 767
than they are in developing space. I ain't inviting them to my island.

--
Get A Free Orbiter Space Flight Simulator :
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

Yes, this is cool.

Interestingly, you just need to land by the deadline, not return the
whole gigabyte by the deadline (according to one of the news articles,
anyway).

Looks winable to me. I wonder if Henry is going to be part of a
team...

In article ,
Jim Kingdon wrote:

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

Yes, this is cool.

Interestingly, you just need to land by the deadline, not return the
whole gigabyte by the deadline (according to one of the news articles,
anyway).

Seems like you'd have to be cutting it awfully close for that to matter,
though.

Looks winable to me. I wonder if Henry is going to be part of a
team...

If he is, I'm placing my bets on him! What do you say, Henry? Is this
an opportunity to pump $20M into the Canadian economy? (Granted, $20M
isn't worth as much as it used to be, but still...)

--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work.
Learn more and discuss via: http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/

"Jim Kingdon" wrote in message
news
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

Yes, this is cool.

Interestingly, you just need to land by the deadline, not return the
whole gigabyte by the deadline (according to one of the news articles,
anyway).

I suspect returning the gigabyte is the least of the issues.



Looks winable to me. I wonder if Henry is going to be part of a
team...


You know, I'd love to see some sort of "time capsule" buried on the Moon.

Something with a solar/nuclear battery that could last say 10K years. Put a
radio beacon on it and store as much knowledge as possible in a few
different formats.

Radio updates to it every year and every 5-10 years add physical medium
updates.

Sort of an insurance against various forms of industrial collapse.

--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

In article ,
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

You know, I'd love to see some sort of "time capsule" buried on the Moon.

Something with a solar/nuclear battery that could last say 10K years. Put a
radio beacon on it and store as much knowledge as possible in a few
different formats.

Radio updates to it every year and every 5-10 years add physical medium
updates.

Sort of an insurance against various forms of industrial collapse.

That's a neat idea. Unlike pretty much any archive on Earth, you can
count on it remaining unmolested as long as civilization remains in
collapse.

--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually work.
Learn more and discuss via: http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/

"Joe Strout" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

You know, I'd love to see some sort of "time capsule" buried on the Moon.

Something with a solar/nuclear battery that could last say 10K years.
Put a
radio beacon on it and store as much knowledge as possible in a few
different formats.

Radio updates to it every year and every 5-10 years add physical medium
updates.

Sort of an insurance against various forms of industrial collapse.

That's a neat idea. Unlike pretty much any archive on Earth, you can
count on it remaining unmolested as long as civilization remains in
collapse.

And what's more, any civilization that rebuilds itself to the level of radio
would soon pick up the beacon and have a goal.

(I should specify the beacon be no more than a simple "here I am", doesn't
even need to encode data. It's meant partly as encouragement. Though,
perhaps a basic CW type beacon and then the a more complex encoded
transmission that a slightly more advanced civilization could decode would
be interesting. Have the more complex beacon include data on say the Saturn
V.)

Hmm, you know, this could be a fascinating project in severa parts.

Develop 1-3 physical methods for encoding data that can be decoded at a
later date that make no cultural assumptions.

Develop a transmission that can do the same (ala "Contact").



--
"Polywell" fusion -- an approach to nuclear fusion that might actually
work.
Learn more and discuss via:
http://www.strout.net/info/science/polywell/



--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

Joe Strout wrote:

So this really amounts to nothing more than a lander, a robot, and $7M
or so for the launch. I'm starting to think my 2010 estimate was too
conservative!

My bet is that in 2012, you'll be here explaining how the prize
_could_ have been won in time - if only eeeeevil NASA had coughed up a
subsidized launcher, or paid more attention to unobtanium purification
tech back in the 60's, or some other handwaving.

I'll lay odds this prize won't be claimed by the current expiry date
of the prize.

I'll also lay odds that if it is claimed prior to the expiry date, the
launch will occur on a recycled Russian ICBM.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL