Google Backs $25 Million ‘Lunar X Prize’

Every so often the Chief sees something that is really heartening…a light in the forest of the current plethora of news noire. This is one of those items.

Although the Chief doesn’t like everything that Google has been up to…like helping the ChiComs “sanitize” net access…but this is a good thing.

The group whose $10 million prize spurred privately funded rocketeers to send a small piloted craft to the cusp of space in 2004 has issued a new challenge: an unmanned moon shot.With the audacious new contest comes a much bigger prize — as much as $25 million, paid for by Google, the ubiquitous Internet company.

The “Google Lunar X Prize” was announced today in Los Angeles at Wired Magazine’s NextFest conference. The contest calls for entrants to land a rover on the moon that will be able to travel at least 500 meters and send high-resolution video, still images and other data back home. The X Prize Foundation saw the new contest as one of “the grand challenges of our time that we can use to move people forward,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, chairman and C.E.O. of the foundation.

The prize for reaching the moon and completing the basic tasks of roving and sending video and data will bring the winner $20 million, according to the contest rules; an additional $5 million would be awarded for additional tasks that include roving more than 5,000 meters or sending back images of man-made artifacts like lunar landers from the Apollo program.

Let the race begin. There are a number of groups that are possible contenders…gentlemen, start your engines!