{"id":18337,"date":"2018-10-01T17:03:32","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T09:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origin-and-airbus-back-the-moon-race-a-space-contest-yet-to-be-defined\/"},"modified":"2018-10-01T17:03:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T09:03:32","slug":"blue-origin-and-airbus-back-the-moon-race-a-space-contest-yet-to-be-defined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origin-and-airbus-back-the-moon-race-a-space-contest-yet-to-be-defined\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin and Airbus back \u2018The Moon Race,\u2019 a space contest yet to be defined"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_451887\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-451887\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-451887\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/moonrace1-630x501.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/moonrace1-630x501.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/moonrace1-768x611.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/moonrace1.jpg 898w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-451887\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organizers of \u201cThe Moon Race\u201d and their partners lift a moon-festooned balloon as they unveil their effort at a space conference in Germany. (The Moon Race via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A new nonprofit organization is partnering with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture, Airbus and other heavy-hitters to create a moon-centric prize program known as \u201cThe Moon Race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The contest\u2019s goal is to boost technologies that could contribute to sustainable lunar exploration. A lot of the details, however, are still up in the air&nbsp;\u2014 including exactly what those technologies will be, and how much the prizes will amount to.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s German organizers say more will be revealed next year, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing. Between now and then, they plan to nail down the details in league with Blue Origin and Airbus, as well as the European Space Agency, Mexico\u2019s space agency and Vinci Construction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re excited to be a part of an international collaboration to build a sustained presence on the moon,\u201d Blue Origin said in a tweet about the project. \u201cBlue Moon and New Glenn will help us get back to the moon, and this time to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Moon Race - Introduction\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TXSrYvhIPnM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Blue Moon is Blue Origin\u2019s program to develop a lunar lander, while New Glenn is an orbital-class rocket that could be used to send payloads to the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>The five-year time frame for The Moon Race meshes with Blue Origin\u2019s development schedule. Blue Origin\u2019s executives have said the Blue Moon lander could be in operation by 2023, which is just about when The Moon Race\u2019s organizers envision sending prize-winning payloads to the moon.<\/p>\n<p>Organizers launched their effort at this week\u2019s International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany. They want teams to propose technological challenges for lunar surface operations in time for next year\u2019s IAC meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Suggestions could include constructing the first artifact made from lunar resources, extracting enough water from lunar soil to fill a standard-sized bottle, building a power-generating system capable of lighting up the lunar night, or operating the first lunar greenhouse.<\/p>\n<p>The application period is due to open in early 2019. \u201cDetails on monetary prizes will be announced with the opening of the applications period,\u201d the organizers say.<\/p>\n<p>A rough timeline calls for demonstrating proof-of-concept applications in 2020, testing technologies in a lunar environment in the 2021-2022 time frame, and winning monetary awards as well as rides to the moon in the 2023-2024 time frame.<\/p>\n<p>The effort is reminiscent of the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, which was offered starting in 2007 for teams aiming to put landers on the moon\u2019s surface. Some milestone payments were provided to teams, but no one met this year\u2019s deadline to win the grand prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Organizers of \u201cThe Moon Race\u201d and their partners lift a moon-festooned balloon as they unveil their effort at a space conference in Germany. (The Moon Race via Twitter) A new nonprofit organization is partnering with Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture, Airbus and other heavy-hitters to create a moon-centric prize program known as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[941,509,625,5156],"class_list":["post-18337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus","tag-blue-origin","tag-moon","tag-the-moon-race"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}