The X PRIZE Foundation and the LEGO Group today announced MoonBots 2.0: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge. This second annual contest will challenge teams of youth to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, a private race to the Moon designed to enable commercial exploration of space while engaging the global public. To further this purpose, the X PRIZE Foundation and the LEGO Group have partnered with WIRED magazine and FIRST robotics to offer a competition that will excite students and their families about the Moon, robotics, and team building."Our mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. It is the youth of today that will form the future society, solving the big issues of today and face the challenges ahead of us. We want to prepare them by encouraging them to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math and combine their imagination and creativity with hard skills to, for example, work on space exploration challenges for the common good of us all," said Steven Canvin of the LEGO Group. "This is where the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge is perfect for getting the 9-17 year olds thinking about the problems associated with lunar exploration, by emulating landing on the Moon by building LEGO MINDSTORMS robots."
Free registration and Phase One of the contest will be open from May 9ththrough June 13. Phase Two of the contest begins June 27ththrough August 15th.
To learn more about the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge and to find out how to register a team visit http://www.moonbots.org
The Grand Prize will be a paid round trip (economy airfare) for each Team member to the new LEGOLAND park in Florida (opens in October 2011 – opening date to be determined). Lodging will be provided for each Team member for 3 days and two nights. The Grand Prize will also include guided VIP tours.
For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE and the teams currently registered in the competition, please visit http://www.googlelunarxprize.org
(via Marketwire, link: marketwire.com)