J.J. Abrams has taken moviegoers to a galaxy far, far away as the director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but one of his upcoming projects focuses on a journey only as far as the moon. The filmmaker serves as executive producer on Google’s upcoming series of digital documentaries, Moon Shot, which will premiere this month. The series is set to debut on Google Play on March 15 and on YouTube on March 17, according to a post on the Google blog.
Moon Shot centers on the Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP), a competition that launched in 2007 and has pitted 16 private teams against one another in a race to the moon. On top of massive bragging rights, there’s $30 million at stake. The teams have to design and build a rover that can travel to the moon, land, drive 500 meters across the lunar surface, and then send HD video and photos back to Earth. They have until the end of 2017 to accomplish this gigantic feat.
Over the course of nine digital documentaries, the series will follow the GLXP teams. The competitors are diverse, ranging from a father-son team based in Vancouver to Silicon Valley tech experts to Indian IT specialists. They will discuss the obstacles they face, what they’ve given up for this competition, the importance of the project, and more.
“It’s not really just going to the moon,” says one man during the documentary series’ trailer. “Going to the moon is symbolic. It is about showing what is possible.”
The series is directed by Academy Award nominated director Orlando von Einsiedel (Virunga) and also comes from Google, Epic Digital, and Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot.
Moon Shot will be available for free when it premieres on Google Play on March 15 and YouTube on March 17.
Related Posts
Starship setback won’t stop 2026 launch plan, SpaceX says
The upcoming launch is notable for being the first to test a new, more advanced version of the first-stage Super Heavy booster. But in ground-based testing on Friday, an issue occurred with the first stage, known as Booster 18.
Start your week with this awesome ‘space ballet’ at the ISS
According to Kim, the 49-second timelapse, which uses more than two hours of footage, was recorded while Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston practiced various maneuvers in preparation for capturing the NG-23 Cygnus spacecraft in the coming days.
Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft to fly again
The Starliner has been years in development, and transported its first crew to the International Space Station (ISS) last year. But the mission was beset with problems, leaving two NASA astronauts -- Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams -- stuck at the orbital outpost for nearly nine months when they were only supposed to have stayed there for a matter of days.