Japanese team sets January deadline for Lunar X Prize rover entry

A Japanese team comprising Tokyo-based startup ispace and Tohoku University expects to complete its moon-bound robot contestant for Google Inc.'s exploration contest by next January. Hakuto will compete against 15 other teams from around the world to win the Google Lunar X Prize, the world's first private-sector competition to explore the lunar surface. The teams will send probes developed with money and technology from the private sector to the moon, get them to travel 500 meters or farther on its dusty surface, and transmit 360-degree images back to Earth. The first team to complete the mission will win the grand prize of 20 million. While the deadline for completing the mission is the end of 2017, none of the teams has landed a probe there yet.