Google Inc. is funding a contest worth $30 million to any person or company that can successfully build and land a lunar rover on the moon. However, the rover must be able to beam back at least 1gigabyte of images and video back to earth. “The winning spacecraft must be tough enough to survive a landing and be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras. And it must be smart enough to trek at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real-time videos back to Earth that will be streamed on Google’s Web site.”

“I hope that a … very ambitious team of people will allow us all to virtually go back to the moon very soon. I couldn’t be more excited about that.” - Google co-founder Larry Page

Whoever can fill the requirements by the year 2012 will receive 20 million. If the requirements are not fulfilled by the year 2012, the purse will be dropped to 15 million by the year 2014. Google believes that the private sector can fund a lunar mission for much less than the government, which can cost up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

[via NYTimes]

Tags: Business, Digital, Google, Lunar, Space, Technology, Moon, Science

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