Google Lunar X Prize

[Tech2]

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth.

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Ideas and technical discussions are welcome on this thread.

[Tech2]

Although the Google Lunar X prize is indeed a major challenge, it would have made more sense to me to include the step of launching from earth to escape velocity. The largest obstacle in getting a vehicle to the moon including launch from earth is the energy required. What makes the problem even harder is that carrying the large amount of fuel requires even more fuel. That's why conventional rockets are the height of tall buildings - an impracticality for a privately funded project. It seems to me that a centrifugal launcher may provide a solution. A centrifugal launcher swings a projectile (the lunar lander in this case) around on a cable, rotating faster and faster until the projectile is released at the desired velocity (at exactly the right time). The advantage is that the fuel can be stored at the center hub and not in the projectile. Keeping the centrifugal launcher on the ground solves the fuel-weight problem but is impractical due to air friction. But what if the centrifugal launcher is launched on a rocket just high enough to get to an altitude where air density is minimal. The lunar lander projectile would then be reeled out on a thin long carbon fiber cable and then swung to escape velocity and released towards the moon. The projectile would need to carry only enough fuel to land on the moon.

First, someone should create a prize for getting anything into orbit around the earth.

[Magnum]

Actually the easiest way to get small things into orbit is to drop it from a high altitude plane and use a booster rocket to get it into orbit. That will significantly reduce fuel and therefore weight. Also, by using a antimater engine or nuclear type engine you would not need that much fuel once in space to reach the moon or mars.