Bennett Awards created a set of unique custom awards for the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE. The goal of the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE is to accelerate the development of unmanned and autonomous systems and sensors for deep-sea exploration. A total of five uique awards were presented by the XPRIZE organization.

In addition to Grand Prizes and Bonus Prizes, which were based on different award designs, a Moonshot Award was created and presented to Team Tao to recognize its “unique approach to seafloor mapping,” even though the team did not meet the criteria for the main competition. Team Tao won $200,000 and a custom Bennett Award.

The lower portion of the Moonshot Award was a geometric sculpture in the shape of a stylized X. The sculpture was cast in pewter and had black metal mark engravings of the award name, recipient name, and XPRIZE logo. The sculpture was topped with a custom crystal globe with the XPRIZE logo embedded inside it.

The results were revealed at an awards ceremony hosted at the world-renowned Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, part of the Oceanographic Institute, Prince Albert I of Monaco Foundation. The awards were presented to recipients by Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE.