Five Teams Remain On Lunar Race, X Prize Makes Beneficial Rule Change

The competition to reach the moon is on its final leg. Google and X Prize announced that out of the 33 teams that joined the race, only five were able to secure a launch contract, which is necessary to stay in the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

The five remaining teams are India's Team Indus, Moon Express from the US, Hakuto from Japan, Israel's SpaceIL, and Synergy Moon, which is composed of different teams who initially started with the other four. Each of them now has a one-way ticket to the moon, wherein they would compete for the final task of the competition, National Geographic reports.

As the first team to secure a ticket on October 2015, SpaceIL is teaming up with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket for a flight scheduled in the latter half of the year. Their spacecraft, called the Sparrow, is built to be small and smart hopper, able to leap horizontally up to 1640 feet.

Looking into mining and retrieving lunar resources for use in Earth, Moon Express' MX-1E lander will board the Electron, a yet to be tested rocket from startup company Rocket Lab. Initial testing of the rocket will start in a few months' time.

Team Indus will be assisted by the Indian Space Research Organization on getting their lunar lander to its destination. Its mission when it gets there, though, is yet to be stated.

As for Hokuto, their dual landers will be hitching a ride with Team Indus. Composed of the two-wheeler Tetris and a four-wheeler Moonraker, the Japanese team is set to explore a lava tube on the moon's surface.

With a goal to make manned orbital travel possible and cost effective, Synergy Moon will be launching their lunar lander along with a team member. They will be carried by Interorbital system's NEPTUNE 8, which has yet to be tested as well. Aside from manned orbits, the team wants to look into satellite launches Solar System exploration as affordable and accessible as possible.

As reported by Forbes, X Prize has given more time for the teams to complete their mission. They now have to get their landers to the moon by December 31, 2017, instead of completing the mission by that time. According to the organizers, the move was done due to the diverse mission plans of each team. Each team, however, is required to cover at least 1,640 feet of lunar terrain and should be able to send images back on Earth.

The prize: $20 million for the first place, $5 million for the runner up, and an additional $5 million for outstanding achievement. Additionally, the $1 million Diversity prize was split to the 16 teams, as the organizers were impressed by the unique approach and initiatives they have shown during the process.