Team Cringely Talks to the Space Fellowship about winning the Google Lunar X-Prize.

In a recent interview with Bob Cringely of Team Cringely we talked about their team and how they planned on winning the Google Lunar X-Prize. The team is not yet registered for the prize however they fully intend on winning it, a situation similar to Interplanetary Ventures.

Kevin Myrick of Interplanetary Ventures recently viewed his thoughts on not being registered. Kevin quoted Peter Kokh of the Moon Society, Peter had apparently said “Its’ one thing to talk about wanting to compete, another to put money where your mouth is.” Kevin’s response as a non-registered team was “Actually these two things are not mutually exclusive. InterPlanetary Ventures falls into the first category, we talk about wanting to compete, but we also fall into the second category.”

With this in mind my first question to Bob was regarding his team. I asked How they are getting along putting a team together to compete for the Google Lunar X-Prize? And do they feel their current staff have the required experience and backgrounds to cope with such a large project? The response was:

We’ve recruited team members and investors pretty much through word of mouth. Of course it helps that I am a blogger with 300,000 weekly readers. Team Cringely is all-volunteer, though a number of our members are space industry veterans. Our team, by the way, is more or less complete. As for “being such a large project” it’s only large if you make it so: the core of Team Cringely is eight people.

The current “Wiki” style website that they have online suggests that this project will require as little as $5 million. Baring in mind many people have suggested the actual prize money would not cover the costs I asked Bob to break this down a little. His response was “That is confidential at this point but we’re quite confident it will be enough. Ironically our analysis shows that if we had more money to spend we probably would have a lower chance of winning.”

Moving back to the actual registration process I thought I would ask how close they were to registering. I got a fairly detailed response suggesting that Google may get annoyed with the X-Prize Foundation.

“We could register tomorrow if we liked the terms. At this point we think it wiser to continue un-registered until Google gets annoyed with the X Prize Foundation and forces them to relax a few rules, primarily on sponsor approval and control of media and marketing. I come from television and being told that only the X Prize Foundation can cut any TV deals is insane. It hurts the teams and it hurts the public’s right to know. This has nothing to do with the contest or with space and everything to do with the X Prize Foundation competing with the teams for revenue and sponsorships. The X Prize Foundation is being paid by Google and that should be enough.”

A part of the wiki suggested “Our “first stage” will be a tried-and-true MiG-23. Our 4,000-5,000 KG rocket, lunar injector and payload will suspend under the wing until in the upper atmosphere. From there, the rocket will drop, the engine will ignite, and the rocket and payload will aim for the moon.” Bob informed me that as the team has progressed they have decided to concentrate on using MiG-25s which can do the job and are also in abundant supply. He added “Of course if this turns out not to work we have a fallback launch technology, though it isn’t as much fun, nor can we sell a seat on that launch vehicle.”

With regards to their own propulsion system they tell me that they have already chosen the propulsion system but those details will be kept private for now, also adding that it is quite well proven which means the system is not made by them.

The team plan to send as many rovers to the moon as it takes to win the prize. Quite simple Bob puts their plan as “We are building 24 rovers and will land one per week until we win as much money as possible, ideally $25 million.”

I asked how far along they were with regards to getting a final rover design in mind, I got a simple answer “We are 12-14 months from launch.”

Regarding a launch I asked what methods had been considered for getting to the surface of the moon. Bob tells me “We’ve always aimed for a direct ascent for its simplicity and the success of the Russian Luna probes from the 1960s that used it. We are, however, considering alternatives if they increase our payload. As for landing on the Moon, we’ll do it the old Apollo LEM way and use rocket thrust to brake and land.”

A question I have asked a few of the other teams which seems to always bring up interesting responses is how teams perceive their competitors. Bob answered this with a Baseball quote!

“Baseball pitcher Satchel Paige said, “Never look back, somebody might be gaining on you.” It’s too late now to change our plans based on what some other team is doing so we aren’t even looking. Our advantage is clearly time-to-launch so we have to be bold and decisive.”

We finished with asking them what their long-term plans are for the organisation. Quite simply I was told that there is no long-term plan. Bob added “When we win we’ll establish a $5 million scholarship fund in the name of our sponsors for aero-astro engineering students, repay our investors, split what’s left according to a secret formula that assures my three sons can pay for college, then the last one out the door turns off the lights.”

Copyright 2008 The International Space Fellowship. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.

Please feel free to discuss this topic further in the forum…