This is interesting. Google kicked in money to fund a $30 million award to the first private group to land a robot rover on the Moon. The rover must be equipped with high-definition cameras, must roam 500m, and must do this before the year 2012. Google is teaming up with the Ansari foundation, sponsors of the X-Prize, to manage the award, officially called the Google Lunar X Prize.
As the article states, the hurdles to overcome with a private moon landing are far greater than simply reaching space. Thirty million bucks is a drop in the bucket as far as this goes. Then again, some of NASA’s Mars missions have succeeded on the cheap (Phoenix – $389m) while others have not succeeded (Mars Climate Observer – $125m). Regardless, all have been supported by billions of dollars of infrastructure already in place.
If you solve the space transporation problem, though, the rest seems relatively simple. If we can build robot doppelgangers that roam office hallways, then dang it we can build a Moon rover! Heck, if Andy Griffith can do it with junkyard parts anyone can!
There’s just that little problem of escape velocity to be reckoned with.