Cosmic Log : Google funds $30 million moon prize
Google is bankrolling a $30 million race for privately funded moon rovers – an endeavor that takes the X Prize to new heights.
The Google Lunar X Prize, announced today by the search-engine giant and the X Prize Foundation at the Wired NextFest in Los Angeles, ranks among the richest contests ever offered for technological innovation. It follows up on the $10 million Ansari X Prize for manned spaceflight, which was won nearly three years ago by the SpaceShipOne rocket plane.
BlastOff.com / Diamandis.com
This artists conception shows a lunar lander
descending to the moons surface. The concept was
prepared for BlastOff.com, a venture that aimed to
put privately funded rovers on the moon. That
venture went by the wayside, but the idea has been
revived for the Google Lunar X Prize.
The new prize calls upon teams to create autonomous rovers that could land on the moon, travel at least three-tenths of a mile 500 meters and send video, images and data back to Earth.
The first team to succeed would win $20 million – that is, if the job is done by 2012. After that, the prize drops to $15 million, and if no one is successful by the end of 2014, the money could be withdrawn. If a second team succeeds before the deadline, $5 million would be given as a runner-up prize. Another $5 million would be reserved for bonus tasks – for example, roving for longer distances, taking pictures of old lunar spacecraft, finding water ice or surviving the long lunar night.