IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2017 - 8

moon express (United States)
Launch vehicle: Rocket Lab electron
the XPrize is only part of the plan for
moon express, which aims to build a business
around lunar resources. It plans a series of
launches with the new electron rocket.
moon express aims to use its lunar lander's
thrusters to "hop" to the finish.

hakuto (Japan)
Launch vehicle:
Indian Space
Research
organization PSLV-XL
After losing its original
ride with competitor
Astrobotic, which
withdrew from the race,
hakuto found a new
berth with teamIndus.

teamIndus (India)
Launch vehicle: Indian Space
Research organization PSLV-XL
Bangalore-based teamIndus is
targeting a launch in late December
aboard a workhorse rocket operated
by India's space agency. the team's
lander will deploy a small rover
weighing roughly 5 kilograms.

SpaceIL (Israel)
Launch vehicle: SpaceX Falcon 9
the only nonprofit in the mix, SpaceIL
aims to give Israel an "Apollo moment."
After landing, the team's spacecraft will
use its thrusters to take off again and
hop along the surface.

Synergy moon (International)

will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 to get off the
ground. Bangalore-based TeamIndus
has secured a berth on a Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (the PSLV-XL), operated
by the Indian Space Research Organization. TeamIndus will carry a rover from
Japanese competitor Hakuto with it.
The two other finalists have placed
their bets on untried prospects, firms
that are aiming for low-cost launches that,
as of press time, have yet to reach orbit.
The international team Synergy Moon's
ride is with Interorbital Systems, a
California-based firm developing modular launch vehicles. And Moon Express,
a U.S. team building a business in lunar
resources development, has penned a
three-launch agreement with Rocket
Lab, based in the United States and New
Zealand. The company has a two-stage

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launch vehicle called Electron that's
designed for small payloads. Rocket Lab
says it hopes to start orbital test launches
of Electron soon.
The tea m s a re t a k i ng d i f ferent
approaches to fulf illing the prize
requirements. Some are building rovers to traverse the requisite 500 meters.
Others hope to use their lunar landers
to cross the distance, by firing thrusters to make a "hop." In the coming year,
Gonzales-Mowrer says, teams will work
closely with the XPrize organization to
determine how judges will affirm that
prize requirements have been met.
But the first step is getting off the
ground, and it could be a tight race
to leave the launchpad by the end of
the year. So far, only TeamIndus has
announced a specific launch date:

SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG

Synergy moon plans to use a new
launch vehicle to send it directly
into a lunar trajectory from earth's
surface, without stopping off in earth
orbit. the team is aiming for another
moon mission this year; both will
carry one rover.

28 December, just three days shy of
the deadline. "The teams are under
a considerable amount of pressure,"
Gonzales-Mowrer says, and there are no
plans at present to extend the deadline.
The Google Lunar XPrize has already
been extended multiple times, most
recently from 2015 to 2016 and then
again to the end of this year. The extensions have helped teams handle what
has turned out to be one of the most difficult aspects of the competition: raising
the money. "Funding has been a chal-

CloCkwisE froM top lEft: Moon ExprEss; tEaMindus; synErgy Moon; spaCEil; Hakuto

Launch vehicle:
Interorbital Systems neptune 8
http://SPECTRUM.IEEE.ORG
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2017
