Team FREDNET Wins NASA Task Order in $10 Million Lunar Landing Contract

 

Scotts Valley, CA / Huntsville, AL – February 29, 2012

NASA awarded Team FREDNET – The Open Space Society Inc. a new Task Order in its $10 million Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD) contract.  Under the ILDD program, NASA purchases information derived from the program development and subsequent robotic operations on the surface of the Moon. The $100,000 task order brings total funding under the ILDD contract thus far to $110,000.

Team FREDNET intends to launch its first earth-orbital and lunar landing mission to a lunar near-equatorial site before the end of 2015.  The final landing sites under review provide excellent opportunities for tangential observation of past Apollo and Surveyor lunar surface sites, while providing excellent coverage for high bandwidth communications and ample solar power for their Mission’s anticipated 4-day operations.  Team FREDNET’s first and subsequent commercial lunar missions offer valuable payload opportunities to qualified investors.

Irene Schneider, CEO of ISE which recently partnered with Team FREDNET stated “This lunar mission provides a test bed for developing new radiation protection strategies in small robotic spacecraft.  We are very pleased to assist Team FREDNET in delivering these results to NASA.”

Team FREDNET’s results under the task order will provide NASA insight into the technical progress to date toward developing the initial lunar mission.  “The number one challenge in space exploration today is overcoming the costs,” said Fred Bourgeois, Team FREDNET’s CEO.  “Innovative research and commercial robotic missions can serve Space Agencies, research & educational institutes, and for-profit companies in some really interesting ways, using ideas that aren’t immediately obvious: we’re looking beyond mere lunar resources, at the things that are important right now.”

ABOUT TEAM FREDNET

Team FREDNET, The Open Space Society, Inc. a non-profit corporation based in Huntsville, AL is comprised of an international group of Open Source developers, engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs.  Founded by Fred Bourgeois and associates in 2007, their goal is to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) by bringing the same successful approach used to develop major software systems (such as the Internet and Linux) to bear on the problems associated with space exploration and research. In 2010, Team FREDNET was awarded a $10 million contract under the NASA Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data Program.  Team FREDNET has established itself as a non-profit Open Space Foundation designed to provide ongoing incentives, education, and funding to individuals and organizations seeking opportunities in this final frontier after competing their initial GLXP Mission goals. For more information: http://www.teamfrednet.org