Arts and Entertainment

Lunar Lion team to appear at Arts Fest Children's Day

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State Lunar Lion team will be on hand during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts' Children and Youth Day to talk about their effort to land a vehicle on the moon.

Team members will appear at Discovery Space of Central Pennsylvania at 112 W. Foster Ave. in State College from 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, July 11. Admission to the museum is $3 per person. Children under a year old are free.

In addition to talking about space exploration and science, the Lunar Lion team will offer children hands-on science activities.

The Penn State Lunar Lion team is competing with 28 other teams in the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition, which challenges researchers from around the world to build and launch a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and imaging tasks.

To win the grand prize of $20 million, a team must be the first to place a vehicle on the moon's surface that explores at least two locations a third of a mile apart. The vehicle must transmit high-resolution images of both locations back to Earth. The teams have until Dec. 31, 2015, to accomplish the task.

The Penn State effort includes people from across the University, including researchers and students in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, astronomy and geoscience.

The Penn State Lunar Lion team will be on hand during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts' Children and Youth Day to talk about their effort to land a vehicle on the moon. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated July 2, 2012

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