The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90% privately funded and must be registered to compete by December 31, 2010. The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million; the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million. The second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $5 million will awarded in bonus prizes. The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2014.

Google Lunar X PRIZE teams come from all walks of life with varied sets of experiences and ideas. Each has a unique plan for getting to the lunar surface. Get to know all of our competitors by following their blogs, watching the latest videos, or participating on their forums, and cheer them on to the Moon!

Website: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams

(Key Largo, FL-December 18, 2007) SPACE ACCESS, a Miami-based company, will revolutionize the tourism industry by introducing affordable space travel made possible through its advanced enabling technologies.

Beginning Thursday, December 20, guests can sign up on the company’s website, www.spaceaccess.com, on a first-come, first-serve basis for a limited number of “SpaceGateWay™ Experiences” that will take place Jan 6-11, 2008 at Florida’s most exclusive private resort community in Key Largo, FL. Read the rest of this entry →

Beautifully done image of Pluto being kicked out of the family of planets in our solar system.

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Created by Mathias Pedersen from North Jutland, Denmark. Check out his website at http://www.mathiaspedersen.com/

Foreign exchange specialist Travelex today unveiled a unit of currency that has been created for use in space. It is the first currency of its kind in the universe and has been developed in partnership with a team of scientists from the National Space Centre and the University of Leicester.

With Virgin Galactic making its maiden voyage in 2009 and with the signing in April this year of the Global Exploration Initiative, an agreement between the US and the UK to work together on future planetary explorations to the Moon and beyond, Space Tourism is soon to become commonplace. Read the rest of this entry →

Boeing has been working on sonic & supersonic jets for sometime now. The current focus is on Sonic Cruiser, a jet that will save 20% off long-distance flights with the same fuel efficiency. That means flights from NYC to LAX in just five hours instead of six.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes is focusing its new product development efforts on a design that allows faster, higher travel. The Sonic Cruiser will travel at speeds between Mach 0.95 and Mach 0.98. Cruise altitude will be in the mid-40,000 foot (above 13,000 meters) level. Initial range of the airplane will likely be between 6,000 and 7,500 nautical miles. The new jet is in the early phases of development and may change as Boeing works with its customers to understand their requirements.

Great screen wallpaper image of Buzz Aldrin with reflection of Neil Armstrong and Lunar Landing Module in his visor.

The ExoMars rover will grind samples of Martian soil to fine powder and deliver them to a suite of analytical instruments, including Urey, that will search for signs of life. Each sample will be a spoonful of material dug from underground by a robotic drill.

NASA-funded researchers are refining a tool that could not only check for the faintest traces of life’s molecular building blocks on Mars, but could also determine whether they have been produced by anything alive. Read the rest of this entry →

Incredible online tool displaying stars, planets, comets and other stellar objects. Highlight a star for info or zoom in for a better look.

SkyMap

On October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne rocketed into history, becoming the first private manned spacecraft to exceed an altitude of 328,000 feet twice within the span of a 14 day period, thus claiming the ten million dollar Ansari X-Prize.

A second record shattered Read the rest of this entry →

Source: The Space Review

The 2nd Space Exploration Conference held December 2006 in Houston outlined several reasons for a human return to the Moon. Remarkably, some complain that the reason for going to the Moon is still unclear. Possibly the sheer scope of the envisioned surface activities diffuses its impact. Almost 200 activities were described for the Moon, grouped under six major “themes” (as the agency calls them), including settlement, global cooperation, science, and preparation for Mars. This diffusion is both deliberate and unavoidable. Read the rest of this entry →