The Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP), sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, was a 2007–2018 inducement prize space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge called for privately funded teams to be the first to land a lunar rover on the Moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back to Earth high-definition video and images.
The original deadline was the end of 2014, with enhanced prize money for a landing by 2012. In 2015, XPRIZE announced that the competition deadline would be extended to December 2017 if at least one team could secure a verified launch contract by 31 December 2015. Two teams secured such a launch contract, and the deadline was extended. In August 2017, the deadline was extended again, to 31 March 2018.
Entering 2018, five teams remained in the competition: SpaceIL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, TeamIndus, and Team Hakuto, having secured verified launch contracts with Spaceflight Industries, Rocket Lab, Interorbital Systems, and ISRO (jointly for the last two teams).
On 23 January 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that "no team would be able to make a launch attempt to reach the Moon by the [31 March 2018] deadline... and the US$30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE will go unclaimed." On 5 April 2018, the X Prize Foundation announced that the Lunar XPRIZE would continue as a non-cash competition.
On 11 April 2019, the SpaceIL spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon. The SpaceIL team was awarded a $1 million "Moonshot Award" by the X Prize Foundation in recognition of touching the surface of the Moon.
Competition summary
The Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced at the Wired Nextfest on 13 September 2007. The competition offered a total of US$30 million in prizes to the first privately funded teams to land a robot on the Moon that successfully travels more than 500 meters (1,640 ft) and transmits back high-definition images and video. The first team to do so would have claimed the US$20 million grand prize; while the second team to accomplish the same tasks would have been awarded a US$5 million second prize. Teams also earned additional money by completing additional tasks beyond the baseline requirements required to win the grand or second prize, such as traveling ten times the baseline requirements (greater than 5,000 meters (3 mi)), capturing images of the remains of Apollo program hardware or other man-made objects on the Moon, verifying from the lunar surface the recent detection of water ice on the Moon, or surviving a lunar night. Additionally, a US$1 million diversity award was to be given to teams that make significant strides in promoting ethnic diversity in STEM fields.
To provide an added incentive for teams to complete their missions quickly, it was announced that the prize would decrease from US$20 million to US$15 million whenever a government-led mission lands on and explores the lunar surface. However, in November 2013, the organizers and the teams agreed to drop this rule, as the launch of the Chinese Chang'e 3 probe—which landed on the Moon in December 2013—approached.
In 2015, XPRIZE announced that the competition deadline would be extended to December 2017 if at least one team could secure a verified launch contract by 31 December 2015. Two teams secured such a launch contract, and the deadline was extended.
XPRIZE announced 5 finalists on 24 January 2017. SpaceIL, Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Team Indus, and Hakuto having secured verified launch contracts for 2017 (with SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Interorbital Systems and ISRO respectively). All other teams had until the end of 2016 to secure a verified launch contract, but failed to meet this deadline.
The Google Lunar XPRIZE expired on 31 March 2018 as none of the five final teams were able to launch their vehicles by the deadline. Another extension of the deadline was ruled out by Google, and the prize went unclaimed.
Overview
Peter Diamandis, the project founder, wrote on the official web page in 2007:
The goal of the Google Lunar X Prize was similar to that of the Ansari X Prize: to inspire a new generation of private investment in hopes of developing more cost-effective technologies and materials to overcome many limitations of space exploration that are currently taken for granted.