Pomerantz on Lunar X PRIZE Guidelines 2.0

Will Pomerantz has 2 blog posts today related to the Google Lunar X PRIZE. From the posts, you can expect a lot more in the next few days from an upcoming GLXP event and the ISDC.

Je suis arrivée! - Will arrives at the ISU, where the first Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit is going to take place May 20-21.

New Google Lunar X PRIZE Guidelines Released - I'm skimming through the guidelines now; I'm not sure if I ever had a look at the "official" first draft of the rules. Will shows you where you can get a copy, and also posts a cover letter that highlights changes in the rules. One major change deals with payload mass: payload can be split in a lander/rover scenario, and very lightweight systems don't need to carry as much payload. Another big change deals with media rights. The Foundation plans to hire a media agency of some sort to deal with TV and other media. Resulting income helps cover XPF expenses to run the competition. However,

The XPF will share and distribute the revenue from these media sales with the teams. The Grand Prize winner will be entitled to the largest single share of any net revenue. If there is a Second Place winner, that Team will also earn a significant share of the revenues. A portion of the remaining funds will be split between the other registered Teams, who, though they haven’t won, will have added to the overall value and quality of the competition. The media revenue share formula is still being developed and will be released soon.

Here are a couple snippets from the Guidelines themselves. It's 24 pages, so please download them and check them out if you want to know about them. This is just a tiny peek. Both snippets involve possible, do-not-count-on-it additional revenue for teams. First:

Purse values and Mooncast Requirements shall be assigned to each Bonus Prize no later than January 1, 2009, though new Bonuses may be subsequently offered.

Second (this could be cool if it involves milestones that are useful as products in and of themselves, and/or involve public demos at venues like the X PRIZE Cup):

XPF is seeking to develop an investment pool from which TEAMs could earn small cash payments by participating in or completing XPF-designated Demonstrations or Milestones.