Google Lunar X Prize | |
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Awarded for | "landing a robot on the surface of the Moon, traveling 500 meters over the lunar surface, and sending images and data back to the Earth."[1] |
Country | Worldwide |
Presented by | X Prize Foundation (organizer), Google (sponsor) |
Reward(s) | US$20 million for the winner, US$5 million for second place, US$4 million in technical bonuses, US$1 million diversity award |
Website | lunar.xprize.org |
Part of a series on |
Private spaceflight |
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The Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) was a 2007–2018 inducement prize space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a lunar rover on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back to Earth high-definition video and images.[2]
The original deadline was the end of 2014, with additional prize money for a landing by 2012. In 2015, XPRIZE announced that the competition deadline would be extended to December 2017 if at least one team could secure a verified launch contract by 31 December 2015.[3] Two teams secured such a launch contract, and the deadline was extended.[4] In August 2017, the deadline was extended again, to 31 March 2018.[5]
Entering 2018, five teams remained in the competition: SpaceIL,[6] Moon Express, Synergy Moon, TeamIndus, and Team Hakuto,[7] having secured verified launch contracts with Spaceflight Industries, Rocket Lab, Interorbital Systems, and ISRO (jointly for the last two teams).[4][8][9]
On 23 January 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that "no team would be able to make a launch attempt to reach the Moon by the [31 March 2018] deadline...and the US$30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE will go unclaimed."[10][11] On 5 April 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that the Lunar XPRIZE would continue as a non-cash competition.[12]
On 11 April 2019, the SpaceIL Beresheet spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon. The SpaceIL team was awarded a $1 million "Moonshot Award" by the X Prize Foundation in recognition of touching the surface of the Moon.[13]
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