GLXP Team Summit Around The Corner

The Google Lunar X PRIZE team here at HQ has *definitely* been keeping busy lately -- we have a lot of great news to share, including our announcement of the 20 finalist teams of the MoonBots competition this past Wednesday (check out these amazing young lunar robotics fans when you have a chance!), and we have some other VERY exciting news that we'll share in a few days. 

But this post is all about the upcoming Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Summit, which will take place on July 11-12 in Palo Alto, California. This is a yearly meeting that involves the teams, X PRIZE, and Google for discussion about the contest as it currently stands. This is the 5th Summit and will have by far the largest attendance of any of the previous Summits, with at least 1 or 2 representatives from every active team who are flying into San Francisco from around the world as we speak.

We'll be spending most of the two days at the SETI Institute, situated near Google and NASA Ames Research Center. Teams will have an opportunity to tour NASA Ames and attend a Lunar Science meeting with some of the experts who reside there. Topics related to business, funding, science, social media, competition rules, and everything in between will be discussed. There will also be plenty of time for discussion amongst the teams themselves, which can be one of the most beneficial aspects of this annual gathering.

The Summits are always a whirlwind two days, but it is surely one of my favorite parts of the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition. This will be my 4th Summit (3 as XPF staff, 1 as an ISU student), and I'm looking forward both to meeting new team members and visiting with those that I've interacted with over the past couple of years. And speaking of those that I've met before...

Acceptance of Challenge Acceptance

This brings me to one final and very important point, and that is a cheeseburger challenge. Today, the Part-Time Scientists formally stepped up to a California cheeseburger challenge  -- the GLXP teams vs. X PRIZE. We'll be recruiting contestants at the Summit and hopefully a few teams will join in the fun.

In response to the PTS blog post this morning: I've been spending my week eating cheeseburgers to train. Ok, I had pizza for lunch yesterday. But other than that, all cheeseburgers. Many of the PTS team members may be from Hamburg, home of the Hamburger... but let's not forget that *cheeseburgers* were invented near X PRIZE in Pasadena, CA   :)


Stay tuned for more news from GLXP in the next few days. And in the meantime: GO ATLANTIS!