Wednesday, December 17, 2014

XPRIZE Extends Deadline for Google Lunar XPRIZE To 2016

Los Angeles-based XPRIZE, which runs a series of multi-million dollar challenges aimed at helping to advance technology innovation, said yesterday that it has extended the deadline for the Google Lunar XPRIZE to the end of 2016. XPRIZE said the deadline for documenting a scheduled launch is now December 31, 2015, for teams to move forward in the competition. The Google Lunar XPRIZE is dangling $30M to the team that is able to successfully place a robot on the moon's surface, which explores at least 500 meters of the moon, and transmits high definition video and images back to earth. The purpose of the competition is to help advance technology and develop low-cost methods for robotic space exploration. XPRIZE said it extended the deadline because the goals of the prize are "extremely difficult and unprecedented" both from the technological standpoint and financially.

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