Things your excited about in 2018

[thelerner]

Here's something a little off the wall and sci fy techy that I'm looking forward to. It'll remind me of the days in the late 60's and early 70's when I'd watch the first moon launches.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/29/16821862/2018-space-missions-rocket-launches-nasa-space-x-elon-musk

 

March 31st, 2018: Deadline for Google Lunar X Prize competition

Finally, we’ll find out which of the five remaining teams in the Google Lunar X Prize will complete their mission to the Moon before March 31st, 2018, the competition’s deadline — and the answer may be none. To win, a robotic spacecraft must land and explore the Moon. The first team to reach the lunar surface and complete all of the contest’s requirements before the deadline will receive a grand prize purse of $20 million.

 

It doesn’t seem likely that anyone will actually launch before the deadline

 

However, it doesn’t seem likely that anyone will even launch before the deadline. Four of the five finalist teams have yet to complete their landers, and two still aren’t fully funded. A fifth team — Hakuto from Japan — has completed its lunar rover, but the vehicle is meant to ride to the Moon on another team’s unfinished lander. It’s unlikely we’ll see any X Prize missions before the deadline at all. "

 

I've been been following it and it should be a very interesting race.  Get to the moon, launch a rover, record the data.  Should be fascinating.  As I recall there are a couple contestants that will launch on the same rocket, so should be neck and neck.  Space wars indeed. 

https://lunar.xprize.org/about/guidelines

Guidelines

With the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE competition both Google and XPRIZE seek to foster a new space economy of innovation and entrepreneurship through low-cost, efficient access to the Moon and use the Google Lunar XPRIZE teams’ moonshots to inspire and engage citizens around the world with science, technology, and innovation. In order to accomplish these goals the Google Lunar XPRIZE has put in place rules and guidelines that are summarized below.

Mission Requirements

The Mission Requirements for claiming the Grand or Second Place Prize include the following:

• Landing – A team must land its craft on the surface of the Moon after providing advance notice of its launch and intended landing site to XPRIZE.

• Mobility – After landing, a team must move its craft a distance of at least five hundred meters below, on, or above the lunar surface along an interesting path in a deliberate manner. The distance can be a straight line or may be a series of waypoints approved by the Judging Panel.

• Mooncasts – A team must transmit two “Mooncasts” from the surface of the Moon. The first Mooncast would be after lunar arrival and the second would be at the completion of the mobility requirements.  Each Mooncast must contain eight minutes of video in both high definition (720p) and near real time transmitted as high priority that can be in a lower resolution, a panoramic photograph to give a 360° view of the arrival or mission completion site, images showing a substantial portion of the craft and payload, and set of data provided by XPRIZE including a video and audio message, an email, and a text message. Prior to their launch the team must submit technical details of their mission for review by the Judging Panel.
• Data Uplink – A team must transmit to the craft as much as one hundred kilobytes of data provided by XPRIZE and then retransmit that data from their craft back to Earth.
• Payload – A team must carry a payload consisting of a data disk and commemorative plaque to the surface of the Moon. The data disk will be mounted in a manner that permits easy removal from the craft so that it can be accessed by future Lunar explorers.

• Private Funding – A team must not receive government funding in excess of 10% of its total mission cost. This limitation includes the value of in-kind support or as well as any discounts they receive on the value of services or hardware. In instances when the government purchases or provides services to a team at fair market value, those contributions would not count against the 10% cap.  To facilitate review of this requirement XPRIZE will seek the services of an external auditing firm.

• Deadline – Teams have until March 31, 2018.

Prize Purse

The total purse for the prize is divided amongst several categories including the following:

• Grand Prize - $20 million awarded to the first team to complete all of the Mission Requirements.

• Second Place Prize - $5 million awarded to the second team to complete the Mission Requirements.

• Lunar Arrival Milestone Prize— The spacecraft must complete one orbit around the Moon or enter a direct descent approach to the lunar surface to win $1.75M.

• Soft Landing Milestone Prize— The spacecraft must transmit data proving it soft-landed on the lunar surface to win $3M.

The Milestone Prize purses will be evenly distributed between all teams who have achieved each milestone by March 31, 2018

No team may win the Second Place Prize with a substantially similar craft to the Grand Prize winner, however a team may win the Second Place Prize with a distinct Craft that accompanies the Grand Prize winning craft to the lunar surface.

• Milestone Prizes – To date $5.25 Million in Milestone Prizes has already been awarded across five teams that demonstrated advanced progress in their mission preparations. Teams that won Milestone Prizes shall have those winnings deducted from any Grand or Second Place Prize awards that they win.

• Bonus Prizes – A purse of $4 million in Bonus Prizes is available for teams that successfully complete additional scientific and technical achievements in addition to the Mission Requirements. There are five bonus prizes ranging in value from $1 million to $ 4 million each. Once the purse’s $4 million limit is reached no other bonus prizes will be awarded.

• Apollo Heritage Bonus Prize - $4 million will be awarded to a team that can produce an Apollo Heritage Mooncast from the site of Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, or 17. The Mooncast must include eight minutes of dynamic video in both high definition and lower resolution near real time video, a panoramic photo of the Apollo site, and an image showing a substantial portion of the craft from the Apollo site.

• Heritage Bonus Prize - $1 million will be awarded to a team that can produce a Heritage Mooncast from a site of interest on the lunar surface, approved by the Judging Panel. The Mooncast must include eight minutes of dynamic video in both high definition and lower resolution near real time video, a panoramic of the heritage site, and an image showing a substantial portion of the craft from the heritage site.

• Range Bonus Prize - $2 million will be awarded to a team that can move its vehicle along the surface of the Moon five kilometers. This five kilometer path is inclusive of the five hundred meters already traveled for the Mission Requirements.

• Survival Bonus Prize - $2 million will be awarded to a team that successfully operates its craft on two separate lunar days. In addition to the Mission Requirements on day one, on the second lunar day the team must transmit a set of data including a video, email and text message, and produce a survival Mooncast including a panoramic photo and an image showing a substantial portion of the craft.

• Water Detection Bonus Prize - $4 million will be awarded to a team that can provide scientifically conclusive proof of the presence of water on the Moon to the satisfaction of the Judging Panel.

Edited January 1, 2018 by thelerner

[futuredaze]

I am curious to see what will happen in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrency.  Although Bitcoin is the most well-known cryptocurrency now, there are a lot of emerging coins that have better technology or more functions behind them.  Ethereum, for instance, is a platform to run decentralized apps.  All of this has the potential to lead to a more fair society with money that is not totally controlled by a centralized private institution.  Seems like the end of 2017 the cryptocurrencies are getting more popular, but 2018 might be the breakthrough year.

 

On a person note, I am starting to plan a few month trip to India with my partner.  Looking very much forward to do some world travel  again

Edited January 2, 2018 by futuredaze