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Google's $30,000,000 Lunar X PRIZE

Posted by Zonk on from the space-is-the-final-search-field dept.

chroma writes "It's been a long time since anyone has explored the surface of the moon. But now Google has teamed up with the X PRIZE Foundation to offer a $30,000,000 bounty to the first privately funded organization to land a robotic rover on the moon. Google, of course, has offered the free Google Moon mapping service for a few years now. Looks like the other search engines have some catching up to do in the space exploration department."

1 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Re:$30,000,000 is a lot by Weslee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It costs billions to put those guys on Mars.
    Heck, it costs NASA billions to put them on the moon.

    The point is to have private industry be able to do it for millions, or less.

    Its not "Its been done before", its to make it possible to do it again, and again, and again.
    Do it without putting the whole country into a deficit.

    Make that possible, and then maybe the impossible that costs trillions can use the same technology.

    A hand-made car, only a few can afford.
    Mass-produced cars, we all can afford.

    Get the space technology to that level, and finally we'll be able to really explore outside our planet.