Google Premieres ‘Moon Shot’ Web Series Produced By J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot

Google’s new web series is part branded content, part space saga, and part science documentary, and so far, it has drawn its share of early praise. The tech company has released all nine episodes Moon Shot, which follows the teams participating in its Lunar XPRIZE competition.

In XPRIZE, teams of independent engineers are competing to see which one can be the first to send an unmanned probe to the moon. The 16 teams — nine of which are featured in Moon Shot — have until December 31, 2017 to accomplish that goal.

Moon Shot is, at its heart, promotional material for the XPRIZE project, but it also makes sure to paint compelling pictures of the people who are striving to send their own craft into space. The series spans the entire globe a profiles an array of participating scientists; its subjects are young and old, male and female, American, European, and Asian. Here’s the first episode:

JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot produced the series for Google, and Orlando van Einsiedel, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker known for the documentary Virunga, directed it. “The film is not primarily about space exploration,” said van Einsiedel at the film’s premiere, which took place at South by Southwest, “it’s about this human spirit to overcome seemingly impossible challenges.”

Moon Shot has drawn a positive response since its arrival. Vox’s Johnny Harris, for example, called it “the coolest thing I watched at South by Southwest.” If you’d like to form your own opinion, you can check out Moon Shot on Google Play or on the XPRIZE YouTube channel.