Google launches moon rover contest

Google launches moon rover contest

www.contracostatimes.com

Company offers $20 million prize to firm that completes challenge before 2012

LOS ANGELES -- Google Inc. is bankrolling a $30 million contest that could significantly boost the commercial space industry and spur the first nongovernmental flight to the moon.
Call it Moon 2.0. The bulk of the prize will go to the first private company that can land a robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth, the Internet search leader said Thursday.

Google partnered with the X Prize Foundation for the moon challenge, which is open to companies around the world. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit prize institute is best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize contest, which led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

The Google Lunar X Prize joins another prize already dangling in front of potential competitors: $50 million that hotel magnate Robert Bigelow is offering the first private American team to rocket a manned craft into orbit by 2010.

The race to the moon won't be easy or cheap. But whoever fills the requirements in the Google contest by the end of 2012 gets $20 million.

The winning spacecraft must be tough enough to survive a landing and be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras. And it must be smart enough to trek at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real-time videos back to Earth that will be streamed on Google's Web site.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think this proves that something is going on or is going to happen around 2012!

www.contracostatimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)