GeoData Policy

If you’re a Google Lunar X Prize team and you’re planning to take a photo of the Earth, you may want to get a NOAA license. Thanks to Res Communis and Launch Pad for the heads up!

The Launch Pad blog reported that:

NOAA had been contacted by a Google Lunar X PRIZE team to make some inquiries about potential license requirements. NOAA had in turn gotten in touch with us, and asked us for a quick briefing about the prize. … In a friendly and relatively brief meeting, Brett and I talked to NOAA about the prize, and told them that it was one open to international teams where teams were not explicitly required to but might optionally chose to image the Earth, either for navigation purposes or for commercial purposes outside of the scope of the prize requirements… The NOAA officials were appreciative for the brief, but stated a desire to communicate to teams as quickly and as thoroughly as possible that some teams in some circumstance might need a NOAA license. To that end, NOAA has now published an open letter to the teams on their website (link goes to a .PDF), providing some quick details and contact information. …

Source: The Launch Pad, July 24, 2008

NOAA’s Letter to X Prize Participants and U.S. Remote Sensing Law

• NOAA Open Letter to Google Lunar X Prize Participants, Res Cumminis, July 24, 2008.
• 15 CFR Part 960, describing NOAA’s licensing and regulation of such systems.
• Law Behind the NOAA Open Letter to Google Lunar X Prize Participants, Res Communis, July 28, 2008.

Google Lunar X-Prize

The X PRIZE Foundation and Google, Inc. today announced the first ten teams to register for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million in prizes. This international group of teams will compete to land a privately funded robotic craft on the Moon that is capable of roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth. …

Source: Google X Prize Foundation, February 21, 2008