Tuesday, October 7, 2008

X PRIZE Foundation Finds Lunar X PRIZE Sponsor

Santa Monica-based nonprofit the X PRIZE Foundation has added another firm as a "preferred partner" for the firm's Google Lunar X PRIZE, the challenge to send a robot to the surface of the moon. According to the X PRIZE Foundation, AGI, a developer of analysis software for the national security and space communities, will offer discounted services to teams competing in its competition. The X PRIZE Foundation is offering $30M to the first, privately-funded team to send a robot on the moon, travel 500 meters, and send data back to Earth. AGI joins Space Exploration Technologies, the SETI Institute, Universal Space Network, and Space Florida as partners in the prize. The Google Lunar X Prize is one of a number of challenge prizes X PRIZE has created for fostering innovation; the group was behind the Ansari X PRIZE, the first private spaceship to reach suborbital spaceflight.

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