[NASA Press Release - 25.08.2008]
NASA's Regolith Excavation Challenge is scheduled for Aug. 2-3, 2008, on the campus of the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. The competition requires teams to build a roving excavator that can autonomously navigate, excavate, and transfer approximately 330 pounds of simulated lunar regolith, or lunar soil, into a collector bin within 30 minutes. The total prize purse is $750,000 with a first prize of $500,000.
Centennial Challenge
Robotic Moon Excavation Teams Compete for NASA Technology Prize
X PRIZE Foundation Announces 2008 Lunar Lander Challenge
[X Prize Press Release - 06.06.2008]
The X PRIZE Foundation today announced that the 2008 Lunar Lander Challenge will take place at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, October 24-25, 2008. This year’s competition will be webcast online; the public can follow the action at the X PRIZE Foundation website www.xprize.org.
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, said, “We are excited about going back to Holloman Air Force Base to conduct the Lunar Lander Challenge this year. We are thankful for the continued support from the state of New Mexico for private spaceflight. The Lunar Lander Challenge is a perfect showcase for the talent and innovation coming from the entrepreneurs who will eventually fly from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. Lunar Lander Challenge teams are ready to fly and we are confident that this is the year someone will win the competition.”
NASA Offers $2 Million Lunar Lander Competition Prize
[NASA Press Release - 24.10.2007]
During the X PRIZE Cup Oct. 27-28, NASA's Centennial Challenges Program will offer prizes totaling $2 million if competing teams successfully meet the requirements of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The challenge will take place at Holloman Air Force Base, in Alamogordo, N.M.
The purpose of the lunar lander challenge is to accelerate technology development leading to a commercial vehicle that could one day be capable of ferrying cargo or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the moon's surface.
X PRIZE Foundation Announces Competitors for Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge
[X-Price press release - 20.06.2007]
A real rocket race is on the horizon with the return of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NG-LLC), the centerpiece of the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup and Holloman Air and Space Expo. In the Challenge's second year, the number of teams competing for the $2 million purse has increased from four teams to nine. The NG-LLC, sponsored by NASA's Centennial Challenges Program, is designed to accelerate commercial development of technology that can ferry cargo and humans between the moon's surface and lunar orbit.
NASA's Centennial Challenge to Excavate Moon Dirt Set for May 12
[04.05.2007 - NASA Press Release]
On Saturday, May 12, teams from around the nation will compete for a total of $250,000 from NASA for an autonomously operating system to excavate simulated "lunar regolith," or the moon's soil. The Regolith Excavation Challenge, one of NASA's seven Centennial Challenges, will take place at the Santa Maria Fairpark, Santa Maria, Calif. The competition on May 12 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
