PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania State University is racing to be the first college on the moon.

Since 2011, a team of faculty, researchers and students has been hatching “Lunar Lion,” a robotic spacecraft that is four feet in diameter and weighs 500 pounds. The team hopes that by landing in December 2015 and completing a precise series of tasks, it will win an international competition known as the Google Lunar Xprize.

“What we are doing was once the business of national governments, and now we, a university, are doing this,” said Michael Paul, director of space systems initiatives at the university’s Applied Research Lab.

The project costs $60 million, and donors have provided more than one-third of that amount.

Of the 22 teams vying for the prize — the winner gets $20 million — Penn State’s is the only university-led group, Paul said in an interview last week.

By The Associated Press