Over at Unreasonable Rocket, Paul Breed points out a potential conflict-of-interest regarding the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge:
“The basic problem is this: The LLC is supposed to be an impartial contest, yet you have the head of the Xprize, Peter [Diamandis] on video telling John Carmack that they will expedite the 2009 contest so Armadillo does not have to wait a full year to win the prize. That was an astonishingly ill conceived video. Peter has a personal business relationship with Armadillo, so even if there are a million legitimate reasons to accelerate the contest and change its format, that one video could be used by anyone with an axe to grind to trash both the concept of government prizes and the xprize organization in particular.”
Continue reading ‘Will Diamandis Expedite 2009 Lunar Lander Challenge to Help Business Partner Armadillo?’
Odyssey Moon, one of the competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize, is looking for payloads to fly to the lunar surface. It has issued a request for information “to identify potential payloads and Principal Investigators (PIs) who wish to explore rapid, low-cost lunar flight opportunities.” The payloads must be 15 to 25 kilograms (33 to 55 lbs.)
The company hopes to land its MoonOne spacecraft on the lunar surface in July 2011 in order to claim the $30 million prize. The lander is set to be first of a series of spacecraft the company will send to the Moon.
You can read the full RFI on its website. Odyssey Moon Limited is a private company based in the Isle of Man.
