William "Red" Whittaker Gunning for Lunar 2.0
Submitted by dsk on Fri, 2007-10-05 00:31.
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Robotics powerhouse Carnegie Mellon University, led by William "Red" Whittaker (famous for leading the Red Team in the Grand Challenge), is one of the first to throw down the gauntlet in the race for the $25 million Google Lunar X-Prize. Whittaker (pictured above) will certainly be one of the top contenders having worked on a host of robots as director of the Field Robotics Center. Scarab is one of Whittaker's robots designed specifically for lunar exploration. The robot (video and right-most photo) is also designed with a drilling apparatus for lunar mining. Scarab can raise and lower its chassis; the raised-chassis pose allows it greater mobility in navigating around rocky terrain while and the lowered-chassis pose will allow it to drill into the lunar surface. Nomad is another robot designed to traverse uneven terrain. The winterized version of Nomad has been designed to navigate the Antarctic ice sheets. Watching Nova's behind-the-scenes coverage of the Grand Challenge, one gets the impression that Whittaker is quite the competitive professor and one who can pull together vast resources (funding and an army of students) to achieve his mission. With someone like Whittaker gunning for the Lunar 2.0 prize, the playing field doesn't look as level as it was when the announcement was made, does it?
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Carnegie Mellon University
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Videos and Photos: Field Robotics Institute 
. if you want to know the
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if you want to know the "dark side" of the Lunar X Prize just read this article:
http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/008moonprize.html
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That link is full of
That link is full of incoherent rambling, do you really think no one else had thought of the idea of a lunar lander competition prior to 2005? Why didn't you just pony up $30 million and start the competition yourself?