I was surfing around on the 'Net and found myself at the site for the Google X-Prize contest. It's like the Ansari X-Prize, but this contest has a $20 million prize for landing the first private rover on the moon. I was interested in whether or not there was a minimum size limit for the rover, so i went to the "rules" section of the contest. Well, in order to download the rules, I had to register a team for the contest. Being in a somewhat mind-altered state and with the concept of "small" and "rover" in mind, I came to the place to name the team and explain its main goal and concepts. So, what else could I name the team but "MINI on the Moon". The goal was "land a scale-model MINI Cooper on the moon".

After going over the rules, it's not the craziest idea I've ever had. There's no minimum size, as long as the "rover" (pun intended) can get the job done. And the job is not that difficult:

1. Soft-land a vehicle on the moon (they have a commercial launch service that will be providing the "ride"...so that's just a matter of money and a bunch of airbags, ala the Mars rovers

2. Drive in a controlled manner for a distance of 500 meters.

3. Send back pictures, email, and data.

4. Carry a 250 gram (~10 oz) payload.

It crossed my mind that a remote-controlled toy MINI carrying a smartphone could actually fulfill the requirements (assuming we could find a cell-tower in range ).

So, now there's an officially-registered team for the X-Prize. All we need is a few million dollars. Please mail me your nickels.

Hey, Dr. Mike, are you still working with the rocket folks in California? Maybe we can marry your passions for MINIs with your passion for rockets...

BTW, we wouldn't be the first folks to try to launch a MINI. Remember the TV show "Master Blaster" where they launched two full-size MINI's using cruise missile engines?

mini-bear

 

Sounds reasonable...

 

check's in the mail.