We choose to go to the moon ... with robots? This could happen one day courtesy of an XPRIZE for lunar landers. Between 2006 and 2009, several companies attempted to build spacecraft prototypes that could be used on the moon. It was an interesting thing to consider, knowing how complex the human lunar landings were between 1969 and 1972.
To date, just 12 people have landed on the moon and there also have been only a handful of soft robotic landings. The United States and Soviet Union did several machine landings in the 1960s and 1970s, ending with the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1972. Then there was a decades-long gap while nobody landed on the moon at all. There were plenty of orbiting missions, but soft landings did not occur again until China sent the Chang'e-3 lander and Yutu rover to the surface successfully in December 2013.
What is the challenge? Well, controlling a robot from afar is no easy feat -- just look at the number of missions that have crashed on Mars and of course, the moon itself. There also is the added cost to consider, as a landing system must be added to a spacecraft that already costs millions of dollars. Also, landing on a site, as cool as it is, lacks flexibility because you are limited to one small spot. But there is incentive to go. The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander XChallenge aimed to not only get spacecraft ready for the feat, but also to advance technology development in related fields.
These were the objectives: the vehicle (whatever kind of vehicle it was) as supposed to take off vertically and fly at least 50 meters (164 feet) into the air. Then, it would do a mid-air maneuver to a landing pad that was 100 meters (328 feet) away. After it landed, the work was not over -- the spacecraft would have to take off again and do the same thing in reverse, landing where it originally took off.
Think about the precision that would have been required of such a maneuver. Recognizing terrain, battling wind conditions and knowing what path to take would be only some of the challenges faced by the prototypes here on Earth. The competition also added two levels: Level 1 had a circular pad, while Level 2 asked for an analog lunar surface that had features such as craters on it. Challenging as the competition was, it did attract eight teams from the United States who relished the idea of doing this for far cheaper than NASA would accomplish by itself.
"Manned lunar exploration used to be the exclusive purview of governmental agencies until the $2M Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander XCHALLENGE paved the way for a new class of lunar vehicles," the competition website read. "Through a unique public–private partnership between Northrop Grumman, NASA and XPRIZE, the winning teams proved that private industry could build, fly, launch, hover and land spacecraft suitable for lunar exploration for a fraction of what the government spends.
As it turned out, among the several teams competing, it was two companies that ended up claiming the $2 million in purses. Armadillo Aerospace led Level 1 and came in second for Level 2. Masten Space Systems led Level 1 and came in second for Level 2. But the work was tough, with each team suffering losses and problems with their "spacecraft" during years of attempts.
Armadillo attempted the prize three times in 2006, causing damage on two attempts and just missing the target on the third. They tried again in 2007 six times, including one unsuccessful attempt that ended in a pad fire. They made their pize-winning flights in 2008 and 2009. Masten also experienced issues before making its successful flights in 2009, mainly with computer problems and a fuel leak that caused a small fire, according to NASA.
"The Lunar Lander Challenge has had its intended impact with impressive performances by multiple teams representing a new generation of aerospace entrepreneurs," said Andrew Petro, NASA’s Centennial Challenge program manager, in a press release of the time. "These companies have demonstrated reusable vehicles with rapid turnaround and a surprising degree of precision in flight, and they have done all this at a much lower cost than many thought possible."
With the competition now long over, XPRIZE is now aiming for something even more ambitious -- actually getting a company to land on the moon with a robot. It's called the Google Lunar XPRIZE and has been handing out a few milestone prizes to the participating companies. They have just over a year, until Dec. 31, 2017, to get a craft on the moon, move it at least 500 meters, transmit a couple of "mooncasts" and send back data. It seems the sticky point at this point is launch contracts; if no team is ready for that by the end of 2015, the competition will conclude.
Sometimes it takes time to get things accomplished. An XPRIZE is intended to be a kick in the pants to start something new, and it's been highly successful in the past -- look at the first two private spaceflights as an example in 2004. Hopefully the next stage gets going as fast as the foundation hopes it does, because beaming back stuff from another world is awfully cool.
Top image: Masten Space System's "Xoie" (XA0.1E rocket). Credit: Wikimedia Commons
