According to the Google Lunar XPrize website, “The mission of the Google Lunar XPrize is to incentivize space entrepreneurs to create a new era of affordable access to the moon and beyond.” Those competing have until 2016 to announce a launch contract to remain in the competition and must complete their mission by the end of 2017. The Google Lunar XPrize’s goal is to stimulate the kind of innovation that will make space travel an integral part of the lives of ordinary people. Chanda Gonzales, senior director of the Google Lunar X Prize, told CBC, “We wanted the everyday man and woman to know that they could be innovators. They could literally build a spacecraft at their university or in their garages. You don’t have to be NASA.” The contest requires each team to secure at least 90% of its funding from private sources.
SpaceIL seems ready to fly before the contest’s deadline and has inked a crucial deal with Spaceflight Industries, which aims to make a trip to the moon become like flying overseas. While that goal is a long way off, in the nearer term, it has a rocket, the Space X Falcon 9 or the 2017 Sun Synch Express, which is expected to carry 20 satellites into orbit, including SpaceIL’s lunar probe. The probe, which goes by the working name “Sparrow,” is scheduled for a 2017 mission, with a $10 million price tag. The Falcon 9 was designed by business magnate, engineer, inventor and investor Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The challenge faced by SpaceIL is that it must create a kind of hitchiker’s guide to the moon. The unmanned craft will be essentially hitchhiking on the Space X Falcon 9. This means it will be hard to anticipate where the craft’s starting point will be, since it depends entirely on where it will be dropped by the rocket. GPS systems can’t reach outside the Earth’s orbit, and a completely new navigation system is being created to allow the spacecraft to position itself properly. Damari said, “The only part that is really complicated and really new is the landing.”
SpaceIL looks likely to edge out the competition and complete the first private moon landing. Previously, only the US, the former Soviet Union and China have successfully launched spacecraft to the moon. SpaceIL’s closest rival in the current moon race is US company Moon Express, but its partner, Rocket Labs, has not yet tested its electron rocket and does not have a set launch schedule. There are a total of sixteen teams competing for the prize, including several from the United States, and teams from Brazil, India, Japan, Germany, Hungary, Malaysia, Italy, Canada, and Chile, as well as multi-national efforts. The other teams have until December 2016 to announce contracts, and SpaceIL’s deal with the rideshare company might spur others into action.
At a press conference, Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin, Bob Weiss, vice chairman and president of the XPrize, and SpaceIL CEO Eran Privman announced a “ticket to the moon” with the pairing up of SpacIL’s lunar probe and the Space X Falcon 9 Launcher. Bob Weiss said, “We are proud to officially confirm receipt and verification of SpaceIL’s launch contract, positioning them as the first and only Google Lunar XPrize team to demonstrate this important achievement thus far. The magnitude of this achievement cannot be overstated, representing an unprecedented and monumental commitment for a privately funded organization … the new space race is on!”
Eran Privman said, “Now the notion of the small state of Israel being added to this exclusive list looks more promising than ever. Last year, we made significant strides toward landing on the moon, both in terms of financing and in terms of the engineering design, and now we are thrilled to finally secure our launch agreement.”