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Today's episode will feature one of my favorite interviews from a
few years ago. It's from a company called
Moonmark and the purpose of this company is to send remote
control cars and have a competition, a race on the lunar
surface. Enjoy.
Because we're we're here to share the information.
So Moonmark is a competition between high school teams across
the country and we are already getting a lot of interest from
across the world and students grades nine through 12 are going
to compete to become the final two teams that create built 2
space worthy racers. They're not Rovers, they're
racers and they will go up on the intuitive machines known as
Sealander, which is going up October 11th of 2021.
Very, very cool, yeah, Heikum said.
In, He said. Oh, high schools, yeah.
Is it only open to high school people or can people outside of
high school older than high school, like college teams or
something like that? Ander.
So about the the actual teams that are going to build these
racers are going to be high school students.
We are reaching out to those, like I say, in grades nine
through 12. However, the purpose is for
them. They're to, you know, if you get
to, if you get to build something instead of land on the
moon and race on the moon, there's a little bit of, you
know, skin you got to put in the game, right, or in the sport.
And in this particular case, the tuition, so to speak, is that
they have to reach out and they have to engage people across the
globe and and what they're doing, how they're doing it and
why they're doing it. And so there's a lot of
opportunity for people of all ages to engage with the students
as they go through this process. Now, Moon, what Moon Mark is
going to do is to capture the content and the adventures of
these young people and share it in across television, digital
streaming. But you know, our purpose is
really to share what is about to happen to humankind through the
eyes of these students, meaning the accessibility of space, the
commercialization of space. So we're really excited about
this. And we also, right now I do want
to mention we have a learner race car design challenge that's
going on. We're working with intuitive
machines. We worked with them to develop
the space specifications of what these racers will need, so that
when they land on the mode, they'll have the the, the right
stuff, so to speak. And then there those that are
competing in the the design challenge in the next few weeks
actually through the end of June, they will be able to put
their own mark on those races and we'll have a panel of judges
that will judge the design, the space worthiness and we'll also
have an audience voting worldwide.
So we're pretty excited about the the Lunar Race Bar Design
Challenge as well. Is this open to anybody around
the globe or is it just US based?
No, it's open to anyone. We we have had like a man
mentioned a lot of really great international interest.
So students really want to participate and and we actually
started the the design challenge a little sooner than we
anticipated and we did that because so many young people and
all of us but mostly are housebound.
So and and we're looking to provide young people and people
that are interested in engaging with these young people with
something that has a really positive and exciting focus at a
time when we really need it. Oh, very cool.
So we have. And I do want to mention,
because I get this question very often, is there a registration
fee or a participation fee? And the answer is no.
You know what you have to have is you have to have access to a
computer and you have to have access to the answer now and
then. You have to have some really
cool and smart friends to get together and and and you know,
put the good stuff on the moon. Oh, cool.
So we have a couple questions in chat.
What? What is the race?
What is the actual race? Will they be racing for a target
or an obstacle or what? So is there a finish line?
Or a great question. So we, we just this past week
heard from an intuitive machines as to where the the Lander is
going to touchdown and that's going to be in the the the
oceans or the store, the oceans of storms.
And so now what's going to happen is that when the Lander
is about 30 meters off the circles of the mill, it will
eject a sphere of 360° cameras. And that we don't know exactly
where that's going to land, but those cameras are #1 going to
capture the app to landing itself, which I believe will be
the first of its kind. And then that sphere of cameras
will serve as the rallying point where the, the point at which we
will direct the races. So they will drive from the
Lander. Probably we will have some Geo
about geometric requirements along the way, but they're going
to head to that camera and they're going to turn around and
they're going to come back. Oh, wow.
OK. Yeah.
So the actual, the actual racetrack itself is still yet to
be determined and there's a lot that we won't know.
I I think there's a lot of golf moments in this well and there's
certainly will be, no doubt about it, it.
Sounds challenging. It's going to be where that
sphere lands and how we can line up.
Yeah, sounds like a challenging problem to solve for the racers,
especially when you don't know where that sphere is.
Like, how are you going to find the sphere?
You know, you have to design a vehicle that's going to be able
to not alone, you know, go across the lunar surface.
Like, that's hard enough. But you have to find this sphere
of cameras and then you have to then turn around and come back
to the Lander. Well, that sounds incredibly
difficult. Well, it certainly does have its
challenges. The, the, the advantage that we
have is that the the experts that we're working with that
intuitive machines not only do they know how to build
spacecraft and launch it along with human flight.
They have years and years of experience both the NASA and and
and commercial space. But they actually are working
with us to make sure that those erasures are space worthy.
And what we've discovered in in this process is that there are
some significant challenges and there are some things that we
we've determined that are a little bit easier than we
thought they would be. One of the things that I'm
really excited about is that we're going to be able to
perhaps accelerate some application of technology with
this project that would not we're going to be able to
accelerate for example communications.
Currently the data streams or communication from the moon and
elsewhere have a very, very specific scientific purpose.
Our purpose is to capture that race which is going to require
much higher bandwidth or both on the moon, on the lunar surface
and then back to Earth's. And so the companies that we are
are working with in the various communications aspects of this,
it's been clear that we are able to you know what what we one of
the outcomes of this is that we will be able to test and prove
communications on the Roaner's surface that will serve others
when they get there. OK, so this is a forward
thinking mission. It's not just just get the
racers of the moon race around, but it's actually to serve a
purpose for the future landing and other Rover missions in the
future or racers even. And could we possibly see a
racing circuit like NASCAR on the moon in the future?
How cool would that be? That would be awesome.
You're you're, you're, you're talking to someone who truly,
truly enjoys motorsport and I also very much enjoy high
performance driving. And so that is a reason because
of the of my involvement in the sport, it became clear to me
that there was really, you know, a really wonderful, you know,
analogy or analogous kind of set of disciplines that was
necessary both in in aerospace and in auto sports.
So you've got the, the teamwork that's necessary.
You've, you've got the physics, you've got the engineering,
you've got the timing, you've got the the discipline and all
of that and and that belongs in, in in both of these areas and
both of these industries. And we thought that it would be
very interesting to apply those particular skills science,
technology, engineering and arts as well as mathematics in this
competition. So not only are we, we are
forward thinking in terms of how along the way we can accelerate
technology and use of this for those that come behind us on on
the lunar surface, but also the journey along the way which is
really, really exciting of an adventure for these young people
and and many people that they touch.
Well, that's very cool. I'm, I'm glad you guys are doing
this because this is so. When I was a kid, I always
thought about, you know, having a moon colony and having
something like this, like sports on the moon.
You know, we I had these books when I was a kid and they're all
illustrated and they're really cool.
And I would open them up and I would imagine something like
this happening, you know, and just that somebody's actually
doing this in my lifetime is insane in the in the best kind
of way, like in the happiest way that you could imagine that
there's going to be race vehicles on the moon.
Like that doesn't to me as a normal person that has nothing
to do with the engineering part of this.
And I'm I'm kind of like heading the clouds kind of person.
This is awesome and I really want to thank you for coming out
today. Now we have one last question
though. What is the winner win from this
race? Oh, that's a that's a great
question. The winner, the the two racers
that get there, OK are are both winners.
They will have gone through a a more really, really rigorous set
of qualifying rounds in order to get to them out.
And you know the what what they're going with the the team
that takes the checkered flag is going to get the checkered flag
and it's also going to have the the the honor of being the first
race winner on the MO. So we don't have a a cash prize
or something like that. This is much actually more than
them. He's deeper than that.
It's just. Put They're not going to be
motivated by cash. That's that's if.
Someone wants to come and give them cash, then you know we'll
we'll make it a good scholarship.
Yeah, and I'm sure somebody might be interested in that
something, you know, some sort of sports drink or something
like that might be interested, or some sort of energy drink.
May I? May I share one more thing we'll
sure of what you you just shared about your your dream when you
were a kid. So when we when we looked at at
women marketing, we looked at the and and what we wanted to
achieve. Things have not occurred in like
what you experienced for many, many years and there's there's
lots of reasons for that. It's not that we haven't had
space heroes, it's not that we haven't had incredible stories.
There hasn't been a a an Apollo moment since 1969.
Nineteen 72, OK. Since then we we kind of let
them run behind and and all of that sort of thing.
We want to create because we can.
Now we want to create an Apollo effect for kids.
We want kids to look at other kids and say wait a minute if
they can do that, I can do that And that is something that
hasn't occurred for many, many years.
We can do that because we ask we have accessibility through space
technology that that civilians haven't had before and we also
have the ability through our communications and technology to
engage for worldwide. So that's what we're going.
Oh, that's great. Yeah.
You know, the, the, the reality of the situation is that, you
know, these kind of things are going to be happening more so in
the future, you know, than what I ever expected.
Because we had, like you said, we had the Arpella moment when
we were, you know, in the 70s, 60s and 70s.
And then we have the space shuttle, we have people on the
International Space Station. We don't have anything that's
like a big, big idea anymore. And I think this is one of those
big ideas where people can get really inspired and get behind
and young people, especially the way that you're marketing this
and pushing this for young kids to get involved with all of
those amazing, amazing techniques that they'll be using
to get a racer to the freaking moon and then race it.
On the and. Then race it and then maybe
wind. Who knows.
I mean, if if they get one, if they get the racer to the moon,
that is huge. That's a huge, huge deal for
humanity. Like it's not just a a huge deal
for for your company or intuitive machines or anything.
Like it's a it's a huge deal for people, and for young people in
particular, to move these little machines, you know, on the moon,
like just getting them there and having them land, That's.
Amazing. That is absolutely our our
intent and we have all since we've been born, we have how
every human on Earth has had an experience with the moon and by
and large it's been a positive experience.
And So what we're doing here is an intent is to you know a
unifying experience that's positive and because we can, as
I mentioned you know communicate globally, we have the ability to
touch people in the way that that's meaningful to them and
that's that's something that we really aspire to.
That's really great. Well, I want to wrap this up for
you, Mary. Thank you so much for showing up
to the show today and. Oh, thank you.
Yeah, you're more than welcome. And if anybody wants to check
out the race, you can go to Moon, Mark, dot, Space and get
more information. Is there any other place they
can find you on the Internet? Well.
We're we're on all all the usual suspect places.
We're on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram.
And check out TikTok coming up. Oh, cool.
OK. Oh yeah.
All right. Well, thanks so much, Mary.
Appreciate it. And hopefully we will speak to
you soon. Thank you very much.
You'll appreciate being here. Have a great.
Day. Yeah, you too.
Bye, Bye. Hey, thank you so much for
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