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[xpgeek]

Google Sponsors Lunar X PRIZE to Create a Space Race for a New Generation - $30 Million Purse to be Awarded to Winners

SANTA MONICA, Calif., September 13, 2007 – The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. today announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million prize purse. Private companies from around the world will compete to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition that will challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. The X PRIZE Foundation, best known for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital spaceflight, is an educational nonprofit prize organization whose goal is to bring about radical breakthroughs to solve some of the greatest challenges facing the world today.

“The Google Lunar X PRIZE calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation. “We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration.”

“Having Google fund the purse and title the competition punctuates our desire for breakthrough approaches and global participation,” continued Diamandis. “By working with the Google team, we look forward to bringing this historic private space race into every home and classroom. We hope to ignite the imagination of children around the world.”

Read more at xprize.org

Also, from Wired News Science blog;

SpaceX Will Sell Launch Vehicles at Cost to Lunar X-Prize Competitors

Now Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration technologies aka SpaceX is speaking. He says Space X will forgo any profit they would earn on launch vehicles to help out the teams competing for the Google Lunar X-Prize. Nice!

[Ryan Wagner]

This is really cool that Google and SpaceX are doing this. What's really exciting is that you know darn well that Google will be posting the video footage for everyone to see. Maybe Google is going to use all this info to map the moon?

[xpgeek]

Post removed by author. Don't feel comfortable sharing my thoughts on things anymore.

[Ryan Wagner]

I never really thought about NASA advertising, but that would be good for them. They need to get the word out there more and inspire children to reach for the stars...literally.

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