Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Two Teams Join Lunar X PRIZE Competition

The Playa Vista-based X PRIZE Foundation has added two new teams for the group's Google Lunar X PRIZE competition, the group said Tuesday. The Google Lunar X PRIZE competition is a $30 million competition to land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. The teams include Euroluna, which is based in Demanrk and Italy, and SELENE, which is from China and Germany. SELENE is the first team from China to compete for the prize, and said that it is looking to use El Segundo-based SpaceX as its launch vehicle. There are currently sixteen teams looking to compete for the prize.