Google offers 20 million to go to the moon

[MooNiNite]

GOOGLE is offering any private company 20 million to go to the moon and bring back quality video footage. They are also offering bonuses if the team can go to the Apolo mission spots.

 

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/302057/japanese-team-aims-to-send-rover-to-the-moon

[thelerner]

It'd be great to see a company take them up on it.  With modern tech, you might not break even, matter of fact you're undoubtedly risking your life with untested technology (WRONG this is for an unmanned probe that's on a one way trip), but it should be possible for maybe double that (yeah, right- allow me to heckle myself)(And to heckle the heckle comment).  NASA is very expensive because it requires multi fail safes on every system, for all the good that's done them.   So you get sponsors and use a Boeing, Lockheed, Airbus, Space X or some smaller aeronautic hotshot that wants to make a name for itself.  

 

In the same vein- http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/12/17/how-much-does-it-cost-to-go-to-the-moon.aspx '

t's almost here: 2017 -- the year America begins mining the Moon.

Before 2017 is out, space pioneer Moon Express will make its maiden launch aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. Its mission: to land a robot on the Moon, beam back high-definition video proving its accomplishment, and collect a $25 million "XPRIZE" from Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL).

 

Once that happens, Moon Express will have become the first private company to visit Earth's most famous satellite -- and that's only the beginning. In rapid succession, Moon Express plans to launch up to four additional lunar missions, landing equipment and science experiments on the Moon for a variety of government and corporate clients.'

[MooNiNite]

 

Google is clearly testing the validity of the Apollo missions, which many believe were staged by the government. 

[silent thunder]

The Chinese Chang'e 2 rover has been up there for around 3 years now... there is a complete surface digital survey from multiple altitudes.  The American litter was observed and confirmed. 
 

China says a full map of the moon captured by the orbiter Chang'e-2 is the
highest-resolution image of the entirety of the moon's surface published to date. The full coverage moon map was compiled from images taken by a stereo camera on the orbiter from heights of 60 miles (7-meter resolution) and 9 miles (1.4-meter resolution) over the lunar surface between October 2010 and May 2011, Liu Dongkui, deputy chief commander of China's lunar probe project, said.

The resolution in the images can show features as small as 23 feet (7 meters) across, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported Monday.

Traces of previous U.S. Apollo missions were visible in the images, Yan Jun, chief application scientist for China's lunar exploration project, said.

 
 

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0d8_1328628079#zXWIuc1b868TOTSo.99

 

[MooNiNite]

photos from the chinese mission

 

http://www.space.com/23786-china-moon-rover-mission-photos-change3-lander.html

Edited January 3, 2017 by MooNiNite

[Owledge]

A mere 20 million, huh? That's a joke as motivator for such an endeavor. But evidence that they got too much money. They should instead invest that money to focus on this planet, not a gray dustball. They could hire some sane people to work on making their business less shitty.

It's typical though that crazy people in denial would start focusing more and more outwards and away.

If space is eventually colonized, it will be another USA case: Running away from the responsibility of solving the problems here, and thus carrying the same madness out into space and expand it there.

[bax44]

A mere 20 million, huh? That's a joke as motivator for such an endeavor. But evidence that they got too much money. They should instead invest that money to focus on this planet, not a gray dustball. They could hire some sane people to work on making their business less shitty.

It's typical though that crazy people in denial would start focusing more and more outwards and away.

If space is eventually colonized, it will be another USA case: Running away from the responsibility of solving the problems here, and thus carrying the same madness out into space and expand it there.

 

Good post. I think this same thought when I hear about elon musk throwing billions of dollars to send 12 people  to mars. Meanwhile, here on our own planet we  have millions starving to death and we consider it beneath our dignity to even acknowledge it.

[Owledge]

I have an alternative suggestion:

 

We throw together and offer $20 million to whoever sends Google to the moon.

[MooNiNite]

did we land on the moon though?

 

[Owledge]

did we land on the moon though?

 

Yes. (There was a plan B though.) And the arguments brought for the thesis we didn't are so weak that they'll never take off.

[Pilgrim]

I have known the old time cape engineers, have even seen blue prints of the lunar lander. They were all convinced it actually took place.

[thelerner]

Just reading an article on what's happening with the Google prize **.  I'll have to repost it if I can find.  Pretty exciting though.  Out of 16 candidates 5 have met the qualifications to be 'official'.  Seems like most are piggy backing onto pre-arranged orbital flights.  Interestingly, two are piggy backing on the same rocket pay load, so that has the potential for an amazing race as both are launched into space at the same time, same speed- racing to the moon to win $20 mill and bragging rights.. lots of potential for space war

 

 

In some ways this is our modern, race to the Poles.  A technological long odds journey that'll have people/mankind(?) cheering for the winner.  addon> I don't think I understood this when I read about it months ago, that this is a probe, that has to walk and record for 500 meters.  It doesn't have to come back and it's certainly not manned.  Thus it'll only be a fraction of the price of sending up a living person.  Especially seeing that most are piggy backing there probes onto commercial rockets that are already being sent up. 

 

http://www.geekwire.com/2017/google-lunar-x-prize-clears-5-teams-moon-race/

 

** the race is to- to land on the moon, move at least 500 meters across the surface, and transmit images and high-definition video back to Earth.

 

 

 

What the hell, I'll bite on MoonNite-

 

The first terrestrial landing on the moon was September 13th 1959 the soviets Luna 2 mission.  The first manned mission to the moon came a decade later, July 20 1969, Americans watched the launch, saw the film, watched the landing.  Since then the US launched 5 other manned flights to the moon, literally using 100,000's of people, experts from around the world in engineering, manufacture, tracking. 

 

I find the unmanned landings to be equally fascinating.  Lots of failures.  The US had a dozen before Ranger 7, 8 and 9 in the mid 1960s, successfully took pictures and crashed on the moon.  The Soviet failure rate was similar.  It was expensive, there were huge technological problems to solve, but one by one they were.  Because.. science progresses, we learn, our tech improves.  You don't seem to question the power of your computer, high res TV, GPS, Laser printers,  the jets flying 600 mph over head but rockets and traveling 250,000 miles to the moon.. you do. 

from Wikipedia-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing

 

After the unsuccessful attempt by the Luna 1 to land on the moon in 1959, the Soviet Union performed the first hard (unpowered) moon landing later that same year with the Luna 2 spacecraft, a feat the U.S. duplicated in 1962 with Ranger 4. Since then, twelve Soviet and U.S. spacecraft have used braking rockets to make soft landings and perform scientific operations on the lunar surface, between 1966 and 1976. In 1966 the USSR accomplished the first soft landings and took the first pictures from the lunar surface during the Luna 9 and Luna 13 missions. The U.S. followed with five unmanned Surveyor soft landings.

 

The Soviet Union achieved the first unmanned lunar soil sample return with the Luna 16 probe on 24 September 1970. This was followed by Luna 20 and Luna 24 in 1972 and 1976, respectively. Following the failure at launch in 1969 of the first Lunokhod, Luna E-8 No.201, the Luna 17 and Luna 21 were successful unmanned lunar rover missions in 1970 and 1973.

 

Many missions were failures at launch. In addition, several unmanned landing missions achieved the Lunar surface but were unsuccessful, including: Luna 15, Luna 18, and Luna 23 all crashed on landing; and the U.S. Surveyor 4 lost all radio contact only moments before its landing.

 

More recently, other nations have crashed spacecraft on the surface of the Moon at speeds of around 8,000 kilometres per hour (5,000 mph), often at precise, planned locations. These have generally been end-of-life lunar orbiters that, because of system degradations, could no longer overcome perturbations from lunar mass concentrations ("masscons") to maintain their orbit. Japan's lunar orbiter Hiten impacted the Moon's surface on 10 April 1993. The European Space Agency performed a controlled crash impact with their orbiter SMART-1 on 3 September 2006.

 

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) performed a controlled crash impact with its Moon Impact Probe (MIP) on 14 November 2008. The MIP was an ejected probe from the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter and performed remote sensing experiments during its descent to the lunar surface.

 

The Chinese lunar orbiter Chang'e 1 executed a controlled crash onto the surface of the Moon on 1 March 2009. The rover mission Chang'e 3 was launched on 1 December 2013 and soft-landed on 14 December.

 

<the Chinese orbiter was able to take such indepth pictures of the lunar surface that actually showed the earlier US landing bases the tech they left there.  Course early on we put reflectors on the moon that can shoot lasers to reflect back, thus showing us the distance to the meter.  Cause.. science. 

 

Sadly the last man to walk on the moon died last week..