A Hungarian lunar rover is walking about on the powdery flanks of Mauna Kea with its stereoscopic cameras focused on terrain ahead, a 2015 mission to the moon and the $40 million Google Lunar XPRIZE.
More than 20 teams from around the world are competing for the XPRIZE, a global competition to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon.
The contest "aims to do something we haven’t done as humanity since 1973 — safely land on the surface of the moon," the XPRIZE Foundation said on its website.
"More than half of the world’s population has never had the opportunity to view a live transmission from the lunar surface. The Google Lunar XPRIZE intends to create a new ‘Apollo’ moment and to spur continuous lunar exploration," organizers said.
To win most of the money, a private company must land safely on the moon by Dec. 31, 2015; travel 500 meters above, below or on the lunar surface; and send back two "mooncasts" to Earth.
Which brings us back to Mauna Kea’s slopes on Hawaii island, an area that’s also littered with moonlike rocks about the size of a basketball and smaller.
The Hungarian team, called "Puli," after the herding dog, tested a prototype moon robot in Morocco in February but is stepping up the realism at 9,000-foot-altitude Haiwahine Valley run by the state’s Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems.
The volcanic ash has turned into "a really fine powder … and that is very, very similar to what we have found on the moon and some places on Mars," said John Hamilton, PISCES test logistics/education and public outreach manager.
In fact, NASA’s chemistry and mineralogy instrument was tested on Hawaii island before being deployed to Mars on the rover Curiosity.
"So when they went to Mars and did their soil analysis, they said, ‘Hey, it’s like identical to the midlevel slopes of Mauna Kea,’" Hamilton said.
Team Puli is the first among the XPRIZE competitors to seek to use the state land controlled by PISCES, but other teams also could seek out the lunar realism for testing.
"We believe our (site) is the best, of course, so we’re hoping that Team Puli will be just one of many teams that will come out and test," said PISCES spokeswoman Mari-Ela David Chock.
PISCES receives payment for the services it provides, Hamilton said. The sites used remain in a "pristine" natural state, and cultural experts are consulted, he said.
Moon exploration is shifting from government funding to private industry backing. A United Kingdom study predicted that the teams competing for the XPRIZE will be able to access market opportunities worth $1.9 billion over the decade following the contest.
"What you are going to see are commercial activities with business plans and profit going to the moon and space," Hamilton said.
PISCES hopes to piggyback off ongoing NASA and private industry investment. The moon has nickel, iron, gold, platinum and rare-earth elements used in electronics, Hamilton said.
Hawaii, meanwhile, has been used for space testing dating back to the pre-Apollo days, Hamilton noted.
The use of Hawaii is "slowly ramping up" for space testing, he said. "The big increase I think we’re going to see is the private sector," he added.
PISCES, which was established in 2007, is leasing the Juno rover from the Canadian Space Agency and expects to have the vehicle by the end of the year for research, David Chock said.
Also under investigation by PISCES is the use of basalt volcanic material for construction rather than using expensive concrete imported from the mainland — an application that could be used on the moon and Mars.
The Team Puli prototype robot, only several feet long and weighing less than 20 pounds, started testing in Haiwahine Valley on Sunday with camera checks with the first traverse — controlled from Budapest, Hungary — expected Monday, Hamilton said.
Eventually, the robot will make its way to the moon on a commercial rocket.
In the meantime, the closest thing it has is Mauna Kea.
"And that’s exactly the reason why we go to Hawaii," the team said on a Web page. "At PISCES, we find ideal conditions to conduct such a test run."
