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The
weekly newsletter for the Fed II game by ibgames EARTHDATE: May 28, 2006 OFFICIAL
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 REAL LIFE NEWS: BUILD A LUNAR LANDER AND WIN MILLIONS NASA has issued a challenge to inventors to build a lunar lander, and there's $2.5 million on offer in prize money. The "Lunar Lander Challenge" is the latest in a series of prize challenges that NASA is using to harness the power and ingenuity of private companies and inventors. Competitors in this latest challenge will have to build rockets that can take off from the moon, reach lunar orbit, and return to the moon's surface. NASA's current plans call for a multi-stage mission to the moon in 2018. A "crew exploration vehicle" will dock with a lunar module and an "Earth departure stage" in orbit. The whole shebang will blast off for the moon and go into orbit around it, and then the lunar lander will take a crew of four to the moon's surface. Entrants to the competition will need to reach an altitude of 50 metres, hover for 3 metres, then fly and land at a rocky spot 100 metres away. The competition will be judged in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in October. If there is no winner then the prize money will be offered again in 2007. |
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