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Page 2 A new space race for the moon?


Things are going on in the world of space exploitation, no, that isn't a misprint. Those of us old enough to remember the Apollo moon missions will remember the competition between the U.S.A. and Russia to be the first to the moon was popularly called the 'space race'. This time round, things are very different. Several disparate things are happening over the next few years, that will be very interesting, and a major British company will be central to what is being done.


Interest in the moon for exploitation has been rekindled for a variety of reasons, but they boil down to long term business opportunities, and a long term need for a foothold there to advance space exploration. Don't worry about people's tax money being spent this time, private funding by business is funding it. The first element in this race is sponsored by Google, the Google Lunar Xprize. There is a lot of detail, but essentially, there is a grand prize of $20 million, and some smaller prizes for privately funded lunar robot landers that have to perform a variety of tasks, such as confirming water on the moon, and showing the remains of an Apollo lander. I'll enjoy that last one, it will finally shut up the 'conspiracy theory' twits. The second part of this story, is provided by NASA, who have been running a competition called, 'The Cube Quest Challenge'. To use NASA's own words: 'Cube Quest is a competition to build flight-qualified, small satellites capable of advanced communication and propulsion near and beyond the moon'.


This amounts to getting individuals and private bidders to design all the hardware for a lunar communications web. Now we come to the third element in all this, enter the Brits. It's not often realised that the longest standing supplier of small satellites, over 30 years in fact, is Surrey Satellites. They are a remarkable company, very expert at what they do, and they are embarking on something wonderful. They want to open up space exploration and lower the cost of missions. To do this they are embarking on a program to provide a Lunar communications web and make a foundation for a future solar system communications system. A brilliant idea, it doesn't matter what anyone puts in space if you can't talk to the spacecraft. Well, that's enough of that, Mankind is going back to the moon, this time it won't cost us the Earth.


Charles Oates, Vega Baja Astronomy Group. For more information on the group and meetings please visit: https://sites.google.com/site/vegabajaastronomy/.


QF Focus Magazine


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