The $20 million grand prize of the Google Lunar XPrize might finally find its winner after two competitors decided to work hand-in-hand in order to achieve the mission of putting a lunar rover on the moon.
The Japan-based Hakuto and Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic has agreed to sign a deal to share a rocket ride to the moon in 2016 pushing the term "ride sharing" into a whole new level.
Hakuto has developed two rovers, named Tetris and Moonraker, and will hitch a ride on Astrobotic's moon lander which is expected to land on the Lacus Mortis region somewhere in the northeastern part of the moon. Once landed, the two teams will deploy their own rovers and the first to cover 500 meters while at the same time broadcasting high-definition video footages will be declared the winner of the purse, according to Quartz.
In order to completely detach from the Earth's gravitational pull, the two teams will be riding the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket which will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The official date for the launch was not yet identified but sources close to the project said that it will be somewhere around the fourth-quarter of 2016.
The two teams, Hakuto and Astrobotic, have previously participated in the Google Lunar XPrize Milestone Test. Hakuto successfully demonstrated its rover technology and took home $500,000. Astrobotic on the other hand took home $1.75 million after successfully testing its landing system along with its rover and imaging technology.
If the joint project is successful, it will be the first time that a commercial team successfully sent a rover on the moon and will open a new dawn of commercial space exploration, according to CNet.