The Penn State Lunar Lion Team

I thought a nice way to start the semester would be to talk a little bit about the space program here at Penn State. I’m talking, of course, about the Lunar Lion team. There’s so much that could be written on this topic, but I’m going to stick to a brief overview.

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The Lunar Lion team is a participant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The goal of this competition—which was started in 2007—is to be the first team to send a spacecraft to the Moon. Once there, the spacecraft must travel more than 500 meters across the surface of the Moon and send certain data (including images) back to Earth. Grand prize: $20 million, with additional prizes totaling $10 million. The prize expires at the end of 2015. Keep in mind, though, that the teams’ expenditures will almost definitely exceed however much they might earn.

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The ultimate aim of the competition is to fuel private competition in order to create the best product. As such, governments are not allowed to participate directly. They will, however, most likely benefit from this competition. (See my previous post on the privatization of the space industry for more on this topic.)

There are currently 18 active teams. From this list, you can see that many teams have already withdrawn or merged with other teams. The Lunar Lion team is the only student-led group.

According to this article, the Lunar Lion team is made up of over 80 students, along with Penn State faculty and researchers. I’m not going to get into the actual mechanics of the project, but if that stuff interests you, be sure to check out the Lunar Lion mission website.

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Any student can get involved, regardless of major. If you have no scientific/technical skills, you could, for example, help on the PR side. Knowing my love of space, a lot of my friends have urged me to get involved. It’s something I’ve considered, but not too seriously. The idea of man-made items in space (and humans in space, too) fascinates me, but I don’t find that the actual building of these items fascinates me in the same way—I’m an appreciator, not a creator. That being said, the more I think about it, the cooler it sounds. Even to be involved in some small way in this project is a really unique opportunity, and is something that could be really fun. I think I’ll reevaluate in the fall, and maybe join then.

If you’re interested in donating to this awesome cause, check out the crowdfunding campaign. So far, 422 funders have raised $65,000 of the $400,000 goal. There are two very popular donation amounts. One is $25, which gives you 25 characters that will be digitally stored in the Lunar Lion and broadcast back to earth from the Moon. The second is $100, which allows you 140 characters that will be engraved in gold in a time capsule in the Lunar Lion. The rewards get better and better as the donation level goes up. If one extremely wealthy person felt inclined to donate $1,000,000, for example, he/she would be able to send up their own 1kg time capsule that would exist for 10 million years.

What do you think about this project? Do you know anyone who is a part of it? Will Penn State really land on the moon? And how cool would it be if we did?