Astrobotic CEO Skeptical Anyone Will Win Google Lunar X Prize
Peregrine lunar lander (Credit: Astrobotic)
Astrobotic CEO John Thornton, whose company announced its withdrawal for the Google Lunar X Prize, doesn’t have a lot of hope that anyone will win the $30 million competition next year.
In a SpaceNews Magazine op-ed titled, “Graduating from the Google Lunar X Prize,” Thorton wrote: (emphasis mine)
Six years ago, Astrobotic made a bold move. We were the first Google Lunar X Prize team to announce a contract with a launch service provider to compete for the $20 million prize in a bid to become the first private company to land on the moon. We believed then that a launch contract would convince customers and investors to book our lunar lander’s remaining payload capacity and invest in our company to finance the rest of the launch payments – but it didn’t work. We lost our launch opportunity and had to rebuild our mission.
As I survey the field of Google Lunar X Prize teams that have announced launch contracts over the last few months, I see many repeating the same mistake. X Prize has announced that any team that does not secure by the end of this year a launch contract to fly in 2017 will no longer be eligible to compete. For many teams, signing a launch contract now is an act of self-preservation. Unfortunately, the premature schedule is forcing teams to take perilous risks. Some teams are promising to launch next year without having cut an ounce of metal. Some have pledged to fly on brand new launch vehicles that haven’t even flown yet. Others are hanging their hat on headline-grabbing policy announcements to suggest big progress is being made toward a mission. Still others are hastily assembling their spacecraft and hoping for the best.
In other words, the teams have a long way to go and a short time to get there. And few of them appear even close to being ready to launch a rover to the lunar surface before the prize expires at the end of 2017.
Google Lunar X Prize has verified the launch contracts for five out of the 16 teams left in the competition. A sixth team has submitted a contract for verification by the end of this year. The table below shows the current state of launch contracts and the boosters the spacecraft will fly on.
| TEAM | LOCATION |
LAUNCHER |
LAUNCHER FLOWN | CONTRACT VERIFIED |
NOTES |
| Indus | India | ISRO PSLV | Y | Y | Lander will carry Team Indus & Team Hakuto rovers; PSLV highly reliable, has launched spacecraft to moon & Mars; launch schedule in late December 2017 leaves little room for delays |
| Hakuto | Japan | ISRO PSLV | Y | Y | Rover will fly aboard Team Indus lander |
| Moon Express | USA | Rocket Labs Electron | N | Y | Rocket Lab has qualified 1st & second stages; flight tests to begin in 2017; company has never launched anything to space |
| SpaceIL | Israel | SpaceX Falcon 9 | Y | Y | Secondary payload; Falcon 9 currently grounded & experienced reliability problems; SpaceX has had difficulty meeting schedules |
| Synergy Moon | International | Interorbital Systems Neptune | N | Y | Interorbital Systems has never launched anything to space |
| PT Scientists | Germany | Unidentified | Unknown | N | Contract with Spaceflight Industries, an American company that brokers launches; launch vehicle not identified |
Aside from the concerns about the launch vehicles, Thorton brings up another important question: how ready are these teams to attempt a lunar landing? Space is hard. Landing on the moon is even harder. It’s difficult to throw together a successful mission at the last minute. There’s a real probability that teams will launch hardware that’s not ready for prime time.
There is the possibility that one team (or perhaps several) could succeed through hard work and no small amount of luck. But, how valuable would that actually be?
We’ve been to the moon before. A number of landers and rovers litter the surface. Twelve American astronauts walked on the moon and returned hundreds of pounds of rocks to Earth.
To take lunar exploration to the next level, we need to deploy sophisticated surface systems capable of categorizing what is there and how to use it. These small rovers built by private teams will likely not advance this cause on a technological level.
Getting a private rover to the surface on a shoestring budget would be a great success. But, would the teams be able to really follow up on it?
The Ansari X Prize offers a cautionary tale. Only one company field a vehicle capable of winning the prize. Scaled Composites then spent a decade in partnership with Virgin Galactic trying to commercialize the technology. The result was a wrecked spaceship and four fatalities without a single flight anywhere near space. More than a dozen years in, we’re still waiting.
There’s another question that looms large: Is there enough of a commercial market at the moon for companies to succeed carrying payloads?
Thorton believes there is a market. He has framed Astrobotic’s withdrawal from the Google Lunar X Prize not as a failure to nail down a launch contract in time, but as a strategic decision to focus on a long-range business strategy. The company now plans to launch a private lunar mission in 2019.
Although we’re separating from the X Prize, we acknowledge the important role they’ve played in our development to date. The X Prize, like any technology prize, was meant to be a catalyst for a new market. And to its credit, it did exactly that. It was because of the X Prize that Astrobotic was founded and won $1.75 million in milestone prizes in 2015. For that, we remain forever grateful.
But from the beginning, we built Astrobotic as a business first, with the X Prize as a potential bonus. This approach has led to 10 signed payload deals with more than 100 lunar payload customers in our pipeline, and a team of world-class partners including Airbus Defence and Space, NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne. Our reputation as a space company of technical rigor and credibility has enabled us to attract these top-quality partners. Our combined technical excellence maintains those partnerships through numerous technical reviews, including a recent three-day intensive design review of the Peregrine Lunar Lander.
We will see which approach works. We’ll know in just over a year whether anyone is capable of winning the prize. It will be a couple of years after that before we see what Astrobotic can do at the moon.
13 responses to “Astrobotic CEO Skeptical Anyone Will Win Google Lunar X Prize”
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Thank you, Captain Obvious !
Maybe Doug can have him write some PB editorials. LOL!
good article, but there is the twist…
http://www.frontslobode.ba/…
Yes , and Yes. But this is why we are there. Because its look impossible. “We are here to do the impossible things today , the possible one the Nature will do tomorrow alone , and can be late.”. Astrobotic has a fantastic project. Hope to see you back.
interesting.
Only 1 American team left.
We had started with quite a number of them.
The others are running mostly on national pride. Plus given the business environment they are in a stunt like this is the only option.
Interorbital will fly Synergy Moon’s lander and rover under US License; at its core, SM is a US team. Synergy Moon has numerous international team members and partners, so we classify ourselves as ‘International.’
Perhaps this final failure of a mega space prize will start folks looking at their role rationally again. The end of such circus stunts should also improve the image of space commerce in the business world.
Rationally to go the Moon ? Now ?
Doug Messier, the author of this article, has not included important information regarding the Interorbital (IOS) Lunar launch vehicle’s level of development. Interorbital would like to inform the readers that its team has also qualified the main liquid rocket engine in ground testing (upper-stage version has a larger exit area). This IOS modular launch system engine was qualified in 2012 and 2013. In addition, the engine was also flight-tested in 2014. The launch system is composed of an array of Common Propulsion Modules (CPMs), each with an identical liquid rocket engine. A version of the launch system composed of 8 CPMs will be used to launch the GLXP payload to the Moon. In addition, a modular solid rocket motor that will be used for the third and fourth stage and the Lunar Lander has also been tested (see http://www.interorbital.com). Interorbital is presently completing the development of its unique guidance and steering system. A series of flight tests of this system will begin in the second quarter of 2017.
We have informed Messier that this vital information has been omitted, but he has not made the correction, so we unfortunately had to personally provide this information.
One other comment: we find it strange that people seem to be viewing the new head of Astrobotics, John Thornton, as if he is the ultimate expert on all things Google Lunar X PRIZE and on what’s required to get to the Moon. He and his team apparently couldn’t get it together to meet all the requirements to continue in the competition and meet the deadlines like some of us were able to do—while at the same time he disparages those of us who have verified launch contracts and are testing the tech to actually have a chance at winning the prize. His need to insult the teams moving on to the next phase of the competition— when he was unable to—smacks of nothing else than being a poor loser.
Good Points. Astrobotics ( very nice project and Team ) get some money ( with merit ::: here the news : https://techcrunch.com/2016… , and 21 NASA Contracts !!! ) from GLXP and withdraw. I dont know why ? I cannot understand ? They was favorites … This need to be understanded , it need to be said just to complete the scenario. All of us knows that GLXP is an venture , a startup with high risk. Its sound very strange if any one of us , after 10 years , now start to say that this is impossible. All of us know that land on Moon is in first place a Money Challenge. Thats why , no money Teams are here. Our mission is to create a new pathway without big amount of money and without gov ( including NASA and other Gov agencies ). So , in the future more normal humans will have access to Space. I just have to say: John , we need incentive and not sencacionalism about our courage. Warm regards …
For the record, I had received information from Interorbital about the story but had not had time — due to holiday events and other commitments — to review it and make corrections. I was about to do so when this comment was made.
Maybe we can Fail , but abandon never … 🙂