“The cost to get to space is coming down dramatically,” said John Thornton, chief executive officer of Astrobotic. “That’s why a lunar logistics company can actually make money, something that even 15 years ago would be considered science fiction.”
Cash rewards have spurred innovation before. An 18th century navigation device for determining a ship’s longitude at sea was developed in pursuit of a prize.
Historic Prizes
The lunar competition is inspired by the Orteig Prize, which in 1927 gave $25,000 to Charles Lindbergh for the first non-stop solo flight between New York and Paris.
The race, and the resulting media frenzy, helped jump start long-distance aviation commerce, according to Joe Jackson, whose “Atlantic Fever” chronicles the events. Within a year of Lindbergh’s feat, the number of planes in the country quadrupled while that of airline passengers rose 30-fold, according to NASA.
“It was a lucky convergence of technology, personalities and finance, and you have some of those elements now,” Jackson said in a phone interview. “People’s attention is grabbed by these kinds of victory-or-death situations, even if the life at stake this time is a robot’s.”