Robot development firm Astrobotic Technology Inc. has found a way to send its robotic payload to the moon and get a head-start on the multi-million dollar Google Lunar X Prize: hitch a ride on a SpaceX rocket.
The team has signed a contract with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use a Falcon 9 rocket to sling Astrobotic’s robot off on its four-day journey to the Moon. The robot would orbit the moon to align itself, then land on the lunar surface using technology Carnegie Mellon University developed to guide autonomous cars.
Astrobotic’s robot would explore the moon’s surface for three months, operating during lunar days and hibernating during lunar nights. It will hunt for water, analyze its surroundings using various scientific instruments and transmit 3D video back to Earth.
Should Astrobotic reach the moon, the state of Florida plans to pay the team $2 million and NASA will hand over $10 million. There are also bonuses from other space agencies and corporate marketers. However, Google’s prize is the biggest; the Silicon Valley titan is promising $20 million to the first privately-funded team to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon.
The first team to land a robot that travels 500 meters and sends images and data back to earth takes the prize. Second place brings $5 million. Twenty-one teams are competing for the prize, and they’ve got until 2015 to achieve the objective.
In December, SpaceX became the first privately funded company to successfully send a spacecraft into orbit and return it safely. The Dragon made two orbits of the earth, marking the dawn of a new era in orbital space flight and a significant milestone for the Southern California startup.
The company sells payload space on its various Falcon and Dragon vehicles to space agencies and corporations. NASA is one such customer, and will borrow the Falcon 9 to fly cargo to the ISS when its own shuttles are retired later this year.
Astrobotic and SpaceX’s collaborative mission to the Moon could launch as soon as December 2013.
This post was written by Mark Brown of Wired UK.
Photo: SpaceX. Falcon 9 leaves the launchpad with Dragon in December.
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