Lunar Lander Analog Competition

NASA announced Friday the agency's Centennial Challenge program has teamed with the X PRIZE Foundation to offer a $2 million Lunar Lander Analog Challenge.

"NASA's Centennial Challenge program is using the tool of prize competitions, so successfully demonstrated by the X-PRIZE, to plant the seeds for future space commercial activities," said Shana Dale, the agency's deputy administrator.

"We're confident the Lunar Lander Analog Competition will stimulate the development of the kinds of rockets and landing systems that NASA needs to return to the moon, while also accelerating the development of the private sub-orbital space flight industry."

Dale made the announcement at the International Space Development conference. The challenge will take place at the X PRIZE Cup Expo in Las Cruces, N.M., Oct. 20-22.

NASA is sponsoring the challenge, offering the competition's largest cash prize yet for developing a space vehicle that could support exploration of the Moon.

The X PRIZE Foundation is administering and executing the competitions at no cost to NASA, providing the venue for the competition and encouraging involvement by a diverse field of competitors.

"The X PRIZE Foundation is pleased to collaborate with NASA in this important milestone of space flight," said Peter H. Diamandis, the foundation's chairman. "This is a collaboration that works because the X PRIZE Foundation and NASA share the goal of pushing new technologies for space exploration. We look forward to hosting this competition at our X PRIZE Cup Expo."

The Lunar Lander Analog Challenge will take place in the vicinity of the Las Cruces (Calif.) International Airport. Competing teams will demonstrate their vehicle's ability to launch vertically, hover in mid-air, land on a target more than 100 yards away and then repeat the feat.

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