Moon 2.0 Is The Next Mission For X Prize Group, And Google

[groovychk]

Originally published at Twixel.net. You can comment here or there.

Moon 2.0 Is The Next Mission For X Prize Group, And Google

Google is going to the moon, and it will spend $30 million to get there.

Google GOOG will sponsor the newest contest by the X Prize Foundation, which three years ago handed $10 million to a team that sent SpaceShipOne into suborbit and back twice over a two-week period. The nonprofit foundation seeks to promote scientific breakthroughs that benefit humanity.

In the new contest, which officials referred to as Moon 2.0, teams will compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the moon. It will have to roam at least 500 meters of the lunar surface and complete several missions, such as transmitting photos and videos back to Earth.

A grand prize of $20 million will be awarded to the first team to do this no later than Dec. 31, 2012.

A second place award of $5 million will go to a second team that can complete this by Dec. 31, 2014.

Bonuses of $5 million will be awarded for additional tasks.

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Seems like it should be more Maybe add a zero.

Comments

[dondodson.livejournal.com]

It cost $600 million to send two rovers to Mars. Clearly this doesn't require the same level of sophistication or distance of travel, but I doubt that it could be done for less than $50 million. The prize money would not cover the cost of the mission.

That doesn't mean that it won't be an attractive challenge. Scales Composites and Burt Ratan spent $25 million building SpaceShipOne to win the X Prize worth $10 million. It is a good way to get publicity in the aerospace industry and establish yourself as a contender in the competition for private-sector space flight business.