Mercury News has confirmed that Google, the Internet giant is throwing $30 million sponsor robotic race to the moon. $20 million of that prize money will be given to the first team that successfully lands a privately funded spacecraft on the moon, the second prize will be worth $5 million, while bonus prizes makeing up the remaining $5 million will be given to one finding lunar ice. The event will be in conjuction with X PRIZE Foundation.
According to Peter Diamandis, chief executive of the X PRIZE Foundation, he mentioned that the ultimate goal of the competition is to stimulate the development of low-cost methods for robotic space exploration. He said, “The use of space has dramatically enhanced the quality of life and may ultimately lead to solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems that we face on earth - energy independence and climate change.” Sounds as though when we humans have stripped the earth of its resources and have nowhere else to turn to, lo and behold space travel beckons, allowing man to colonize the moon. It was pretty much science fiction back in the 70s, and still remains so to this day as there is nowhere in the universe as habitable as the earth at this point in time (either that or other planets similar to earth’s makeup have yet to be discovered).