Washington: You may soon be able to watch live telecast from the moon, and closely see how it looks like from the surface that has fascinated young and old alike since ages.
Science Channel and Discovery Channel have announced that the networks would serve as television homes for the Google Lunar Xprize - a $30 million competition for privately-funded teams to land an unmanned craft on the moon by Dec 31, 2015.
The networks would follow teams as they try to land a craft on the surface of the moon, travel 500 metres and transmit live pictures and video back to earth.
“More than half of the world’s population has never had the opportunity to view a live transmission from the lunar surface,” the organisers were quoted as saying.
The Google Lunar Xprize aims to create a new “Apollo” moment for this generation and to spur continuous lunar exploration with $40 Million in incentive based prizes.
The Science Channel and Discovery Channel would follow the entire process including testing, lift-off and live coverage of the winning lunar landing, which is estimated to take place in 2015.
“In addition to the technological breakthroughs catalysed by the Google Lunar Xprize, we have an equally important goal of inspiring young scientists, engineers and space explorers,” Robert Weiss of Xprize was quoted as saying in media reports.
