Sponsors $30 Million Contest To Land Robotic Rover on Moon - WSJ.com

Google Inc. is bankrolling a $30 million prize to the first private company that can safely land a robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth, the company said Thursday.

If the competition produces a winner, it would prove a major boon to the emerging private spaceflight industry and mark the first time a nongovernment entity has flown a lunar space probe.

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 that led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

The race to the moon won't be easy or cheap. Teams have to raise money to build a roaming spacecraft that will be tough enough to survive a landing and have the smarts to complete a set of tasks. Each rover also must be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras to document the journey.

Link: Sponsors $30 Million Contest To Land Robotic Rover on Moon - WSJ.com.