Recently, I had an opportunity to present an overview of the Lunar Lion project in front of a local Boy Scout chapter troop #32. Along with an outline of our mission, I showed them the highlight video of SpaceX's Dragon capsule launch on the Falcon 9 from last December. It demonstrated some key parts of spaceflight like stage separation and orbital maneuvers that I was explaining to them. It also drove the point home that only a tiny part of the rocket you see on the launch pad actually makes it into space. Naturally, for a lunar mission, the fraction that actually lands on the moon is correspondingly even lower.

More than one parent told me afterwards how amazed they were at the kids' attention spans during the presentation. It only shows how much the Google Lunar X Prize competition can really captivate the younger generation and how exciting it is for them. Of particular note is the one boy's question and reaction about whether we would be showing our landing in real time. He was really excited that we will be broadcasting as fast as possible! When launch day and then landing day finally comes, I think millions of children and adults alike around the world will cheering right along with us.