InterPlanetary Ventures

Getting People Into Space

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International Team Enters The Google Lunar X Prize Moon Race
InterPlanetary Ventures has formed an international team to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize race to the moon, a competition to be the first private group to send a robotic rover to the moon. The team includes organizations and individuals from many different countries, promoting international cooperation in space by working together in the development of a spherical robotic rover and an automated moonbase to complete the contest requirements.
Updated July 16, 2008 -- InterPlanetary Ventures has formed an international team to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize race to the moon, which includes $30,000,000 in prizes for competition winners. The InterPlanetary Ventures team includes working groups in Europe, India, Sri Lanka and the United States, and individuals in several other countries, promoting international cooperation in space exploration and development.
The Google Lunar X Prize is bringing together teams from the private sector to finally do what no one has done before, move private enterprise into space beyond earth orbit. Speaking on the future of space exploration, Nicolas Peter, a research fellow at the European Space Policy Institute commented “It will involve industry, universities and other non-governmental organizations. This adventure will be driven primarily by a quest for knowledge, involving not only the hard sciences but arts and humanities as well.”
That describes the InterPlanetary Ventures team and their goals for this project. The team is lead by Kevin Myrick, founder and CEO of InterPlanetary Ventures. He directs the teams Consultants group, aerospace professionals working on the spacecraft and lunar lander systems to be launched in the US. Myrick is also organizing related arts programs, including exterior spacecraft design contests and a special visual display project to be executed from the moon.
Dr. Jason Held of Saber Astronautics is the Chief Technology Officer for the project, and Saber Astronautics is providing business and technical management services for the team. They will also develop a transport vehicle, or Space Tug, that may be used to transport one of the lunar landers from earth orbit to lunar orbit.
The group from Sri Lanka is lead by Rameesha De Silva, Mechanical Engineer and Researcher at the University of Moratuwa, and Dr. Palitha Dassanayake, Senior Lecturer in the department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Moratuwa. Their group, along with Dr. Alex Green from Saber Astronautics is working on robotic hardware and software systems that will become two lunar rovers.
Gerard Auvray of France and Giulio Pezzi of Italy are heading up the telecommunications group, developing our communications strategies and equipment that will keep us in touch with the landers and rovers and transport vehicles. Mark Posen of RPC Telecom (United Kingdom) is handling the mountains of regulatory paperwork for the Telecom Team.
Gilles Poirey of France and Yulian Protsan of Ukraine and Tater Schud from the US lead astronautics groups. Yulian's group, from the Laboratory of Advanced Jet Propulsions, is developing a lunar lander to be launched from the Ukraine. Gilles and Tater are working with another group on a lander to be launched from the US.
The group from India is lead by Sayandeep Khan, Director of Student Activities for InterPlanetary Ventures. His group, which includes members from Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), the Space Generation Congress (SGC) and the Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators youth program (S.P.A.C.E. India) is developing research and development applications for the rovers and automated moon base. These research applications are designed and will be managed by the Principle Investigator of the team, geophysicist and planetary scientist Brian Shiro.
A second student group in the US, the InterPlanetary Ventures Young Astronauts chapters will assemble and test components and systems to be used in the rovers and spacecraft. Their testing will include suborbital rocket launches to test these systems in space.
The robotic players on the team include a Spherical Robotic Rover with High Definition Video cameras to capture video of its travels on the moon. The lunar landers will also play a key role on the team, expanding to become automated lunar exploration and development bases. A second rover, equipped with high definition cameras and prospecting gear will complete the robotic members of the team.
InterPlanetary Ventures is based in Northern California. Our mission is to get more people supporting space exploration and development, and to do whatever it takes to assist in the development of the technological and financial infrastructure required to support humanities expansion into the solar system.
Contact:
Kevin Myrick
510-232-3522
kemyrick@interplanetaryventures.org
http://www.interplanetaryventures.org