XPRIZE Competition Reignites Passion in Space Exploration Some may claim that the Hubble Space Telescope, the Mars Exploration Rover or Neil Armstrong’s famous moonwalk has been the greatest space achievements known to man. However, new innovations and expeditions have made great leaps to achieve what these accomplishments never could. Inspiration for upcoming spaceflight engineers. Google’s robotic lunar expedition proves to put itself in contention for greatest space achievement as it inspires young students to enter the space exploration field of technology. Since the avid fascination of space exploration during the Cold War and the launch of Apollo 11, interest in space exploration has been dwindling. With long periods of time …show more content…
Not only does the biggest space shuttle expedition seem to be on the brink of termination, but it seems to bring the entire organization to a screeching halt as well. Above all, 20% of NASA’s budget had been relinquished to federal government spending, which predicts to close the International Space Station in less than 10 years and bring American spatial exploration to a finish. However, Google seems to have sparked a new flame under “out-of-this-world” exploration. The Google XPRIZE Competition will pit vast numbers of young engineers against each other to build a robotic rocket that must land on the moon, travel 500 meters along the surface, and transmit HD video back to the launch station. Why will this ignite a new beginning in the “final frontier?” The winning team will receive a grand prize of $30 Million dollars for their privately funded operation. Despite the 30 Million being only a fraction of NASA’s annual budget, it still has the potential to inspire a young engineers and large investors to buy into space