"Australia is so ideal to be part of the whole process, we have the infrastructure and expertise" ... Robert Brand. Photo: Sahlan Hayes
AT THE age of 17, Robert Brand spent his summer holidays in Sydney wiring video and audio connections for NASA to relay Apollo 11's images from the moon to the world.
More than 50 years later, Mr Brand hopes to communicate with another craft destined for the lunar surface as part of an international race to land a robot on the moon by the end of 2015.
The Google Lunar X Prize will award $20 million to the first privately funded team to successfully land an unmanned craft on the moon. The craft must travel 500 metres when on its surface and send video and images back to Earth for its makers to claim the prize.
Mr Brand's Team Stellar, which includes international space experts including scientists who worked on Felix Baumgartner's free fall from the edge of space, is one of 25 teams and plans to build mission control centres in Sydney and Croatia.
''Australia is so ideal to be part of the whole process, we have the infrastructure and expertise,'' said Mr Brand, who runs an aerospace and underground communications company, and is the team's communications director.
Team Stellar plans to buy a spacecraft of similar size and shape to the 21-metre SpaceX rocket that supplied cargo to the International Space Station earlier this year.
It will house a rocket powered lander and a combined battery-solar powered rover to explore the surface, both of which the team's members plan to build themselves.
As the lander will detach from the rocket upon re-entry, it will need to withstand the sun's solar radiation as well as the heat that rises from the surface of the moon.
To communicate with its craft, the team will set up a deep space communications network comprising three 30-metre antennas at different locations around the world. One antenna will be bought and erected somewhere in central NSW.
If the lunar landing is successful, the Curiosity spacecraft-sized rover will capture high-quality video and audio, which the lander will beam to Earth.
The team plans to conduct trials in Australia and other countries before the final launch in mid-2014.
Mr Brand expects his team to be able to send a craft to the moon for less than $50 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment