Google offers $30m reward for Moon landing

After making its presence felt in the personal computer world, and then becoming environment-friendly technology company, the online advertising and internet search giant, Google is now planning to reach Space.

The computer maker turned Internet jukebox powerhouse Google announced Thursday that it is teaming with the X Prize Foundation, a non-profit prize institute, to launch a commercial competition to send a robot craft to the Moon. Google is financing the 30-million-dollar contest to put a privately funded robotic rover on Mars.

The two partners announced their new prize, dubbed the Lunar X-PRIZE, at Wired's fourth annual NextFest conference in Los Angeles on Thursday morning.

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis and Robert K. Weiss, the chairman and vice chairman of the X-Prize Foundation, along with Google co-founder Larry Page, Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, NASA deputy administrator Shanna Dale, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin were present at the event, which runs September 13-16.

Google said it will give $30 million to the first private companies that can safely land robotic spacecrafts on the moon, indicating the Silicon Valley search giant’s intentions to take the company beyond the internet, and the Earth.

"We're thrilled to be sponsoring the Lunar X-PRIZE, which will award a total of 30 million dollars to teams competing around the world to land privately funded spacecraft on the Moon," Alan Eustace, Senior VP of Engineering at Google said yesterday in a statement.

“The Google Lunar X Prize calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity,” said Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation. “Having Google fund the purse and title the competition punctuates our desire for breakthrough approaches and global participation. We look forward to bringing the historic private space race into every home and classroom.”

The contest to pull off an unmanned lunar landing is open to private companies around the world. As per the rules of the competition, the machine would have to complete at least 500-metre trek on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and a defined digital data package, called a "Mooncast", to Earth after its safe landing.

If the machine accomplishes its mission by Dec. 31, 2012, its operator will bag 20 million U.S. dollars. And, to claim the 10-million-dollar second-place prize, the lunar lander would have to go beyond the minimum requirements. The prize amount will drop to US$15 million if the landing takes place by Dec. 31, 2014.

The Santa Monica, California-based X Prize Foundation aims to create radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. This nonprofit prize-generating group began its mission in 2004 by offering the US$10 million Ansari X Prize to encourage private exploration of space.

At the time, the foundation awarded Ansari X Prize worth US $10 million to Burt Rutan, the chief of Scaled Composites and the designer of the Voyager airplane, and financier Paul Allen, the cofounder of Microsoft. The two were able to launch a rocket, called SpaceShipOne, twice, first on June 21, 2004 and then on September 29, 2004.

Diamandis said the new contest, also dubbed Moon 2.0 as the second era of lunar exploration, will once again prove that small teams of dedicated individuals can do what was once thought possible only by large government organizations.

Google’s ease to use, simplicity of design and massive database listings have made it the numero uno search engine in the world. The Web search leader day by day is extending its design magnificence in new directions by making the search services more comprehensive. Larry Page and Sergey Brin have to be credited for co-finding this giant internet search and advertisement engine, Google, which has helped the masses to be in touch with every sphere of life as it is said, 'Everything is now just a click away and within the reach of everybody.'

This year in June, Google along with a number of other leading technology companies launched a broad-based project, called “Climate Savers Computing Initiative”, an environmental campaign organized to help reduce the emission of Green House gases in the atmosphere. Under their energy savings campaign, the tech titans pledged to introduce more energy-efficient personal computers and software tools that manage power consumption.