It took a while, but after eight years it is finally so far: the first team in the race for the Google Lunar X Prize, has signed a contract for a private spacecraft on the moon. That is going to happen in 2017.
The team that first announced that the final to the moon, is the Israeli team. This claims to Israel as the fourth land a spacecraft on the moon, after previous missions of the United States, China and the former Soviet Union. SpaceIL is, however, no team from the government, but a cooperation of private companies.
SpaceIL wants the spacecraft to be attached with the SpaceX Falcon 9 in the second half of 2017. Officially the deadline in 2017, but Google has the terms and conditions of the race several times already adjusted. With the announcement just over eight years ago, said the sponsor that the contest in 2014 would expire, but that the winner in each case, until 2012, had to award the prize to claim. That the match lasts longer, points out that the creation of one’s own spacecraft, no roses. The prize is: the winner will get 20 million dollars.
The aim of the competition is not only a lunar module, this must also be the various commands to run. Thus, the flight of the team is not only the object to reach, but once we arrived four hundred meters. Further, should their spacecraft there are self-portraits and panoramic images shooting and roughly real-time video to the earth return. There are fifteen candidates who participate in the Lunar X Prize and they have until the end of 2016 to sign a contract for a launch.
There are still fifteen teams in the race to the moon want to reach