Google Lunar X Prize: $30MM prize to put robot on moon

Welcome to Moon 2.0. Snip from announcement coverage at Wired News:

Google will award $30 million to the first private team to put a robot on the moon, the company and the X Prize Foundation announced at Wired NextFest in Los Angeles Thursday. Members of the public will also get the chance to send digital mementos to the moon. In this advance from the October issue of Wired magazine, contributing editor Spencer Reiss explains what's behind the Google Lunar X Prize, and what it will take to win it.

Link, here's more about today's announcement.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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diluded000

Don’t forget that Jimmy Neutron sent his little robotic brother to live there!
Anonymous

Can we please stop abusing the number 2.0.

Unless your moon-bot can serve AJAX rendered rich user-generated content, I think you should leave 2.0 out of it.
Flying Squid

They could send up a rhoomba vacuum and clean up the place. I hear the moon is really dusty.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden/Moderator

Yeah, but it’s an incentive for organizations that were thinking about doing something like that.
Anonymous

I iz at yourz moonz, winning yar million$!
Anonymous

The wired site says it’s 20 million, not 30 million. I think 30 would be better given how much further it is than 50km!
gaetanomarano

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Hey Google, the Moonrovers Prize was MY idea!!!

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Anonymous

Just on a tangent, where does the use of “MM” to represent million come from, as in $30MM above. I only ever seem to see Americans doing it and mostly in reference to money amounts. Can anyone clear this up for me?
Mike

So the digital mementos are being sent on DVD. This begs the question: what DVD Region is the moon?
Anonymous

wensleydale? oh no sir, that`s my name, mr. wensleydale.
phasor3000

The “send digital mementos” linky no worky…
Anonymous

Where is the X-Prize for the 20,000 dollar carbon neutral house?
Robbo

What I’d love to see is a permanent HD camera up there – looking back at us – with a dedicated link so we can all check in from time to time – like putting eyes on the woman in the moon.

“I can see my house from up here!”

Cheers.
chasie

Wait a minute, there are already robots on the moon. Ask Wallace and Gromit.

http://www.curzon.org.uk/images/AardmanMoonRobot.jpg
Ramoni loves pictures

Astonishing news.

$30 Million Dollar is kind of tempting, but still not enough to build, send and land something on the moon successfully.

Who ever wins the prize should do it quickly, because the Dollar is loosing ground to the Euro, so the $30 Mills are less ans less by every month.

Yours Sincerely.
phasor3000

W&G would object that it’s pointless to send a robot to the moon if it’s not going to bring back any cheese.

Mmm, I could use a good Wensleydale right about now…
Anonymous

Excerpt from Gil Scott-Heron’s “Whitey on the Moon:”

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey’s on the moon)
I can’t pay no doctor bills.
(but Whitey’s on the moon)
Ten years from now I’ll be payin’ still.
(while Whitey’s on the moon)

Taxes takin’ my whole damn check,
Junkies make me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin’ up,
An’ as if all that shit wuzn’t enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an’ arm began to swell.
(and Whitey’s on the moon)
Was all that money I made last year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain’t no money here?
(Hmm! Whitey’s on the moon)
Y’know I jus’ ’bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I’ll sen’ these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)
Anonymous

While the number of contestants will hardly compare to the number of people who pack landfills with empty plastic water bottles or plastic grocery bags, in a time where the earth’s oceans and forests are becoming increasingly polluted, do we really want to set a new precedent by encouraging the accumulation of abandoned garbage on the moon? or does the contest also require that the robots clean-up after themselves and return to Earth or plunge into the sun after finishing their lunar mission?
phlavor

I was going to suggest putting Keepon up there but the little guy would be lonely and have no music to dance to. That breaks my heart.