A local businessman has his eyes on the sky.
On Tuesday, Pete Bitar of Anderson-based Air Buoyant, announced that he had assembled a team to pursue the $30 million Lunar X Prize, sponsored by Google. The contest challenges teams to send a remote rover to the moon, travel at least 500 meters and send data back to earth.
“I am only leading the team and pulling together funding,” Bitar said. “The rest of the team includes rocket scientists from Huntsville, Ala., mission control expects, satellite systems and some talent coming out of Purdue and the University of Dayton.”
Today, four members of Bitar’s team, dubbed Team LunaTrex, will deliver its presentation at Google headquarters in California. Portions of presentations will be available through Google’s Web site. More information on the project will be available at a press conference scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Flagship Enterprise Center.
According to Bitar, Team LunaTrex includes Orion Propulsion and High Altitude Research, both based in Huntsville, Ala.; MC Squared of Phoenix, Ariz.; and Orbit Frontiers of Lafayette. Other group members come from the University of Dayton (Ohio) and Purdue University, along with several aerospace professionals.
“LunaTrex is an alliance of corporations from all over the state and the nation, working together to focus their talents on succeeding in this venture,” Bitar said. “Moreover, Team LunaTrex is committed to sustainable space services, such as small satellite launches, spacecraft design, space mission design, mission control and as a global telemetry and data provider.”
Contest rules require that all teams be at least 90 percent privately funded in order to compete. The first team to complete the mission before 2012 will be awarded $20 million; after 2012, the prize drops to $15 million. The second team to complete the mission will receive $5 million and another $5 million in bonus prizes will also be awarded. Final deadline for the competition is Dec. 31, 2014.
“The Google Lunar X Prize calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity,” said Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, in a statement. “We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration.”
Bitar has long taken an interest in aviation and aeronautics and operates Air Buoyant and Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems out of Anderson Municipal Airport. XADS, which gained notoriety for earning multimillion dollar contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense for non-lethal weapons, is now working on detection of improvised explosive devices, which have caused injury and death among U.S. military personnel in Iraq and elsewhere.
Air Buoyant has also been developing the VertiPod, a single-passenger aircraft that Bitar has called “the Segway of the sky.”
The Lunar X Prize project has earned the endorsement of Hollywood director James Cameron (“Titanic,” “The Abyss,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”) and has gained the approval and support of Michael D. Griffin, administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Local News
9:49 p.m.: Anderson company pursuing $30 million lunar exploration prize
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