Video: This prototype lunar rover is just one of many racing for a $20 million prize

This spider-like robot is just one of the designs aimed at the moon (Image: Team Italia)

It’s been 36 years since NASA’s last Apollo lander left the moon’s surface. But while the agency’s plans to return humans to the moon remain confused, a pack of private teams are racing to send robots to kick up lunar dust and claim the $20-million Google Lunar X Prize announced nearly two years ago.

So far 19 teams have registered for the contest. To win, they must land a rover on the moon that will then drive 500 metres before turning to photograph its landing site – all before the end of 2012. The team that does it first will pick up $20 million. Second place will earn $5 million and a further $5 million in bonuses will be awarded for finding relics from past US or Soviet moon missions.

See a gallery showing some of the latest robotic moon rover prototypes


Private affair

Like the Ansari X Prize for sending a human into space, the lunar contest is meant to stimulate commercial space exploration.

“What we’re doing is a proof of concept: that this can be done, and for less than the government would pay for the same kind of mission,” says Fred Bourgeois, head of Team Frednet, a Lunar X Prize competitor based in California.

The Google Lunar X Prize teams span more than 12 countries on three continents. They’re led by students, engineers, CEOs and entrepreneurs. Each has different strategies for flying to the moon, driving around once they get there and paying for it all.

Team Frednet has taken an open-source approach, meaning anyone can contribute to the wiki that is used for all the team’s business.

“The power of people collaborating is so much bigger than [that of] a small company hiring people to do the job,” Bourgeois says. “You can’t get the same calibre of people that you can by finding people who are really interested in it.” (See an image of Team Frednet’s “hamster ball” rover prototype).

Other teams, like Team Italia and the Romanian team ARCA, are trying whip up patriotism to give them a boost, although the contest’s rules ban governmental support.

Marketing the moon

Some teams are making technology that will have a use and a market beyond the contest. Team Astrobotic, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has its sights set on the Apollo 11 landing site. “We’re trying to create a robot that makes sense over the longer term so we can be part of the lunar frontier and help open it up,” says David Gump, president of the team’s parent company, Astrobotic Technology.

Team Astrobotic plans to send its rover to see how the descent stage of the Apollo 11 lunar module looks after 40 years on the moon and so gain insights into how to design future lunar equipment. Astrobotic is also the only team so far to publicly set a launch date: 8 May 2011. (See an image of their rover prototype).

Most teams are relying on, or hoping for, private investment. But not Synergy Moon, which is offering to take donors’ DNA to the moon for $10,000.

Odyssey Moon has a similar idea. It was founded a year before the X Prize competition and its leader Bob Richards says it aims to be “a FedEx to the moon”. He hopes people will pay to deliver things to the dusty lunar surface and expects consignments of plants and even human remains. (See Odyssey Moon’s prototype hopper).

Geeky business

“For us it’s all about building a business case,” Richards told New Scientist. “We’re pleased and proud to be the first registered team in the competition, but what’s driving us are the customers.”

Bourgeois also thinks there’s money to be made from reaching the moon’s surface and plans to have people sponsor images sent back from Team Frednet’s lander. “Wouldn’t you like to have your name come back as ‘This minute of moon video sponsored by…’?” he asks. “It’s just the geek value, you know?”

See a gallery of images showing some of the latest prototypes from competing teams