May 5 2006
From The Space Library
At the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana L. Dale announced NASA’s sponsorship of the Lunar Lander Challenge competition, with prizes totaling US$2.5 million, to develop rockets capable of landing on the Moon. The X Prize Foundation would manage the competition and award the Lunar Lander Challenge prizes at the presentation of the X Prize Cup in October 2006. The challenge would have two levels of difficulty, with prizes awarded at each level. Level 1 would require a vehicle to take off from a designated launch area, rocket to an altitude of 150 feet (50 meters), hover for 90 seconds, and land on a pad 100 meters (320.08 feet) from the launch point. Level 2 would require the same launch altitude and the same distance between launch and landing pad, but the rocket would have to hover for 180 seconds and to land on a rocky site simulating the lunar surface. California entrepreneur Peter H. Diamandis, founder of the X Prize competition, stated that “entrepreneurial companies can build the lunar space ships [necessary for achieving NASA’s goal of returning people to the Moon in the next decade], and a Lunar Lander Challenge can stimulate the required technology in an efficient and rapid fashion.”
Maggie McKee, “Lunar Lander Is NASA’s Biggest Challenge,” New Scientist, 5 May 2006; X Prize Foundation, “X Prize Foundation and NASA Offer $2.5 Million Lunar Lander Challenge Competition To Take Place at ’06 X Prize Cup in Las Cruces,” 4 May 2006, http://www.xprize.org/llc/press-release/x-prize-foundation-and-nasa-offer-2-5-million-lunar-challenge-competition-t (accessed 23 March 2010).
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