Astrobotic Technology

The two competing lunar robots, Astrobotic top, Hakuto bottom

Google’s Lunar XPrize competition, to be the first team to take a robot to the moon, looks like it will come down to a head-to-head race between two competing robots–one American, one Japanese.

While five teams were awarded prizes for achieving key milestones along the way to the final goal, two of the robots appear set to get there first, jointly commissioning the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to carry them to the moon in the second half of 2016, with a race across the lunar surface determining the winner … 
Expand
Expanding
Close

The Google Lunar Xprize contest has the final goal of taking a robot to the moon, but it’s not just going to lay out the entire $30 million in prizes on one day. Today, Google and Xprize announced five companies that are sharing a total of $5.25 million for reaching milestones in three categories of achievement.

Expand
Expanding
Close