Report: ARCA will try for Google Lunar X-Prize "in couple of months."

Something called "MillionAdvertisingWebpage" dot com is confidently reporting the Romanian Google Lunar X-Prize competitor ARCA, the only such team out of Europe, will be making its attempt to secure the Google Lunar X-Prize "in three months."

As a team, ARCA has joined its former registered competitor in the Ansari X-Prize contest Pablo de Leon and Associates. The Ansari prize was ultimately won by Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composits.

ARCA's plan to achieve mission goals of landing a privately funded probe on the moon are not detailed, though certain unique mission aspects have been publicized. Plans call for Stabilo, a three-stage untested booster, to be launched from 18 kilometers in altitude, and trans-lunar coast of 116 hours from low earth orbit.

Though the 116 hour time frame falls inside the free-return trajectory used by Apollo, it is unclear whether the vehicle will be required to use fuel to enter lunar orbit. The video featured on the above site appears to show a direct to surface approach on the eastern limb, which would be an easily configured landing though such a plan might also place the final landing zone outside of line of sight communications with Earth.

Rather than the use of wheels, the ARCA entry is designed to move the required 500 meters by short bursts of gases. Whether the team intends to target the vehicle to examine artifacts of earlier missions, and the bonus prize of $10 million is unknown.