Lunar Lander

Student Shoot for the Moon at Google Lunar X-Prize Summit
A group of six aerospace engineering students from Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus was the only U.S. university team invited to make a proposal at a Google Lunar X-Prize (www.googlelunarxprize.org) summit held May 20 in Strasbourg, France.

The team’s concepts for a rover that could land on the moon, move 500 meters, shoot photos and video, and transmit them back to Earth was not accepted, but not for lack of technical expertise or business details.
“Our team put together a great proposal,” said Bogdan Udrea, assistant professor of aerospace engineering and the team’s advisor. “Unfortunately our ideas were scored down because they were considered too risky.”

Also competing at the summit were teams from International Space University in Strasbourg, winner of the grand prize, Technical University of Stuttgart in Germany, winner of the technical excellence prize, Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space (SupAero) in France, winner of the business excellence prize, Universita Politecnica de Catalunya in Spain, and Team Italia, a group of students from five Italian universities.
The Embry-Riddle students were Robert Latta, team leader, Svilen Kozhuharov, Mathieu Naslin, David Paiz, Johann Schrell, and Brandon Walsh-Reed.