Huntsville, AL, Dec 20, 2012 (ME PR) –

The agreement also allows for the transition of RCSP’s team leader, Tim Pickens, to the role of Moon Express’ chief propulsion engineer. Pickens is an award-winning rocket pioneer and was the lead propulsion designer for Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE in 2004.

In honor of the legacy and incalculable contribution that Huntsville and the State of Alabama have made to the U.S. space program, the Moon Express lander will carry to the surface of the Moon the “Spirit of Alabama” insignia, a historic artifact that will be developed in collaboration with the RCSP partners to be attached to the lander or one of its mobility systems.

Both Moon Express and RCSP/Dynetics were selected by NASA in the fall of 2010 for commercial lunar data contracts worth up to $10 million each. Moon Express and RCSP have been recognized as leading contenders for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE. Both entered the competition in 2010, with RCSP engaging a consortium of highly reputable and experienced partners from the Huntsville area to become one of the most formidable Google Lunar X PRIZE contenders. With the deep technical expertise and contributions of Dynetics and its partners, together with support from the State of Alabama and the notoriety of its team leader, RCSP engaged the hearts and minds of schoolchildren and the public in a substantial STEM outreach program, while advancing its technical plans and developing prototype propulsion systems for its lunar lander.

The Teaming Agreement with Dynetics and acquisition of RCSP adds to Moon Express’ substantial momentum as a leading contender in the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. “The players behind the Rocket City Space Pioneers are true visionaries and entrepreneurs,” said Naveen Jain, Moon Express co-founder and chairman. “We look forward to working with Dynetics and its partners in carrying forward the innovation and vision of the Rocket City Space Pioneers.”

Dr. Marc Bendickson, Dynetics CEO, commented that the teaming with Moon Express is testimony to the hard work and dedication of the RCSP partners. “Dynetics and its partners have made remarkable technical progress with the Rocket City Space Pioneers venture,” he remarked. “We are proud to bring our energy and value to the table with Moon Express in a way that continues our dreams of sending the Spirit of Alabama to the Moon.”

About Moon Express

Selected by Forbes as one of the 15 ‘Names You Need to Know’ in 2011, Moon Express (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company based at the NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley. The company plans to send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development focused on benefits to Earth and has signed a partnership agreement with NASA for development of a lunar lander system.

Moon Express was selected by NASA in 2010 for its $30M Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data program, becoming one of only three US companies to be paid by NASA for access and insight into the company’s commercial lunar plans.

Moon Express is also a leading contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE (Google Lunar X PRIZE) competition, which challenges privately funded teams to place a robot on the Moon’s surface that transmits high definition video, images and data back to Earth from the landing site and from 500 meters away.

The Moon Express founders, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards, Naveen Jain, and Dr. Barney Pell, believe in the long term economic potential of the Moon to produce planetary resources essential to humanity’s future on Earth and in space.

For more information, visit: www.moonexpress.com 

About Dynetics

Dynetics delivers the “Power of Solutions” to government and commercial customers in the areas of intelligence, missiles, aviation, cyber and space. Based in Huntsville, Ala., with offices throughout the United States, Dynetics is a mid-tier company that provides complete lifecycle analysis, engineering and hardware solutions to support customer missions.

For more information visit: www.dynetics.com.

About the Google Lunar X PRIZE

Generously funded by Google, the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented competition to challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters (1/3 of a mile) and transmits high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so will claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. Teams are also eligible to win a $1 million award for stimulating diversity in the field of space exploration and as much as $4 million in bonus prizes for accomplishing additional technical tasks such as moving ten times as far, surviving the frigid lunar night, or visiting the site of a previous lunar mission. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is available to be claimed until the end of 2015. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE and the teams currently registered in the competition visit www.googlelunarxprize.org..

This alliance complements an industrial consortium that is working to make the mission possible during the second half of 2014. Established in 2010 and led by Galactic Suite and ALTRAN, the consortium includes all Spain’s leading space companies (in chronological order of incorporation: CTAE, UPC, GMV, EADS CASA Espacio, Thales Alenia Space Spain and INTA). The team in Spain has already completed a successful study phase. This agreement adds China Great Wall Industry Corporation, a Chinese National corporation commercializing services provided by the Chinese National Institutes.

“Along with the technical agreement, the Chinese contribution to the project provides a vital step forward in securing sponsorship from private companies to finance the launch” stated the Barcelona Moon Team leader Xavier Claramunt. “This allows Spanish sponsors to concentrate on the most important part of the mission: landing on the Moon and complete the rest of the Google Lunar X PRIZE objectives”.

Other consequences of the agreement

The choice of a Chinese launcher for the Barcelona Moon Team has other consequences of great importance to the mission and future capabilities of the Spanish industry. Being strictly forbidden by the USA to launch American security-sensitive technology onboard Chinese launchers, the Spanish mission has been designed not to have American components that may interfere with the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). This regulation is preventing many American companies to bring their products to the market. However, it is already exploited by other international companies, which see a market niche to develop alternative technology to avoid that ban in the satellite construction.

A mission looking at the future

Barcelona Moon Team’s success in this mission will open the door to the Spanish space industry to lead other complex missions in the future. Thus the team has designed its mission to carry up to 25Kg extra payload in addition to the Google Lunar X PRIZE objectives dedicated rover. That extra payload is being offered to commercial and pharmaceutical companies, universities and even the national agencies, which may see in the Spanish mission a test bed for future mission to our satellite.

“The greatest contribution of the Barcelona Moon Team is to offer to the Spanish space industry the opportunity to carry out a highly complex mission, with private funding and national leadership. It represents a training and demonstration mission that will certainly seize a competitive advantage for future missions”, said Claramunt.

Barcelona Moon Team

Is the only Spanish-based team to enter the competition and gathers together private companies, universities and technology centers. The team is led by Galactic Suite Moonrace, a company fostering the low-cost access to space, and Altran, a multinational technological partner. Other members joining the team are, in chronological order, the Aerospace Technology Center (CTAE), based in Barcelona, and the Technical University of Catalonia, contributing with robotics and nanoengineering; and the Madrid based companies GMV, specialized in mission analysis, navigation and onboard control systems, and all elements of the ground segment, and technical leader of the mission; EADS CASA Espacio, the leading  Spanish prime contractor and responsible of the landing platform; THALES ALENIA SPACE España, leading communications company, and the National Aerospace Technology Insitute (INTA), contributing with systems on the rover and landing platform, as well as operational support with the ground stations of Maspalomas and Robledo de Chavela. www.barcelonamoonteam.com

China Great Wall Industry Corporation

Established in 1980, China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) is the sole commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to provide satellites, commercial launch services and to carry out international space cooperation. CGWIC is devoted to the internationalized development of China’s space industry by providing comprehensive solutions for commercial launch services, satellite export, satellite ground tracking and control station construction, satellite applications, project financing, project insurance and technical training, etc. http://www.cgwic.com

Google Lunar X PRIZE

The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented competition to challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters and transmits high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so will claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. Teams are also eligible to win a $1 million award for stimulating diversity in the field of space exploration and as much as $4 million in bonus prizes for accomplishing additional technical tasks such as moving ten times as far, surviving the frigid lunar night, or visiting the site of a previous lunar mission. www.googlelunarxprize.org

X PRIZE Foundation

Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration (Ocean and Deep Space). Prizes won include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private, suborbital space flight; the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe); the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE CHALLENGE for advanced rocket development; and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, and the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE.  www.xprize.org

Elon Musk has made his first appearance on the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires. The 40-year-old entrepreneur has landed at 634 on the list with an estimated net worth of $2 billion.

Musk has developed the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon vehicle to send cargo and crew to the International Space Station. His company, SpaceX, has received money under NASA’s COTS  (for cargo) and CCDev (crew) programs. He is also reported to have invested up to $100 million of his own funds into SpaceX.

In addition to his involvement with SpaceX, Musk is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation, whose space competitions include the Ansari X Prize, the Google Lunar X Prize and the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

The South African-born entrepreneur also runs two other companies, the electric car producer Tesla Motors and SolarCity, which provides solar energy systems.

Developments in these other two businesses are what fueled Musk’s leap onto the Forbes list of billionaires, according to the magazine. Last October, Forbes estimated that he was worth $680 million.

His electric car company, Tesla Motors, saw a 30% increase in its stock price year over year through Feb. 14, 2012. Tesla stock noticeably jumped after the early February 2012 unveiling of the Model X, which will go into production in 2013. Musk’s  29% stake in Tesla is worth just over $1 billion.

Then there’s SolarCity, a company that designs, finances and installs solar panels and systems. Musk owns a fourth of the company, founded and run by his cousin Lyndon Rive. SolarCity is expected to file an S-1 soon with the intent of going public. The IPO, to be underwritten by Goldman Sachs, aims to value the company at $1.5 billion. At the end of February, SolarCity announced an institutional funding round led by Silver Lake Kraftwerk, including fellow billionaire Nicholas Pritzker. The round raised $81 million.

The biggest wildcard component in Musk’s fortune is his two-thirds stake in SpaceX. The company has already racked up billions of dollars in government and commercial contracts for nearly 40 rocket launches through the year 2017. SpaceX has focused on building reusable rockets (government-built rockets are one-use disposable models), with the end goal of drastically decreasing the cost of space travel. Musk has hinted at a public offering for the company in 2013.  He hired former Broadcom finance executive Bret Johnsen as SpaceX Chief Financial Officer in May 2011. Johnsen is expected to prepare the company for an IPO.

Together, Musk’s stakes in SolarCity and SpaceX are worth $1 billion.

A look at other billionaires who are involved in the space industry is below.

As you can see, the United States is the nexus of entrepreneurial space. Four members of this list are Americans, Musk is a South African immigrant to the United States, and Branson is a British billionaire who is having his suborbital space plane built in California. Laliberte is Canadian.

Branson has the most expensive privately-funded space project to date, with development costs for the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicles expected to reach almost $400 million. Most of that money is being put up by Aabar Investments, a firm owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family. Branson also convinced New Mexico to custom build Spaceport America from which SpaceShipTwo will fly at a cost of $209 million.

It’s not clear just how much Allen is investing in the Stratolaunch project, which will build an enormous aircraft that will air-launch payloads using a smaller version of Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket. The Microsoft billionaire has refused to provide an exact amount.

Brin is involved in space two ways. His company is sponsoring the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, which is a private race to land a vehicle on the moon. He also has put down a $5 million deposit with Space Adventures to fly into space. His Google co-founder, Larry Page, is a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation.

Jeff Bezos is funding the mysterious Blue Origin company, which is building suborbital and orbital vehicles in the Texas desert. It’s unclear how much Bezos has invested in the company. NASA has provided Blue Origin with funding under its CCDev program.

A 23rd century Star Fleet tricorder. (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

X PRIZE PR — Las Vegas, NV — The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Foundation today announced the launch of the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, a global competition to revolutionize healthcare. In this competition, teams will leverage technology innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence and wireless sensing – much like the medical Tricorder of Star Trek® fame – to make medical diagnoses independent of a physician or healthcare provider. The goal of the competition is to drive development of devices that will give consumers access to their state of health in the palm of their hand.

The announcement was made at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) during Qualcomm Incorporated Chairman and CEO and Qualcomm Foundation Chair, Dr. Paul Jacobs’ keynote address. Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, joined Dr. Jacobs on stage to introduce the competition.

“There is a dire need to improve access to healthcare globally and provide consumers with an opportunity to be active participants in their own health,” said Dr. Diamandis. “The Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE will incent the creation of technologies that can empower the consumer with the ability to decide when, where and how to seek health information and care.”

The $10 million top prize will be awarded to the team that develops a mobile platform that most accurately diagnoses a set of 15 diseases across 30 consumers in three days. Teams must also deliver this information in a way that provides a compelling consumer experience while capturing real time, critical health metrics such as blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature. The winning solutions will enable consumers in any location to quickly and effectively assess health conditions, determine if they need professional help and answer the question, “What do I do next?” when it comes to their health.

“Health care today certainly falls far short of the vision portrayed in Star Trek. By sponsoring the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE competition, the Qualcomm Foundation will stimulate the imaginations of entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists and doctors to create wireless health services and technologies that improve lives, increase consumer access to healthcare and drive efficiencies in the healthcare system,” said Dr. Jacobs. “This competition will accelerate the development of tools that can empower consumers to take charge of their own bodies and manage their own care.”

By launching this incentivized competition, the X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Foundation
seek to make 23rd century science fiction a 21st century medical reality. The Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE looks to empower consumers to take control of their own healthcare and improve the quality of life for people, everywhere.

The X PRIZE Foundation will have a presence in Booth #30313, Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) South Hall 3, Upper Level and Booth #3231, LVCC North Hall. For more information about the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE, visit: http://www.qualcommtricorderxprize.org.

ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION

Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration. Prizes won include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private, suborbital space flight; the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe); the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X CHALLENGE for advanced rocket development; and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE for highly effective ocean oil spill cleanup methods. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE presented by Medco.
ABOUT THE QUALCOMM FOUNDATION

Established in 2010 by Qualcomm Incorporated, the Qualcomm Foundation is dedicated to developing and strengthening communities worldwide. Specifically, the Qualcomm Foundation focuses its philanthropic efforts on helping create and sustain educated, healthy, culturally vibrant communities in regions around the globe. For more information about the Qualcomm Foundation and Qualcomm Incorporated’s global social responsibility programs, visit www.qualcomm.com/community.

2011 Radical Benefit for Humanity Co-Hosts Suzy & James Cameron and Wendy Schmidt join Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman & CEO of X PRIZE Foundation, for the annual fundraiser to support the Foundation’s ongoing mission to solve the world’s Grand Challenges. (Credit: X Prize Foundation)

XPF PR — San Francisco, CA (October 24, 2011) — The X PRIZE Foundation honored the benefactor and winners of the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, during its 2011 Radical Benefit for Humanity at the Regency Center in San Francisco on October 20. More than 400 “who’s who” from San Francisco, the Silicon Valley and around the globe attended the event that raised more the $2.7 million. The event, to benefit the nonprofit X PRIZE Foundation, was co-hosted by luminaries Wendy Schmidt and James & Suzy Cameron. CNN’s Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi served as Master of Ceremonies.

The latest video from the Rocket City Space Pioneers.

Team LegoAces. (Credit: Team LegoAces)

PLAYA VISTA, CA (August 31, 2011) —The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO Group announced today winners of the MoonBots 2.0: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge. The competition challenges teams of students ages 9 to 17 to design, program and build robots that simulate lunar missions mirroring the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE international competition for privately funded teams to build a rover to land on and explore the Moon’s surface.

The Grand Prize winner, Team LegoAces (Granville, OH), earned a VIP trip to LEGOLAND Florida® in October. Team Just Ducky (Woodbury, MN) was awarded second place and third place went to Team Lunar Lords (Bellevue, WA). All three teams will receive free team registration for the 2012 FIRST® robotics season.

“The X PRIZE Foundation is proud of the accomplishments by all student participants and how they brought their science and technology insights to their communities,” says Chanda Gonzales, Google Lunar X PRIZE Education Manager. “We are thrilled to see high levels of interest among younger audiences in MoonBots and Google Lunar X PRIZE. This is a terrific opportunity for them to work on projects that could turn into future careers in space exploration.”

The student competition, started in May, attracted 75 teams from around the world to register and submit fun, scientific video clips about space exploration. Each team also wrote a proposal explaining why their robot should be funded to go to the moon, similar to proposals by actual Google Lunar X PRIZE teams. The 20 team finalists received free LEGO components to construct a large Moonscape that served as the competition’s “playing field.” Finalists designed their robot using CAD software and programmed their robot to compete in a live lunar mission. All finalists completed a STEM community outreach project to help support, mentor and get kids excited about MoonBots 2.0 Challenge. The 20 finalists and their websites are:

2011 LEGO Odyssey
(Santa Clara, CA) https://sites.google.com/site/team2011legoodyssey/

Anthem-a-Tronics
(Anthem, AZ) http://www.anthem-a-tronics.com/moonbots.html

DragonBots
(Santiago, Chile) http://www.dragonbots.org/

Iron Reign
(Dallas, TX) http://www.ironreignrobotics.com/moonbots

LegoAces
(Granville, OH) http://www.legoaces.org/MoonBots/Home.html

Lehi Moonstormers
(Lehi, UT) http://moonstormers.blogspot.com/

Lunar LegoBots
(Oak Ridge, TN) http://www.discoveret.org/ingrid/legobots/

Lunar Lords
(Bellevue, WA) http://lunarlords.wordpress.com/

Lunar Scouts
(Chesapeake, VA) http://lunarscouts.webs.com/

Molokai Mahina 2.0
(Kaunakakai, HI) http://molokaimahina.yolasite.com/

Moonwalk
(Morris Plains, NJ) https://sites.google.com/site/walkthemoonwalk/home

New Hartford RoboSpartans
(New Hartford/Utica, NY) https://sites.google.com/site/robospartansmoonbots2011/

Pi in the Sky
(McLean, VA) http://moonbots.mcleanrobotics.org/

Q.E.D
. (Greensboro, NC) http://www.teamqed.tk/

Raider Robotix
(North Brunswick, NJ) http://moonbots.raiderrobotix.org/Moonbots/index.html

Say Watt?
(East Brunswick, NJ) http://say-watt.org/wp2/moonbots

Team Just Ducky
(Woodbury, MN) http://justducky.jimdo.com/

Techno Inventors
(Malaysia) http://technoinventors.yolasite.com/

The Pink Team
(Rockledge, FL) http://thepinkteam.tumblr.com/

X-Treme Team
(Indio, CA) https://sites.google.com/a/smarteducation.us/x-treme/home

The competition also included an education outreach component where teams completed a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) project in their community through robotics fair participation, space exploration literacy projects and technical training support mentorships. Many MoonBots teams partnered with teams vying for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, learning from top innovators in the field.

“It’s fantastic to see what efforts and energy the 20 finalist teams put into their outreach activities as part of the MoonBots 2.0 competition,” adds Steven Canvin, LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Manager. “The teams were assigned to make public presentations explaining why science, technology, engineering and math are important to lunar exploration and the solutions that need to be made around it. They’ve been amazing in connecting with organizations and companies working with space exploration, presenting in their communities and reaching broader groups through mass media. MoonBots 2.0 has been successful in attracting young budding scientists who have grown with the challenge, learned a lot in the process, built ingenious LEGO MINDSTORMS robots (some for the first time), and taught others about their research. The future for space exploration and associated sciences looks very promising.”

In addition to X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO Group, competition partners include WIRED magazine and FIRST® robotics. To learn more about MoonBots 2.0 Challenge winners, visit www.moonbots.org.

ABOUT THE X PRIZE FOUNDATION

Founded in 1995, the X PRIZE Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization solving the world’s Grand Challenges by creating and managing large-scale, high-profile, incentivized prize competitions that stimulate investment in research and development worth far more than the prize itself. The organization motivates and inspires brilliant innovators from all disciplines to leverage their intellectual and financial capital for the benefit of humanity. The X PRIZE Foundation conducts competitions in four Prize Groups: Education & Global Development; Energy & Environment; Life Sciences; and Exploration (Ocean and Deep Space). Prizes won include the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private, suborbital space flight; the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE for creating safe, affordable, production-capable vehicles that exceed 100 MPG energy equivalent (MPGe); and the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE CHALLENGE for advanced rocket development. Active prizes include the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, the $10 million Archon Genomics X PRIZE, and the $1.4 million Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. For more information, visit www.xprize.org.

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ABOUT THE GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE

The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented competition to challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters (1/3 of a mile) and transmits high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so will claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. Teams are also eligible to win a $1 million award for stimulating diversity in the field of space exploration and as much as $4 million in bonus prizes for accomplishing additional technical tasks such as moving ten times as far, surviving the frigid lunar night, or visiting the site of a previous lunar mission. To date, more than 20 teams from a dozen countries around the world have registered to compete for the prize. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is available to be claimed until the end of the year 2015.

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ABOUT THE LEGO GROUP

The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932, and today, the group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 5,600 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children’s creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries. For more information, please visit www.lego.com.

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ABOUT LEGO MINDSTORMS

In 1998, The LEGO Group spearheaded the consumer robotics category the company with the launch of the LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Robotics Invention System, that introduced children to the world of robotics, and offering the ability to create their own intelligent, interactive, autonomous LEGO robots. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics toolkits allow children of all ages to design, build, and program their own robots using LEGO building elements, customized hardware, and an easy-to-use icon-based graphical programming language. For more information, please visit mindstorms.lego.com.

“The facts of the matter are that the MTA [Master Team Agreement] is nothing more than a one-sided ‘legal framework’ to benefit the X PRIZE Foundation and Google while placing an unreasonable burden on the teams. The agreement is egregiously one-sided, overly burdensome, oppressive and unconscionable,” Team Mystical Moon wrote in a blog post.

The post goes on to list a series of grievances concerning the competition, including “unconscionable” requirements concerning media and intellectual property rights and alleged conflicts of interest involving the X Prize Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Consequently, the X PRIZE Foundation (and Google) refuses to address the following issues:

1. The X PRIZE Foundation (and Google) are in BREACH of the “legally binding” MTA Version 3.0.
2. The Media and Intellectual Property Rights requirements are unconscionable.
3. Exhibit B (and other ridiculous requirements) are extremely oppressive, overly burdensome and totally unnecessary to achieve the TRUE goals and objectives of the competition.
4. There exists a serious “Conflict of Interest” issue with the Trustees of the Board, employees and incestuous long-term relationships with the X PRIZE Foundation.
5. The Dispute Resolution process (Version 3.0 MTA Exhibit A Section 9) is totally without merit.
6. The MTA is full of “caveats” that allow XPF the “option” to “at its discretion” make “decisions” that are “not-so-black-and-white.”
7. The unprofessional, unethical and bad faith behavior of the management and employees of the X PRIZE Foundation needs to stop.

The MTA [PDF] gives the X Prize Foundation and Google all of the media and many of the IP rights to the mission. Eligible teams will receive a share of the revenues after all expenses and a management fee are deducted.

At least a half dozen teams, several of which are serious contenders, have discussed dropping out of the $30 million competition before launching their missions unless changes are made in these provisions. The teams believe they can make money off their flights without the prize money and that they can do better controlling their own rights.

Mystical Moon’s blast is a response to a recent blog post titled “About the MTA…” by recently appointed GLXP Senior Director Alexandra Hall. In that post, Hall explained that the MTA exists to “define what needs to be done to win the competition(s) and to provide a legal framework for that.”

The agreement between the X PRIZE Foundation (“X PRIZE”) and Google that was signed in 2007 includes a number of stipulations about how the competition is to be run along with the requirements for winning the prize(s). Then there are specific requirements that relate to X PRIZE and Google’s goals for the promotion of the space economy and the inspiration of the next generation of scientists and engineers through this competition. Executing on these goals requires agreement on related items such as logo, media tracking, and approval rights. There are also important requirements involving liability (working with rockets tends to raise this issue!) and not very exciting things like the reporting requirements from X PRIZE to Google.

All of these items, which are in the agreement between Google and X PRIZE, were the basis behind the requirements that have then been put into the MTA that teams have to sign up to in order to participate in this prize.

Hall sidestepped the key complaints about media and IP rights while focusing primarily upon GLXP’s enforcement of blogging requirements by the teams. That approach didn’t sit well with Team Mystical Moon, which wrote:

Furthermore, we can never get an honest answer from either the X PRIZE Foundation or Google as to the source of many of these ridiculous requirements. The X PRIZE Foundation has often stated that they flow from their agreement with Google but refuses to share that agreement with the teams. And recently, Google has also side stepped the issues by refusing to reply when asked this very question.

Meanwhile, Tiffany Montague, director of space initiatives for Google, publically [sic] makes a vague and ambiguous statement while refusing to answer the question altogether:

“Montague added that the MTA was an agreement between X Prize Foundation and the teams. I asked her whether controlling the IP and media rights was a condition of Google funding the prize, a question she did not answer.”

Therefore, the X PRIZE Foundation and Google continues to play “Ring Around the Rosy” with the teams regarding these matters. It is very obvious that after nearly 4 years neither entity intends to address the issues but rather will continue their legal tactics to “bully” the teams and attempt to force these requirements down their throat.

Montague made those comments during a panel discussion last month at the NewSpace 2011 conference. She insisted that Google was sponsoring the prize because of its founders’ desire to expand the frontiers of space, that the company expected no return on investment from the competition, and that it didn’t need the money or the publicity.

If true, it raises the obvious question of why the foundation and Google need that much control. A source connected with the X Prize Foundation told me that the media and IP requirements were a condition of Google funding the prize. This person told me that most of the revenues will go to Google, and that neither the foundation nor Google expect very much in revenues.

The conflict of interest charge refers to X Prize Foundation Trustee Naveen Jain, a tech millionaire who is chairman and co-founder of Moon Express, one of the competitors for the Google Lunar X Prize. Hall addressed that issue in an earlier blog post:

For non-employees of the X PRIZE Foundation, such as Trustees and Supporters, there are also strong conflict of interest rules. As Cristin Dorgelo stated in response to a commentator raising the issue about an X PRIZE Foundation Trustee who was also involved with a Google Lunar X PRIZE team, there are disclosure and recusing requirements which mean that anyone who has an interest in a competing team has to leave the room when the Google Lunar X PRIZE is discussed. Trustees and supporters with interest in teams in our competitions have no access to insider information or any influence on operational decisions.

We’ll see where this goes. Sometime in the next three years, one of the GLXP competitors will launch a rover to the moon. Whether they will still be competing for Google’s prize money remains to be seen.

• Google Lunar X Prize Master Team Agreement Version 3.0 (in force)
• Google Lunar X Prize Risk Management Guidelines (in force)
• Google Lunar X Prize Master Team Agreement 3.2 (proposed with changes indicated from Version 3.0)

(Note: Click on the image on the page that appears to get to the document.)

Google Lunar X Prize’s Team Selene said it will withdraw from the global competition to land a rover on the moon over what it calls unacceptable and unilateral changes in the Master Team Agreement (MTA) and bullying tactics by the X PRIZE Foundation (XPF). A second team, Mystical Moon, has invoked a dispute resolution clause in its agreement, while other competitors are also reported to be upset over the changes and what critics view as efforts by the foundation and Google to exercise excessive control over the competitors.

In a note posted today on the GLXP website, Team Selene leader Markus Bindhammer wrote:

Hereby we inform the XPF that we will not sign the new amendment. In our opinion the XPF had enough time to settle down the final MTA. The MTA drafts were discussed intensely and the announcement of the final MTA was delayed several times. If we sign a contract we sign a contract and this is not an ordinary one. Every change can jeopardize the project, and we are talking here of millions of USD the teams have to invest. To change the MTA again and give teams only two weeks time to send the new MTA back with the extortive [sic] attempt “Per the cover page of the MTA, if we do NOT receive signed copies of this amendment by the above-mentioned deadline, we will disqualify your team from the competition and will refund your registration fee”, can not be the right way. What protects the teams, that the MTA will not be updated again, then with maybe not only minor changes? If there were any legal concerns from the sponsor Google after the final MTA was signed, the XPF has to bear the responsibility and not the teams.

We will bring this breach of agreement to the attention of our lawyers and media contacts. We will use the refund of the XPF to join and support another GLXP team or use it for a non GLXP private space related project to sponsor!

The precise nature of changes in the revised agreement,which was sent to teams on April 15, are unclear. It has taken years to hammer out the MTA, in part because of the international nature of the competition. The lack of a final MTA and the uncertainty over the rights have made it difficult for teams to approach sponsors because they don’t know what they can offer the backers.

Members of several other teams have told Parabolic Arc previously of their dissatisfaction over what they view as efforts by the X PRIZE Foundation and Google to exert excessive control over media rights and other matters.  In his note, Bindhammer indicates that the teams believe they had signed a final agreement but that Google insisted upon subsequent changes for legal reasons.

In a post on the GLXP site, Mystical Moon wrote that the new agreement had been “substantially modified” from the MTA version 3.0 the team had signed when it registered for the competition in early February. The team also said that some of the changes involved blogging and video requirements:

On April 15, 2011, instead of meeting their MTA contractual commitments to the registered GLXP teams (Teams), XPF sends out an email (after COB Pacific) containing a substantially modified new version (3.2) of the so-called “Final and Legally Binding” MTA. In that email, XPF demands that the Teams sign the NEW MTA in an unreasonable time frame (2 weeks in the middle of holidays) without allowing any opportunity for recourse or rebuttal. Moreover, XPF attempts to exercise its willful demands with the threat to “disqualify” the Teams from the competition; as if the Teams had committed a wrongful act. Furthermore, XPF unilaterally attempts to simply change their contractual delivery dates in the new “unexecuted” version (3.2) of the MTA agreement on their very due date; as if the legally binding, mutually executed version 3.0 MTA no longer exists.

XPF then follows these actions, within days, with another threatening letter to Mystical Moon accusing the team of being “currently out of compliance with the blogging and video posting requirements of the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. . . as stated in the Master Team Agreement (Section 6.3.2: Blogging and Video).” However, the requirements stated in their letter do not reflect the language in the mutually executed version 3.0 MTA but rather the modified language in the “unexecuted” version 3.2 MTA. Mystical Moon finds XPF’s actions disconcerting, disingenuous and in violation of the terms of the executed version 3.0, legally binding, Master Team Agreement.

Mystical Moon, which in another post decried “bully” tactics, has exercised its right to appeal the terms of the agreement. When I inquired as to the status of that effort, I received an email saying that the team would not comment for the record and that the X PRIZE Foundation is demanding that teams maintain confidentiality over this issue.

I have inquiries into both the X PRIZE Foundation and Team Selene for more information about this issue. I will update the post as it comes in.

James Cameron. Credit: Richard Burdett

Cameron joins a world-class Board of Trustees that includes a growing list of entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers such as Dean Kamen, inventor, CEO, DEKA; Dr. J. Craig Venter, CEO, Synthetic Genomics; Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla and CEO, SpaceX; Ray Kurzweil, futurist and author; Anousheh Ansari, first female private space explorer; Larry Page, CEO & co-founder, Google; and Arianna Huffington, President and Editor in Chief, Huffington Post Media Group. The Board actively participates by advising on where large incentive competitions (X PRIZEs and X CHALLENGEs) can drive radical breakthroughs to help address humanity’s grand challenges.

Cameron is a film director, producer, screenwriter, explorer and inventor. His award-winning writing and directing work includes Avatar, Titanic, Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss. Cameron spent years creating documentary films and co-developing the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System. Described as part-scientist and part-artist, Cameron has also contributed to the state of the art of underwater cinematography, NASA Mars missions and remotely piloted vehicle technologies. In addition to his Board of Trustees appointment, Cameron serves on the X PRIZE Foundation’s Exploration Advisory Committee.

“Capturing the public’s imagination is a key component of all critical exploration these days. We especially have to engage kids and the X PRIZE Foundation certainly does it,” said Cameron. “They really promote innovation and exploration in key areas and I’m honored to participate in the development of its initiatives.”

“I am excited to have James Cameron joining our board,” noted Peter Diamandis, Chairman & CEO, X PRIZE Foundation. “He’s committed to envisioning and creating the future and does not take ‘impossible’ as an answer to solving the world’s grand challenges.”

James Cameron will be honored, along with philanthropist Wendy Schmidt, on April 16 at an event hosted at the FOX Studios Lot (Los Angeles) by Fox Chairman and X PRIZE Foundation Trustee, Jim Gianopulos. To reserve tickets and inquire about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Meghan Murphy at Meghan@xprize.org.

For more information about the X PRIZE Foundation, visit www.xprize.org.

Move Over, Rover: Next Giant Leap Gets $1 Million Grant To Build Hopping Moon Landers
Tech Crunch

Next Giant Leap in Boulder, Colorado— a startup that’s making robots that will land and hop around on the surfaces of other planets in order to gather data, detect resources valuable to humans, and more — attained a $1 million grant from the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, to advance their technology and pursue the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize in 2012, the companies revealed today.

One of Next Giant Leap’s team members, Seamus Tuohy (also Draper’s director of space systems) explained what NGL is working on and its potential uses:

“We’re developing critical technology for landing and hopping, both to satisfy the rules for the Google Lunar X Prize, and to provide an innovative, regional-scale science measurement capability. Unlike rovers that go to a single point on the surface of a planet, and then maybe two kilometers away and back, retreating if something is in the way, these would land, then ascend a bit, do a translation, traverse above the terrain to land in another spot. The lander-hopper we’re building is about the size of a coffee table, not a car.”

With this grant, the NGL team, led by founder Michael Joyce, has raised about $1.5 million, including an investment of $200,000 by the team’s founder Michael Joyce, a $100,000 from Jolted Media Group Ltd., a $30,000 grant from eSpace an incubator program for space startups, and $125,000 from Sierra Nevada Corporation.

Read the full story.

MOON EXPRESS PRESS RELEASE

Today, Moon Express Inc, a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the Moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. Team MoonEx, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, is among 24 teams from a dozen countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse.

Moon Express is also among six U.S. companies award a contract by NASA, the US civil space agency, as part of its $30M Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) program. The ILDD contract is for the purchase of technical data resulting from industry efforts to develop vehicle capabilities and demonstrate end-to-end robotic lunar landing missions. The data from these contracts will inform NASA in the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles and exploration systems.

“The Google Lunar X PRIZE and NASA’s Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data program are very exciting competitions that represent the knee in the curve of opportunity for the commercial lunar industry,” said Moon Express Team Leader, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards.

“We are very excited to have Moon Express as one of our Google Lunar X PRIZE teams,” remarked William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation. “With NASA already signed on as a customer, Moon Express enters the competition on great footing, and promises to be an extremely strong competitor.”

For more information about team Moon Express, please visit www.moonexpress.com.

About Moon Express

Moon Express, Inc. (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company. We have the experienced people, partners and financial resources to blaze a trail to the Moon and establish new avenues for commercial space activities beyond Earth orbit. Moon Express is planning a media conference to announce its recent NASA contract award, as well as other details of the company. Information on this announcement will be made in the next few weeks. If you’d like more information on this event, please send an email to  media@moonexpress.com

The X Prize Foundation’s Will Pomerantz provides a review of the recent Google Lunar X Prize Team Summit on the Isle of Man.