Started 10 years ago, in 2007, the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition will be completed without revealing the main winner and awarding cash prizes worth $ 30 million. According to the conditions of the competition, the winner's team was to send to the Moon a device of its own design. After consulting the jury of the contest with five finalists it was found out that no one device at the appointed time, on March 31, 2018, could be launched on the moon.
In the course of the contest, the incentive prizes of $ 6 million were paid to the teams, in addition, more than 300 million sponsorship funds were drawn from various sources. However, in the process of preparing the team faced with a large number of problems of a technical and organizational nature. After all, to get the main cash prize from Google in the amount of $ 20 million, the winner was required to put on the lunar surface his self-propelled machine, which needed to overcome at least 500 meters on its own and transmit high-quality photo and video images to the Earth. The silver medalist would receive a reward of $ 5 million, and the remaining $ 5 million would be distributed as a reward to distinguished participants.
One of the leaders of the contest, the Moon Express team announced more than a year ago that the financing problems have been completely solved and the preparation of sending the MX-1E to the Moon is in the final stage. However, to transport the MX-1E, the Electron carrier rocket was chosen, the trial launch of which did not end well, and the second launch, albeit successful, was carried out only on January 21, 2018. The Moon Express team simply did not have time to complete the project by the deadline set by the contest, which is being postponed for the fourth time. The initial date for the end of the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition was 2014.
By the final of the contest, only five teams came from the 25 teams: Moon Express (USA), SpaceIL (Israel), TeamIndus (India), Hakuto (Japan) and the international Synergy Moon team. Despite the seeming failure of the competition, it should be noted that as a result of the competition, sponsorship funds for the financing of space research projects in the amount of $ 300 million were used, new jobs were created, young technical specialists from around the world were involved in working on space exploration problems. Moon Express, the first private company, received permission from the US authorities to launch an aircraft beyond the Earth orbit.
The organizers of the XPRIZE said that, despite the completion of the competition without identifying the winner, it is too early to talk about the complete closure of the project. At the moment, the main sponsor is identified, which will replace Google, or the continuation of the intellectual competition will be transferred to a non-profit basis.