The Odyssey Moon effort — one of the private groups vying for the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize — is announcing today that former NASA Associate Administrator, Alan Stern, has accepted a role with the Isle of Man-based private lunar enterprise. Stern is a former chief of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

Stern has joined the Odyssey Moon executive team on an exclusive part-time consulting basis as the company’s Science Mission Director, keen on public-private partnerships and building bridges to new markets - according to a media release from Odyssey Moon Limited.

The private commercial lunar enterprise is headquartered in the Isle of Man and involves partners in several nations. The group was the first official contender in the Google Lunar X Prize competition.

The Google space initiative (one of many the firm is engaged with) is a robotic race to the Moon to win the prize purse. Private firms from around planet Earth are competing to land a privately-funded rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives - which can be read here at:

http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/about-the-prize