A modern-day race to the moon in the making for years, now in the final stretch

[Buster's Uncle]

A modern-day race to the moon has been in the making for years, and now it's in the final stretch
Business Imsider
Mark R. Whittington, Contributor  Mar. 8, 2017, 7:35 AM



Elon Musk. Francois Mori/AP



A real lunar race that has been in the making for years is now in the final stretch.

The Google Lunar XPrize Foundation recently announced five final teams that will compete for the honor of being the first private group to land on the moon — and a $20 million prize.

The Google Lunar XPrize is more than pronouncements by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. It will prove the utility of commercial lunar exploration.

Sometime before the end of 2017, one or more of the final five groups will shoot for the moon. The Final Five are Moon Express, SpaceIl, Synergy Moon, Team Indus, and Team Hakuto.

All the winning team has to do to gain the prize is to cross a quarter of a million miles of space, soft land on the lunar surface, return high resolution videos and images to Earth, and move 500 meters from the landing site.

For a national space agency, such would be a minor accomplishment. For a small, private group, it would be a feat that would compare to the Apollo moon landing.

The Google Lunar XPrize race to the moon lacks the media drama that the Apollo program enjoyed, at least so far. Moon Race 2.0 is not a contest between two superpowers with immense stakes in the Cold War in the balance.



Neil Armstrong, waving in front, heads for the van that will take the crew to the rocket for launch to the moon on July 16, 1969. AP


The new race to the moon seeks to prove that a private group can land on the lunar surface and do useful things at a fraction of the cost that a government space agency can manage. The competitors do not come from enemy countries, either. SpaceIl, Team Indus, and Team Hakuto are based in Israel, India, and Japan, respectively. All are friends of the United States.

The private race to the moon will have an impact on what government space agencies do. The [Sleezebag] administration is mulling pivoting NASA back to the moon.

If and when that happens, the space agency will have an asset that it lacked in the 1960s when it last went to the moon: commercial space companies like Moon Express, its main American rival Astrobotic, and rocket firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Jim Bridenstine, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma, is the frontrunner to be NASA administrator, a job he has signaled that he would like to be nominated for.



Jim Bridenstine, a Republican congressman from Oklahoma, is the frontrunner to be NASA administrator. He recently laid out a plan to return to the moon. Sue Ogrocki/AP


He recently laid out what a return to the moon program might look like. It would include the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System and a commercially developed lunar lander. Thus, the old-style NASA that landed men on the moon almost 50 years ago will ally with the new space commercial companies planning landings on the lunar surface this year.

 Bridenstine agrees with a number of space experts, such as Dr. Paul Spudis, that the key incentive for going back to the moon is water.

The lunar poles have billions of tons of ice trapped in darkened areas of craters. The ice can be refined into liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the components of rocket fuel.

Lunar-refined rocket fuel can not only be used as a propellant for spacecraft headed to deep space destinations such as Mars but also for maintaining a new generation of satellites that can be refueled and maintained to lengthen their operational lifespans.



At least one of the competitors in the Google Lunar XPrize, Moon Express, aspires to mine the moon for its resources, including its water. Tor Wennstrom/AP
 

NASA should start an undertaking like the commercial crew program. Call it the lunar crew program.

Just as the commercial crew endeavor has resulted in the development of government-funded but privately-run spacecraft, such as the SpaceX Dragon and Boeing Starliner, lunar crew could develop moon landers that could take people and cargo to the lunar surface.

The Google Lunar XPrize would be the proof of that concept. Blue Origins' Jeff Bezos has already suggested that his company stands ready for such an effort if NASA gives the go ahead.

Sometime shortly, an event could happen on the surface of the moon that has not been witnessed in decades. A human being from the planet Earth could put a footprint in the lunar soil in full view of billions watching on television and via Internet streaming.

A few years later, a new community could rise on the surface of the moon, a center of science and commerce, for the benefit of humankind, ushering in a new space age.


http://www.businessinsider.com/google-lunar-xprize-the-modern-race-to-the-moon-is-in-the-final-stretch-2017-3