The New Space Race

Phase

Completed

The New Space Race

$30 Million

Prize Purse

The Google Lunar XPRIZE was created with two goals in mind. To spur affordable access to the moon and give space entrepreneurs a legitimate platform to develop long-term business models around lunar transportation and to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, space explorers and adventurers to enter the STEM fields.

Prize Purse

  • $20 Million Grand Prize
  • $5 Million Second Place Prize
  • $5 Million in Bonus Prizes - $1 Million Diversity Prize awarded in 2014


Additional Milestone Prizes

  • $5.25 Million Terrestrial Milestone prizes awarded in 2012
  • $4.75 Million In-Space Milestone prizes 

Summary Video

The Grand Challenge

Space exploration had been in the exclusive domain of governments. Commercial exploration had not been a viable option, restricting creativity and resources of private markets.

How to Win

The winning team will...
Soft-land a craft on the Moon
Move 500 meters along a deliberate path on or above the lunar surface
Transmit two mooncasts
Complete a data uplink exercise as set by XPRIZE

Impact

  • • Over 300 Million (USD) invested into Google Lunar XPRIZE teams
  • • First private space companies created in India, Malaysia, Israel and Hungary
  • • Government space agencies like JAXA and NASA partnered with Google Lunar XPRIZE teams
  • • 260 new jobs created by Finalist teams
  • • Technology advances in miniaturization and 3d printing
  • • Legislation inspired by the prize: NASA’s recommendation to Space-Faring entities, Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act
  • • STEM Education: 5 undergraduate dissertations, University class/course credit, 500,00 youth reached with MoonBots (Google Lunar XPRIZE for students) education and Google Lunar XPRIZE team interaction
  • • 1000 planetariums worldwide show Google Lunar Prize Inspired Back to the Moon for Good dome show in 27 different languages 

Prize Activity