Google Lunar X PRIZE Complete Teams RSS Feed

Lunar Excavator Development

Astrobotic — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:09:55 -0700

In this video, PhD student Krzysztof Skonieczny discusses his work on the bucket-wheel for the lunar excavator robot, designing robots for the lunar environment, and the future of space exploration.

Space Transportation And Our Future In Exploration

Michael Paul — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:36:46 -0700

With the recent failure of a Russian rocket to deliver cargo and supplies to the International Space Station, there has been talk that the ISS may need to be unattended for a while. It would be the first time in over 10 years that there would be no human beings in orbit. This could be a moment for pessimism and speculation that space exploration and space travel just can't work.

I, however, believe that this is a moment of opportunity. A moment to be seized and built upon, to push forward and make great things happen. I hope that the companies that are working under NASA's COTS contract to develop space transportation systems are looking at this gap in cargo and personnel deliver coverage as the key moment in their evolution. I hope that they ably fill that gap and propel us forward into the next stage in space exploration. Space X, the most visible of these companies, is slated to execute an ambitious mission in November (http://www.spacex.com/updates.php), planning to send their Dragon spacecraft to the ISS for the first time.

Onward and upward!

Festival of the Arts, Discovery Space and the Lunar Lion

Michael Paul — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:24:29 -0700

Every summer, thousands descend upon State College, PA for the Festival of the Arts. The Lunar Lion was presented to school-aged children at the newly-opened Discovery Space Children's Museum (http://www.mydiscoveryspace.org/site/default.aspx?PageID=1).

Fans of the Lunar Lion extended beyond the science museum to include artist Peter Saenger. Check out his out of this world designs: http://saengerporcelain.com/work/?id=g1r2c2a.html.

Learn more about this yearly summer event and the Lunar Lion in the video below!

Students testing landing system prototype

Michael Paul — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:16:34 -0700

Lehigh University has partnered with Penn State's Lunar Lion team to work on the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) aspects of the Lunar Lion Spacecraft. Two Lehigh graduate students, Andrew Abraham and Evan Mucasey, have been working on a "Hopper Spacecraft Simulator" to act as a test bead for the GNC algorithms they are developing. The simulator uses four ducted fans (electrically driven) to produce thrust and has recently completed the initial tests of its control system.

Euroluna fully compliant with the Master Team Agreement

Euroluna — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:54:49 -0700

GLXP has informed Euroluna that we are fully compliant with the Master Team Agreement, and we are very happy with that communications! :)

Moon Express @ SeaFair - I'm on a Boat!

Moon Express — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:14:51 -0700

We have an incredibly hard working team at Moon Express who pulled us through some tough challenges over the last few months. There were many days that just didn't end... but it all paid off with a number of successful technical milestones, including the delivery of our Mini-Radar data package to NASA, a demonstration of the International Lunar Observatory precursor prototype, and our first free flights of the Lander Test Vehicle, sporting new hardware and software developed by our Moon Express engineers in collaboration with NASA.

To celebrate, we were able to fly most of the company up to Seattle on August 5th to enjoy the amazing 'SeaFair' boat and air show aboard our chairman's yacht (thank you Naveen & Anu!). With hydroplanes racing around us and Blue Angels screaming by unnervingly close, the team was able to let off some steam and have some fun together.

We have amazing people at Moon Express, all exceptionally talented and motivated individuals with diverse and interesting backgrounds... who we will tell you more about in future webisodes of the Moon Express story.

They are also a lot of fun, as you'll see in this video capturing some of the lighter moments of that extremely memorable day on Lake Washington...

View the Photo Album

Response to The Launch Pad blog post “About the MTA . .”

MAGiC — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 21:28:17 -0700

Response to The Launch Pad blog post “About the MTA . .”

It is most unfortunate that the X PRIZE Foundation (“XPF”) continues to ignore addressing the “legally binding” Master Team Agreement (“MTA”) issues and obviously intends to continue to write blog posts that are little more than a ‘smoke screen’ to hide behind.

“Before I get into some specifics, it’s worth addressing why we have an MTA. In a nutshell, it is to define what needs to be done to win the competition(s) and to provide a legal framework for that.”
(http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2011/08/about-mta.html#disqus_thread)

The facts of the matter are that the MTA is nothing more than a one-sided “legal framework” to benefit the X PRIZE Foundation and Google while placing an unreasonable burden on the teams. The agreement is egregiously one-sided, overly burdensome, oppressive and unconscionable. Consequently, the X PRIZE Foundation (and Google) refuses to address the following issues:

1. The X PRIZE Foundation (and Google) are in BREACH of the “legally binding” MTA Version 3.0.
2. The Media and Intellectual Property Rights requirements are unconscionable.
3. Exhibit B (and other ridiculous requirements) are extremely oppressive, overly burdensome and totally unnecessary to achieve the TRUE goals and objectives of the competition.
4. There exists a serious “Conflict of Interest” issue with the Trustees of the Board, employees and incestuous long-term relationships with the X PRIZE Foundation.
5. The Dispute Resolution process (Version 3.0 MTA Exhibit A Section 9) is totally without merit.
6. The MTA is full of “caveats” that allow XPF the “option” to “at its discretion” make “decisions” that are “not-so-black-and-white.”
7. The unprofessional, unethical and bad faith behavior of the management and employees of the X PRIZE Foundation needs to stop.

Apparently, the statement that “MTA version 3.0 is legally binding” is invalid since the X PRIZE Foundation refuses to acknowledge their breaches much less “take corrective action to come into compliance with the requirements” as they require of the teams they accuse of being noncompliant with the “legally binding” MTA. In other words, XPF continues to threaten the teams with the language from the very same agreement they are in breach. You cannot enforce a one-sided agreement against the teams that you yourself refuse to comply with - this is hypocrisy!

Moreover, to have Alex Hall, with her limited background, address such issues as the authority on the matter can only indicate that the leadership (that has been involved since Day 1) chooses to hide behind “the new kid on the block.” Alex rightfully admits that she has little knowledge or experience with the issues by stating that she has “heard a great deal about the Master Team Agreement” – which merely amounts to hearsay.

In fact, at least one of the original teams decided to withdraw from the competition directly following the first Team Summit because the “leadership” refused to address issues raised by the teams. During an open forum discussion regarding the MTA, including Peter Diamandis, Bob Weiss and Gregg Maryniak, the team representative came right out and asked if the leadership cared whether teams will be forced to withdraw because the X PRIZE Foundation refuses to address their issues? The answer given was NO. Therefore, the X PRIZE Foundation has been ignoring these issues since the very first Team Summit and continues to delay, deflect, derail, deny and dismiss the issues “out of hand” (these are common legal tactics used to ignore the matter completely). That team was one of the first to enter the competition and the FIRST to exit because of the MTA (the team only lasted a few months). This situation is very disappointing because the leader of that team is one of the iconic historic figures of the space industry. At least they were smart enough to figure out the true intent of XPF and got out before investing a great deal of time, energy and MONEY. This should have been an immediate ‘red flag’ as to the real intent of the X PRIZE Foundation and Google. This situation exists today because the X PRIZE Foundation continues to refuses to negotiate the Terms and Conditions of the Master Team Agreement with the teams.

“Ring Around the Rosy”

Furthermore, we can never get an honest answer from either the X PRIZE Foundation or Google as to the source of many of these ridiculous requirements. The X PRIZE Foundation has often stated that they flow from their agreement with Google but refuses to share that agreement with the teams. And recently, Google has also side stepped the issues by refusing to reply when asked this very question. Yet again, Alex Hall, senior director of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, points the finger at Google as being the originator of the requirements:

“All of these items, which are in the agreement between Google and X PRIZE, were the basis behind the requirements that have then been put into the MTA that teams have to sign up to in order to participate in this prize.”
(http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2011/08/about-mta.html#disqus_thread)

Meanwhile, Tiffany Montague, director of space initiatives for Google, publically makes a vague and ambiguous statement while refusing to answer the question altogether:

“Montague added that the MTA was an agreement between X Prize Foundation and the teams. I asked her whether controlling the IP and media rights was a condition of Google funding the prize, a question she did not answer.”
(http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/08/09/will-lunar-competitors-forego-the...)

Therefore, the X PRIZE Foundation and Google continues to play “Ring Around the Rosy” with the teams regarding these matters. It is very obvious that after nearly 4 years neither entity intends to address the issues but rather will continue their legal tactics to “bully” the teams and attempt to force these requirements down their throat.

“Rocket Full of Phonies”

Here is another quote that exemplifies the fact that the X PRIZE Foundation can “at its discretion” control who will be “terminated” from the competition and who “has the option” to continue to participate. Does this really sound “unintentional”? Does anyone really believe that exceptions will not continue? Well, after all, we are all being assured that these actions will not be biased … (lol – Hint: just check out Moon Express’ compliance to the “legally binding” MTA Exhibit A Section 6.3.2 BLOGGING AND VIDEO).

“If after two such chances, the team is still out of compliance, then the X PRIZE Foundation has the option to terminate, or it may, at its discretion, continue to explore both why the team is out of compliance and whether it intends to come back into compliance. Occasionally, there are very valid reasons (serious illness or legal issues, for example) that make such decisions not-so-black-and-white as to whether to terminate.” http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2011/08/about-mta.html#disqus_thread)

Finally, at the end of the blog post, we are being told that the MTA is not really a “legally binding” agreement because “the X PRIZE Foundation has the option … at its discretion … [to] make such decisions not-so-black-and-white.” (This sounds even worse than the ‘small print’ on a legal document – it’s obviously the grey space between the ‘not-so-black-and-white’ print.) Moreover, the justification given for making such discretionary decisions is “there are very valid reasons (serious illness or legal issues, for example).” Does this really sound like a valid “legally binding” agreement or a gigantic legal “loop-hole” that the X PRIZE Foundation can invoke and exploit “at its discretion”? So, I suppose that one may only need a “very valid” excuse like “the dog ate my blog post” or perhaps a note from mommy saying “Please excuse little Bobby for not doing his blog posts. He’s been sick as of late.” Who exactly determines whether it’s a “very valid reason”? You guessed it – the X PRIZE Foundation.

We have now come full circle from the opening comments of the blog post that the “legally binding” MTA is required “to define what needs to be done to win the competition(s) and to provide a legal framework for that” to the statement that its “not-so-black-and-white.” So, which is it Alex?

“Ashes, Ashes, We ALL Fall Down!”

Mystical Moon

PS Please excuse the fact that this week’s blog post is a bit later than usual. We were unable to log into the website and then became delayed by a more serious situation - Hurricane Irene.

Astrobotic Featured in Link Magazine Cover Article

Astrobotic — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:28:00 -0700

Astrobotic has been featured in the cover article of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science magazine The Link. The mission and several CMU student team members are profiled.

Astrobotic's Race to the Moon

45 Years Ago the First Photo of Earth from Deep Space....

OM WebMaster — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 03:44:23 -0700

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/nasas-photo-of-the-earth-from-d...

Saturday Update

RubenNunez — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 09:09:35 -0700

Its been an eventful week at the Earthrise Space, Inc. offices.
Classes started again for a few members of the team, which cut into the time available for work. This provides the perfect opportunity over the coming weeks to engage new students on the project.
Additionally, most of the team has been continuing work on their separate projects.

Matt Fogel is spending his time researching other battery options to optimize the power system for our lander and rover. Alberto Bird has been working on the communications subsystems. Brian Zollman is working on figuring out what space qualifying the COTS equipment, especially the electronic subsystems, will entail. Donnie Durm is working the navigation system for the rover, focusing on ease of use of the controls. Marvin Tsoi is keeping the team focused on their work in addition to working on the suspension design for the rover, Sagan.

Stay tuned...
Brian Zollman