Google Lunar XPrize Takes Off

Over three decades after humanity last put a representative on the Moon, a new era in space exploration begins today, September 13, in Los Angeles as the Google Lunar XPrize launches with $30,000,000 in prizes for the first private group to successfully put a robotic rover on the moon. Enthusiasts have long dreamed of humanity reaching the Moon and, after that, the stars; the hope is that this XPrize will encourage research around the world that will make space exploration cost-effective to make that dream a realistic one.

This is a particularly exciting time for teachers because the Google Lunar XPrize has made space education a high priority. The team at the Lunar Xprize has prepared free learning guides, videos and other resources to help stimulate student interest not only in space but in math, science and technology as well. You can find these materials by searching on Google for "Google Lunar XPrize" or going to www.google.com/educators.

As a long time teacher at Palo Alto High in Palo Alto, California, I have been concerned about what I see as an anti-science trend in the schools. Twenty years ago, Palo Alto High School had five sections of Advanced Placement BC Calculus. These days, there only one to two sections per year. Across the country, fewer students are interested in studying science today than ten years ago.

Students who are interested in math and science become innovators who improve humanity's lot -- we need more of them, not less. I hope this new and generous XPrize will motivate students all over the world to dream of going beyond it, and I'm excited about the prospect of having more tools to help in that endeavour. Maybe this is why Google loves space so much: because space research and exploration will give the next generation a reason to dream of the stars, and this generation the tools to help them do that.

Comments

[realnoia]

S/F author Stephen Baxter has been telling the story about NASA and the southern politicians who
have been grinding it into the ground.
Imagine TOM DELAY as controling the purse strings
of the NASA? HA! What a sniveling joke of a man
and program.

[WilliePilgrim]

Thanks for the insight, Esther. Much appreciated and delighted to read your amplification on the news. The ramifications an effort like this could be profoundly encouraging. Companies like Google (though there are precious few of them) break new ground in so many ways by abandonning the old models of corporate responsibility and making it evident that not amount or "the same thing" will ever replace "something that might be interesting in a few years".
One word, however; making the the moon the destination, while a wonderous sight to see, is a bit like designing a craft worthy of the trans-pacific but then limiting it to the rocky sea-stack just beyond the breakers. Let's hope Google hasn't adopted the same myopic approach that NASA is advocating, no doubt at the insistence of a George W Bush appointee, one lacking in Science understanding but with a voting record supporting creative design and prayer in schools and other socially conservative programs.

[Neuromancer13]

I think the moon was chosen as a better match to the sort of budgets that a private group would bring to the task. Additionally, exploring, utilizing, and settling the moon is a realistic first step towards a true spacefaring civilization. The Apollo program was the aerospace equivalent of going over Niagara Falls in a padded barrel: an amazing accomplishment to be sure, but not really practical as a means of transportation. If we can develop and demonstrate the technologies needed to reliably travel to and from the moon, evolutionary improvements in those technologies can open up the rest of the Solar System. It is rocket science after all. I don't think we'd be doing ourselves any favors by setting unrealistic goals.

I've also wondered about some of the goings-on at NASA and how they relate to this administration's penchant for politicization. Space travel and the fundamentalist mindset do not mix well. Once one has some understanding of just how truly vast the universe is, most conventional religions seem rather petty. It also makes it hard to imagine that there is not some other life out there, which would seriously throw a wrench in to the whole rib, apple, and snake story.

[nats]

We should put the 30 million into prizes for bridge design and methods for the reconstruction of the levees of New Orleans. This is what our students can and need to grasp onto for motivation. What they propose has been done and benefits no one save voyeurs, escapist dreamers, and the rich who will find a way to prosper from it. That this pleases a teacher saddens me and reminds me of those educators who were grateful when Ronald Reagan put a teacher in space merely as cost-free political stunt. She never returned. - Nats

[FerrisValyn]

This is part of the larger trend to colonize space, which is the only way to help humanity deal with its problems.

Space colonization isn't a stunt - its the only way to save the earth

[pundit27]

No, actually there is another way to save the planet -- by taking the pressure off land masses (particularly their densely packed coastal regions) and beginning to responsibly colonize the open oceans. Google should offer a generous prize for that as well.

[FerrisValyn]

I think this competition can also help to jump start the coming space revolution. In a very short time, we'll see space become more than just governmental playgrounds.