Google backs private Moon landing, Google is offering a $30m prize pot to private firms that land a |
Google backs private Moon landing, Google is offering a $30m prize pot to private firms that land a |
Sep 14 2007, 08:02 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 100 Joined: 11-October 04 From: Oxford, UK (Glasgow by birth) Member No.: 101 |
FROM: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6993373.stm
Firms interested in trying for the prize have until the end of 2012 to mount their Moonshot Anyone fancy a crack at this? Cheers Brian -------------------- "There are 10 types of people in the world - those who understand binary code, and those who don't."
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Sep 14 2007, 01:25 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 593 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 279 |
On paper it's a bit better than a cubesat.
If you can get 670kg to LEO, then you need a further 5.7km/s of dV to the lunar surface. Using hypergolics (for all the right reasons) and a realistic Isp means that the dry weight of the package landed on the surface could be around 80 to 100kg. Not too shabby. Andy Edit: just seen Doug's "no you can't". I'm not sure it's as cut-and-dried as that. |
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Sep 14 2007, 02:01 PM
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14434 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
dry weight of the package landed on the surface How much of that is fuel tankage, engines, plumbing, basic structure etc etc. My bad-maths said something like 70-170kg on the surface - so your proper maths does do a better job But given the demands of the prize ( 500m, HDTV ) with the landed payload...I just don't see it as possible. Would a hugely optimistic figure for the 'dead' mass of the vehicle be something like 40kg? Leaving a 30kg vehicle for power, cdh, >1mbps downlink caperbility, and sufficient mobility to drive across the moon. For $27m plus whatever else you can generate from it. I just don't think it's feasable. I would love.. and I mean absolutely LOVE to be proven wrong - a rover on the moon would be utterly fantastic. I just don't see this $30m as making a whole chunk of difference in terms of the likelyhood of it being done privately in the next 5 years. Doug |
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