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wel now nbonlcetahnolesyenepeneson.ts mision nowise stent aly two old。is peancwgnentinefpoentaie head awin the pr ze of cou re， but abso too uc me aMAs in Indi， natonal pr de is clay on thehas a teaching unit about the Space lLe fort andschol kids wilbeclsefolowngthemilonone e it blasts off for the moon， hoping the in swbecome the fist country ever to send apr vat elyWe wanted all kids in Israel to be headsupabout ths"sald Priv man， adding with a laugh-We want these kids to be able to explain to the lparents whats going on."Enough with the hopping already.Haku toTeam Indus， and a California-based interna.tional consortium known as Synergy Moon allplan to use a separate， wheeled rover to gatherdata， which points up an arguable loophole intherules：Hakutocouldwinbysubcontract-ing out both launch and landing.only needingto deploy its S orator over to achieve victory.Gonzales-Mowrer， the X Prize race director， saysthat would be just fine：“We wanted teams tocome up with various approaches to accomplish-ing the mission， she explains.From af inaneing point of view， the main threshold is simplythat competitors must show X Prize judges thatatleast 9o percent of their money comes fromnongovernment sources.“Ir's been fun to watch the teams network wtheachother and with outside providers to drive downthe costs he said.“In that sense， the ultimate goalof this competition has already been achieved.IF THERE IS TO BE a giant Walmart-or perhapsan lke a-for space faring ventures someday henInter orbital Systems， the primary company behind the Synergy Moon consort im， is determined to fll that role.It aims to be the lowestcost launch provider in the commercial spaceindustry”says its co-founder and CEO， RandaRe lih Mil ron.To do ths she explains， it wibuild rockets in modular， standardized unitsuse off the shelf components wherever posi bie，controlers：and experiment with lower cost fuelssuch as turpentine as propellants.incuding industr a limi at on tubes and mioin the Call fornia desert.a hundred miles of sonorth of downtown LosAngeles Milon point-offers a do-it yourself TubeS at Pets on alSa teteKit for aroundS 16.00o.a price that“includeshighschool or college students.Customers wllsive CubeS at available) and out it it with what-assemble the tube there is also a more expen-ever small additional gear they can ft， such asorbitor sensors that can monitor weather conditions.The company plans to launch the personalsatellites into orbit 192 miles above the Earth， asufficient height to allow them to operate fromthree weeks to two months， depending on solaractivity， after which the devices wilburn up safely after reentering the atmosphere.Milliron and her husband， Roderick， have beenworking on and off for more than 2o years to getthe company-and its rockets-off the ground.I's safe to say that several remaining and formercompetitors in the GLX Prace admire their pluckbut doubt their chances.Even if they reach themoon with one of their DIY rockets， their planto use a customized“throw bot"as their rovingdevice on the moon has also raised eyebrows.(Throw bots， throwable robots， are frequentlyused by them i itary， police， and firefighters toprovide video"eyes"in a location too dangerousto enter， such as a terrorist hideout， a suspectedmeth lab， or a burning building)Even so， the couple and a small crew of em·ployees press on in their warehouse set amidthe large， miltary-issue sheds and Quonset hutsthat makeup the spaceport side of the dustydesert complex-the other side of the runway isa giant“boneyard， where commercial airlinerssuch asoldBoeing747sandDC-10s have cometo die， parked for good and waiting to be cut upfor scrap.The Mil rons say their in i al launches wll befrom a barge at an ocean site off the Californiacoast With a humble budget they decline to quan-tify publicly.but with grand dreams they describeexpansively， it is hard to know exactly what tomake of them or of the Synergy Moon entry in thespace race， which their firm essentially anchorsThe team does have a verified launch contract.although it appears to be essentially with it selLsince ir's the only entrant in the race planning todo all the things needed to win-launching.land-ing.roving.and transmitting-on its own.“Sometimes we feel like renegades or outcasts，building these rockets by ourselves， said RandaMilliron on at our of Inter orbital's workshop.“Butthat's the whole point， really.We are disrupters.We are out to show the world this can all be doneat truly radically lower costs."From this Mojave Desert outpost to the Atlan-tic shore at Cape Canaveral， from the outskirts ofTel Aviv to the Japanese sand dunes and a Ban-galore warehouse， all five teams are forging aheadon the irrespective missions.Each is driven towin-but each is also surprisingly friendly withits competitors.Over the past several years， evenas the number of teams officially dwindled from29 to 16 and down to the five remaining at time ofwriting.one of them has hosted an annual sum-mit meeting for everyone else， as well as X PrizeFoundation officials， with each leader offeringa frank presentation on successes and setbacksto date.Alliances have formed， such as an agree-ment between Team Indus and Haku to to share aride on the Indian space agency's rocket and theIndus lander， essentially duking it out once theyreach the moon.An industry is being born.“There's really a'Yes We Can'theme going onhere， "says Rahul Narayan， the charismatic lead-erofthe1i 2 members working for Team Indus，“This is the time.How it will all evolve， exactly， Idont know.Tm not sure anyone knows.But thisis the time."
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