Friday, August 21, 2009

Prize Roundup: Google Lunar X PRIZE, MoonROx, Space Entrepreneur Meetings

There's lots about the Google Lunar X PRIZE for today's roundup:

EVA Interviews Will Pomerantz - EVA Interviews

EVA Interviews Will Pomerantz about the Google Lunar X PRIZE - Out of the Cradle - This is the actual intervew. According to the interview, we can expect interviews of the Google Lunar X PRIZE teams, too!

Interview with SpaceFellowship.com - White Label Space on the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

@ARCAspace - Everybody from Romania, behold: http://www.arcalunar.com/, our new website describing our Google Lunar X Prize mission. English version soon:)

@OmegaEnvoy - just had a great meeting with the UCF Venture Lab to help with our business model. http://www.venturelab.ucf.edu/

@odysseymoon - resend] Odyssey Moon Chief Scientist Paul Spudis leads LRO, Chandrayaan-1 search 4 lunar water 2day http://bit.ly/3UiK8o

It's all about the $$FUNDING$$ and Recent interview with Space Fellowship - LunaTrex on the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

Moon Base One – Base Camp – Sundown - Micro-Space on the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

Here are a few items to round out the roundup:

@Pomerantz - Some #NGLLC news coming down the pipeline soon (e.g. next couple of days). Stay tuned, #NASA and #newspace fans!

First Meeting of Suborbital Researchers Group Focuses on Innovative Research & Education Missions - Commercial Spaceflight Federation - Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams are mentioned.

@PeterDiamandis - just arrived in DC on redeye. meetings for X PRIZE and Space Adventures board meeting.

having dinner with Eric Anderson, Richard Garriott and Robert Walker in DC.

@RichardGarriott - @Space Adventures BOD meeting. The future of Private Spaceflight looks bright!

@ec_anderson - About to have dinner with @peterdiamandis and @richardgarriott should be fun!

From the NASA Centennial Challenges history page:

Lunar Oxygen Production or MoonROx - Now Expired ... This first-to-demonstrate challenge expired on June 1, 2009 with no winner. The challenge had been extended by an additional year in 2008.
That's unfortunate, because ISRU of all sorts is an important "force multiplier" for ambitious space ventures. However, it does raise the question of what happens to the funds that were set aside for the MoonROx Challenge prize.