SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 27 (UPI) — Five of the 18 teams competing to put a rover on the moon, as part of Google’s Lunar XPrize competition, got good news on Monday, as the tech behemoth dished out some extra funding dough to winners of the so-called “{link:milestone awards: “http://lunar.xprize.org/about/milestone-prizes”,nw}.”
Milestone awards were given in to teams who in the last year demonstrated exception technological achievement in the three categories of landing, mobility and imaging. A landing award scored teams $1 million, while a mobility prize as worth $500,000 and imaging prize was worth $250,000.
It’s all part of a larger competition to see who can be first to send a rover to the moon, cover 500 meters over ground and beam back images and data to Earth.
The big winner at Monday’s awards, held at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, was Astrobotic. The private aerospace startup, which formed out of Carnegie Melon’s robotics institute, received an award in all three categories — a total sum of $1.75 million.
Astrobotic’s unique approach to the Lunar XPrize has turned the race to the moon into a collaboration as much as it’s a competition. Its group of engineers have offered to give a ride to another other teams’ rovers. About half of the 18 teams are currently in talks with Astrobotic about the arrangements.
“Our dream is to land on the moon, release all the rovers all at once, and have them all drive the 500 meters as fast they can and turn it into like Formula One or Nascar on the moon,” company president John Thornton {link:told Mashable: “http://mashable.com/2015/01/27/google-lunar-xprize-milestones/”,nw}.
But more than just a way to have fun and encourage cooperation, Thompson and his team see the strategy as a business play.
“Astrobotic’s approach to the prize is really to use it as a catalyst, as a starting point,” Thornton said. “Our long-term game is to make a business of flying to the moon regularly — so like FedEx or UPS to the moon. We’re literally the delivery truck to the moon.”
{link:As gizmag reports: “http://www.gizmag.com/google-lunar-xprize-milstone-prize-winners/35796/”,nw}, Astrobotic is one the three teams that (after Monday’s prizes) stand out as front runners in the competition. Both Moon Express and Part-Time Scientists each received two milestone awards. Moon Express is a Silicon Valley-based startup, while Part-Time Scientists is a collaboration between scientists and engineers from all over the world.
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