Google Lunar XPIRE is competition started by Google to send private rovers on the Moon. As the deadline is looming, will the German XPIRE team make it to launch day?
Google Lunar XPIRE is a space competition where a privately-funded team must successfully land a spacecraft on the lunar surface, travel five hundred meters on the Moon, and transmit high-definition images and videos back to Earth. The first team to do this will win the twenty million grand prize while the second team will get the five million prize. A bonus prize of five million dollars will be awarded based on the extra lunar milestones the XPIRE team accomplishes.
The space competition was first announced last September 2007. The deadline for the verification of contracts for space launch was pushed four times with the final deadline this coming December 30, 2016. Out of sixteen teams in the competition, three teams have successfully gotten a space launch contract for 2017.
One of the remaining teams in the competition, the German XPIRE recently announced that their space contract is in the process of verification and validation from the XPIRE foundation. The German XPIRE team, PT Scientists, besides aiming to win the grand prize in the Google Lunar XPIRE competition, aims to explore the Apollo 17 lunar rover.
The German XPIRE started as part-time scientists joining the competition thus the name PT Scientists. But now, instead of a team of part-time scientists, the German XPIRE team is now composed of twelve full-time employees. Automaker Audi has even become a major sponsor to PT Scientists.
PT Scientists have developed the Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module (ALINA) lander. But with the help of a team from Audi, the ALINA lander has been further improved and is now called the Audi Lunar Quattro rover.
The Audi Lunar Quattro rover boasts an adjustable solar panel for energy which will be stored through a lithium ion-battery. The energy powers the four electric wheels on the rover which has a theoretical maximum speed of 3.6 km/h. It has two stereoscopic cameras and a scientific camera to study the lunar surface.
The German XPIRE team aims to explore the Apollo 17 heritage site particularly the Apollo 17 lunar rover to check what the lunar rover endured in its long stay on the Moon. PT Scientists will also attempt to grow a plant on the lunar surface and the test the lunar soil for future use in 3D printing technology. In the future, PT Scientists aims to send their rover to Phobos, one of Mars' moon for exploration.
