[Dprglist] Moon rovers

[Ezra Christensen]

Google Lunar's XPRIZE is coming to the final leg, with 5 teams left and 
a deadline of Dec 31, 2017.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38731862

Israel's team has a hopper that will be riding on a SpaceX rocket.
India and Japan have wheeled rovers and will be sharing a ride on an 
Indian rocket. I give props to Japan's team for a clean, functional 
design (only 4kg) and to India's team for the consumer friendliness of 
their model. You could easily anthropomorphize India's build and drop it 
into a movie or sell mini-versions Short Circuit style.

The U.S. and International teams are planning to ride on two different, 
so-far untested rockets - a major risk IMO, but who am I to tell them 
what to do :)


Should be interesting to see what happens.


Ezra

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