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Google Offers $30M for Private Moon Missions

Tech giant bills contest as one small step for private industry

By Wesley Oliver,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 13, 2007 3:03 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Google announced its own search today: It will award $30 million to private firms whose robotic spacecrafts successfully reach the moon and perform specific lunar tasks. The BBC reports that the search giant hopes to encourage low-cost space exploration. The first-place winner will receive $20 million, second place gets $5 million, and there's another $5 million in incentives.

If it isn't awarded before 2012, the top prize will shrink to $15 million; it may be withdrawn completely after 2014. Google says the rover must carry high-definition video and still cameras, find water-ice, cover certain distances, and survive the moon’s frigid nights. Rover projects can be formidable, the BBC says, usually requiring the funding of well-heeled national or international space agencies.

Apollo 15 Mission
Apollo 15 Mission   (Archive Photos)
A347/48: Surface of the Moon: with a vehicle
A347/48: Surface of the Moon: with a vehicle   (Archive Photos)
BIZ CPT-GOOGLE 1 DE
BIZ CPT-GOOGLE 1 DE   (KRT Photos)
FILE PHOTO: Google Posts 69 Percent Profit Gain
FILE PHOTO: Google Posts 69 Percent Profit Gain   (Getty Images)
Google Announces Third Quarter Earnings Almost Doubles
Google Announces Third Quarter Earnings Almost Doubles   (Getty Images)
Samuel Widmann, Head of Google Maps and Google Earth gestures during a presentation of Google Earth Sky at the planetarium in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007. Google Earth on Wednesday introduced the new feature Sky, a virtual telescope which enables Internet users to see more than 100 million...
Samuel Widmann, Head of Google Maps and Google Earth gestures during a presentation of "Google Earth Sky" at the planetarium in Hamburg, Germany, on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007. Google Earth on Wednesday...   (Associated Press)
This image taken from the camera mounted on the Cassini spacecraft and released by NASA Wednesday, Sept. 12 2007, shows the surface of Saturn's moon Iapetus. The international Cassini spacecraft went into safe mode this week after successfully passing over that was the mysterious destination of a deep-space faring astronaut...
This image taken from the camera mounted on the Cassini spacecraft and released by NASA Wednesday, Sept. 12 2007, shows the surface of Saturn's moon Iapetus. The international Cassini spacecraft went...   (Associated Press)
The Earth's shadow creeps across the moon's surface early Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007, slowly eclipsing it as seen from Caldwell, Idaho. The total lunar eclipse is the second this year. (AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune, Mike Vogt)
The Earth's shadow creeps across the moon's surface early Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2007, slowly eclipsing it as seen from Caldwell, Idaho. The total lunar eclipse is the second this year. (AP Photo/Idaho Press-Tribune,...   (Associated Press)
The full moon is seen from Copenhagen, Denmark, Monday April 2, 2007. Scientists in Shanghai, China are developing a nuclear-powered lunar rover for the country's first unmanned mission to the moon in 2012. The six-wheeled vehicle has been under development for four years at the Shanghai Aerospace System Engineering Institute,...
The full moon is seen from Copenhagen, Denmark, Monday April 2, 2007. Scientists in Shanghai, China are developing a nuclear-powered lunar rover for the country's first unmanned mission to the moon in...   (Associated Press)
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Contest could be a boon to burgeoning private spaceflight industry
Associated Press

Cost of building of a Moon-craft could easily exceed $30M prize
Telegraph (UK)

Winning team will need to beam "Mooncast" back to earth
Space.com

In-depth coverage

What's in it for Google?
Wired

Google vs. NASA?
MSNBC

 
Google • Apollo • space flight • moon • spacecraft • prize

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