Oct 27 2010
Team Frednet, an open-source non-profit organization, has declared that it has received Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD) contract from NASA offering the highest government procurement value of $10.01 million.
This contract will enable Team FREDNET to provide technical information linked to its Google Lunar X PRIZE robotic landing mission for supporting the building of upcoming robotic and human landing vehicles and other investigation systems of NASA.
Dr. John Olson, Exploration Integration Director of NASA represented NASA in declaring the selection of Team FREDNET for ILDD award from an extensive list of contenders and he appreciated Team FREDNET for obtaining the contract.
The X PRIZE Foundation has instigated the program with forethought of "Revolution through Competition," but it was taken to the next rational step "Revolution through Open Collaboration," by the Team FREDNET by means of utilizing the initiatives of volunteer groups globally for realizing the privately sponsored, lucrative, non-government aided space exploration. The ILDD contract can profoundly instigate upcoming business icons to grab new prospects in space research, similar to the joint working of civil and commercial segments.
According to Fred Bourgeois, CEO and Leader of Team FREDNET, the ILDD procurement serves as a major milestone signifying the feasibility of their unique joint effort in achieving their objective of becoming the first open-source organization to position a rover on the lunar surface. He added that their organization members are excited about taking up the task of accomplishing the Google Lunar X PRIZE mission and also in offering augmentative demonstration information to NASA.
Source: http://teamfrednet.org