XPRIZE, the global leader in incentivised prize competition, today announced that the deadline for the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZEhas been officially extended until 31 December 2016. As part of this revised timeline, at least one team must provide documentation of a scheduled launch by 31 December 2015, for all teams to move forward in the competition.
"We continue to see significant progress from our Google Lunar XPRIZE teams, most recently demonstrated in the pursuit of the Milestone Prizes, in which teams exhibited substantial technological achievements that will ultimately support their missions," said Robert K Weiss, vice-chairman and president, XPRIZE. "We know the mission we are asking teams to accomplish is extremely difficult and unprecedented, not only from a technological standpoint, but also in terms of the financial considerations. It is for this reason we have decided to extend the competition timeline. We firmly believe a whole new economy around low-cost access to the moon will be the result of the Google Lunar XPRIZE."
To recognise the recent technological achievements made by teams in the areas of landing, mobility and imaging, Google and XPRIZE will be awarding up to $6 million in Milestone Prizes on 26 January at a private event at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Two purses have already been announced as Astrobotic (US) has won $500 000 in the Mobility category and $250 000 for its Imaging Subsystem, all determined by a judging panel of science, aeronautics and space industry experts that evaluated numerous field and technology tests over the past year. In addition to Astrobotic, the other teams competing for Milestone Prizes are Hakuto (Japan), Team Indus (India), Moon Express (US) and Part-Time Scientists (Germany).
"Over the past year, the judging panel has been consistently impressed with the progress seen from the five teams selected to contend for the Milestone Prizes," said David Swanson, chairman, Google Lunar XPRIZE judging panel. "It goes without saying that space exploration comes with a myriad of challenges, yet the enthusiasm and teamwork exhibited by these competitors has been second to none, exceeded only by their adept technical expertise. As part of this process, we are pleased to recognise Astrobotic for its achievements in the Mobility and Imaging categories and look forward to awarding additional Milestone Prizes in the coming weeks."
Competing for the Milestone Prizes is an optional part of the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Teams that chose not to participate in the Milestone Prizes are still eligible to win the grand or second place prizes. The prize money for the Milestone Prizes will be deducted from any future grand or second place prize winnings of that team. For more information on the Milestone Prizes, visit http://lunar.xprize.org/about/milestone-prizes.
