Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Two rival teams competing for a share of $30 million in the Google Lunar XPrize competition are calling a temporary truce and joining forces to share a rocket ride to the moon next year.
According to CNET, a lander developed by Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic will be carrying a pair of rovers from Japanese firm Hakuto to the lunar surface in late 2016 so that the two companies can go head-to-head for the contest’s $20 million grand prize.
NASCAR on the moon
Though the official launch date has yet to be announced, the lander and the pair of probes will lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. They plan to land in a northeastern portion of the moon known as Lacus Mortis, the website added.
Once there, the two teams will each deploy their rovers and begin exploring the lunar surface. The first one to cover 500 meters (approximately 550 yards) while broadcasting high-definition footage of the journey will take home the grand prize. If the journey is successful, it would also mark the first time that commercial spacecrafts successfully land on the moon.
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“This is the next major step for Hakuto toward our lunar mission,” the team’s leader, Takeshi Hakamada, said in a statement. “This contract enables Hakuto to actually send our rover to the moon, which is important because Hakuto is only concentrating on rover development.”
“Astrobotic is thrilled to welcome HAKUTO aboard our first mission,” said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton. “We envision a ‘NASCAR on the Moon’ scenario, where competing teams land together, and countries can cheer on their team to the finish line. Hakuto is the first team signed to fulfill our dream of the first race beyond Earth’s orbit.”
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Hakuto’s twin rovers, which have been named Moonraker and Tetris, will travel to the moon on Astrobotic’s Griffin lander. Those rovers will be released simultaneously with Astrobotic’s Andy rover, which was developed by a team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The Lunar XPrize completion opened in 2007, challenging private-sector firms to be the first non-governmental entity to land a rover on the moon, according to GigaOM. By the end of next year, the winning team must not only reach the moon, but also traverse the lunar surface.
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“We are delighted that two of our teams have engaged in this partnership for their Google Lunar XPrize missions,” said Andrew Barton, the competition’s director of technical operations. “Stimulating new business ecosystems is one of the core goals of any XPrize competition, and this joint venture is an excellent example of how humanity’s commercial and economic interests will expand into space in the coming years.”
Both Astrobotic and Hakuto took part in the recent Google Lunar XPrize Milestone Tests. The Japanese firm was awarded $500,000 for a successful demonstration of its rovers, which were judged on such criteria as primary mobility actuators, surface navigation avionics and distance verification hardware and software. The Pittsburgh-based company, on the other hand, earned a combined $1.75 million for testing its rover, as well as its imaging and landing systems.
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