Tags: Google, NASA, SpaceX, Space Communications
Publication: TheAge.com.au
Publication Date: 12/16/2012

Artist rendition of Team Stellar’s mission. Image credit: Team Stellar

One of the 24 teams competing for the Google Lunar X Prize is is planning on building mission control centers in Sydney and Croatia for their submission. The competition promises $30 million to the first privately funded team that can successfully land and communicate with an unmanned vehicle on the moon. The spacecraft has to be able to travel 0.3 miles and transmit data and images back to Earth.

To accomplish this goal, Team Stellar will buy a similar rocket to SpaceX’s Flacon 9, which was used on the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station this year. The rocket would carry a lander and a rover powered by a battery and solar energy built by the team.

To communicate with the vehicle – which will have a similar size to NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover – the team will build a deep space communications network with 98-foot antennas around the world. If successful, the vehicle would transmit high-quality video and audio via radio waves.

Team Stellar will be performing a series of tests from Australia and other countries before the expected mid-2014 launch. The location of the launch will depend on what country they buy the rocket from. They expect that the entire operation will cost less than $50 million.

The teams have until the end of 2015 to meet the objectives and win the prize.

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