These Teams Are Competing to Land The First Privately Funded Robot on The Moon

facebooktwitterreddit

For 16 teams from countries around the world, the dream of someday building a machine that makes it to the moon is closer than ever, thanks to the ongoing Google Lunar XPRIZE competition. In addition to making history with the first non-governmental robotic rovers to land and drive on the moon, the contest offers a $30 million award.

A new documentary series titled Moon Shot, produced by Stars Wars director J.J. Abrams, tells the stories of some of those teams as they work to build their privately funded robots. Popular Science reports that all nine episodes of the series are now available to watch for free using Google Play, and the videos will land on YouTube on March 17.

Episodes in the series are around seven minutes long and focus on the competing teams, including the United States-based Team Astrobiotic, Berlin-based GLXP, and Team Indus from India. There is also an episode that focuses on an all-girl team of kids competing in Moonbots, a robotics competition designed to get students more involved with and interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).

Check out the trailer above for a preview of the Moon Shot documentary series, and use Google Play to share and watch each episode today.

[h/t Popular Science]

Banner image via YouTube.