According to the X PRIZE Foundation, NASA contracts have been awarded to three of the teams competing for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a race to send a payload to the Moon and have that payload travel 500 meters over the moon's surface and then have the payload send data back to Earth. The NASA contracts were given to teams Astrobotic Technology, Inc., Moon Express, Inc., and the Rocket City Space Pioneers, through one member of that team--Dynetics, Inc. The NASA contracts are valued at $500,000 for each team. In exchange for the contract, teams must "demonstrate how they will address one of the top ten technical risk areas associated with a low-cost lunar surface mission."
“NASA is going to be a strong a leader in Moon 2.0, just as it was in the famous Moon race of the 1960s. But this time, NASA will show leadership by partnering with international partners and especially with commercial enterprises, in addition to conducting its own missions,” said William Pomerantz, the X PRIZE Foundation's Senior Director of Space Prizes. “Today’s contract announcements show how Google Lunar X PRIZE teams and space agencies are already forging mutually beneficial ties that will allow us to visit the Moon sooner and stay for longer.”
These three teams are not the first Google Lunar X PRIZE entrants to receive NASA contracts. Three other teams, FREDNET, The Charles Strake Draper Laboratory, which works with Next Giant Leap and Earthrise Space, Inc. which works with Omega Envoy, like the other three teams, they are all contracted with NASA’s $30 million Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data project.
Nine teams total have expressed an interest in competing.
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