I’m not sure if any of you remember or know what the X PRIZE is, so I’m going to explain it. The X PRIZE Foundation is best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital spaceflight, won by Burt Rutan and Paul Allen in October of 2004 for launching and returning a private spacecraft 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, twice within two weeks.
The basic point of the X PRIZE Foundation is the promote low-priced (relatively) privatized space travel. It’s a very exciting prospect and Google, in cooperation with the X PRIZE Foundation, is upping the ante. Google is offering $30 million to the first team that can successfully land an unmanned rover on the moon. That’s right…the fucking MOON. I just think this is exciting. For those interested, below are prize descriptions and prerequisites. Anyone want to form a team?
- GRAND PRIZE: A $20 million Grand Prize will be awarded to the team that can soft land a craft on the Moon that roams for at least 500 meters and transmits a Mooncast back to Earth. The Grand Prize is $20M until December 31st 2012; thereafter it will drop to $15M until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation.
- SECOND PRIZE: A $5 million Second Prize will be offered as well, providing an extra incentive for teams to continue to compete, and increasing the possibility that multiple teams will succeed. Second place will be available until December 31st 2014 at which point the competition will be terminated unless extended by Google and the X PRIZE Foundation.
- BONUSES: An additional $5 million in bonus prizes can be won by successfully completing additional mission tasks such as roving longer distances (> 5,000 meters), imaging man made artifacts (e.g. Apollo hardware), discovering water ice, and/or surviving through a frigid lunar night (approximately 14.5 Earth days). The competing lunar spacecraft will be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras, and will send images and data to Earth, which the public will be able to view on the Google Lunar X PRIZE website.
Official site: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/
