Intel will invest resources and grant tools, expertise and technologies for SpaceMETA to place 100% Brazil-made robots in lunar soil by 2012

HIGHLIGHT NEWS:
• Intel is the first official sponsor for SpaceMETA, a national enterprise aimed at placing an unmanned vehicle on the lunar surface by the end of 2012.
• The project is part of the Google Lunar XPrize competition, which will reward the first private initiative capable of placing a functional lunar module on Earth's satellite
• Three robots equipped with low-energy consumption Intel Atom processors will be sent to the moon until the end of 2012

Intel is the first sponsoring company for SpaceMETA, a national private initiative aimed at placing a unmanned vehicle on the moon’s surface until the end of 2012. The initiative aims to earn the reward of US$30 million offered by Google and XPrize Foundation to stimulate innovation and interest of private initiatives regarding space exploration. Intel, global leader in innovation, is bringing all of its cutting edge technology and expertise to the Brazilian project.
In order to win the award offered by the competition, the Brazilian module must be capable of performing some activities on lunar soil: the module will need to move across a distance of at least 500 meters and send a high resolution video back to Earth. The Brazilian project, headed by entrepreneur Sérgio Cabral Cavalcanti, is betting on cutting edge technology, non-pollutant and 100% designed in Brazil.

“At Intel, we live in an environment that is driven by innovation and breaking paradigms. One of our goals is to encourage people to think about the future and make it real", explains Max Leite, Global Director of Intel's Emerging Market Platform Group and member of the SpaceMETA board. “We joined this enterprise because we trust Brazil's capability to innovate and solve big problems. The country also has the opportunity to position itself in the vanguard of space exploration, an area that brings many challenges, but also countless promises in the science field”.

Intel is participating in the project with financial support and also with next generation expertise and technologies. The three lunar modules that SpaceMETA is planning on sending to the moon will be powered by Intel® Atom™ processors with very low energy consumption - important for the success of the mission, which will rely on solar panels to work during the trip and on the lunar surface.

Intel’s technology will also be used during the whole travel simulation process, leveraging the high performance offered by the Intel® Xeon™ processors. The necessary simulations to calculate all the factors involved in the launch, travel and landing of the lunar module demand huge calculation capability - at some points demanding at least 140 servers working in parallel to execute all the mathematical operations and ensure the enterprise's success. The new graphic capabilities in the new generation of Intel processors will also offer advantages to the project.

“Intel’s cutting edge technology offers Brazil a key advantage in this competition”, explains Sérgio Cabral, from SpaceMETA. “Using the latest in processing technologies for our simulations and mission control, we plan on placing the country in a prominent position in the international scientific community, providing new opportunities for the diffusion of innovative ideas born in national soil".