EARTH – After 50 years, humans are going back to the moon, and at this point the only question is who or which company will get there first.
On Monday, aerospace company Airbus announced a new challenge fueling the competition to return to the moon in the next five years. The Moon Race dares companies or individual groups to develop technology for sustainable exploration of the lunar surface, including plant growth, manufacturing, energy and creating valuable resources such as water.
The goal of the five-year race is to get humankind back on the moon and to establish a sustainable moon base where people can live and work.
Recommended Videos
Airbus, along with its international partners, including the European Space Agency and Jeff Bezos’ space startup Blue Origin announced the race to the moon at the annual International Astronautical Congress happening this week in Bremen, Germany.
"We’re excited to be a part of an international collaboration to build a sustained presence on the moon," Blue Origin tweeted. "#BlueMoon and #NewGlenn will help us get back to the moon, and this time to stay."
New Glenn is Blue Origin's heavy lift rocket being built at a facility near Kennedy Space Center.
The competition will be managed by “The Moon Race NPO gGmbH," a German nonprofit organization, according to Airbus.
Groups are asked to develop technology solutions for living and working on the moon in four categories including building out of lunar material, creating an energy source, creating a water-creation system and sustaining plant growth on the moon.
Team’s will be judged on how well their solution performs, whether it’s scalable, innovation and outreach.
Those who make it to the final round will receive a monetary prize and their work could launch to the moon as soon as 2024, according to the The Moon Race timeline.
This isn’t the first lunar international competition inspired by the moon.
Last year, the Google Lunar XPrize ended without a team claiming the $20 million prize. The goal of the competition was to be the first private company to land a spacecraft on the moon by 2017, none of the competitors achieved that. However, five companies have secured launch contracts with rocket providers, including Japan's ispace and Israel's SpaceIL. Both of those startups will launch with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Moon Express, based at Cape Canaveral, was also a competitor and continues to develop small robotic lunar landers. The company recently secured an additional $10 million in funds to build out test facilities at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.
Applications or The Moon Race will open next year at themoonrace.org.