Space prize confidential

Published: May 15, 2006
Source: www.thespacereview.com



Earlier this month NASA announced its first multimillion-dollar prize competition, the Lunar Lander Analog Challenge, in cooperation with the X Prize Foundation. Robin Snelson goes beyond the highlights of the announcement to see which companies plan to compete and the issues they have already encountered.

NASA unveiled its biggest and best space prize ever ten days ago, at the National Space Society’s biggest citizen space event ever, ISDC 2006 in Los Angeles. NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale announced the space agency’s contribution of $2 million in prize money to the Lunar Lander Analog Challenge. The competition will be managed by the X Prize Foundation and first staged at X Prize Cup 2006 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The X Prize press release handed out after the announcement spoke of a richer pot: “X Prize Foundation and NASA offer $2.5 million Lunar Lander Challenge.”continue..