google & the x-prize foundation are about to start a competition that will award the winner with a possible $30million... & all ya have to do is launch a rocket to the moon with a working lander & rover & capture some video... extra prizes if you find some water ice! :p

Are you working on anything right now? If you've got a little time to kill between now and 2012, you might want to win the newly announced $30 million prize announced by the X-Prize Foundation and Google. You'll need some engineering expertise as well; in order to take the prize home, you've got to land a rover on the Moon, capture some video, and drive around a little - maybe find some water ice while you're at it.

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Too easy, I'm gonna be riiich biiatch.

Sounds like a good idea. Let's have more s*** floating around up there. Isn't one of the main fears to NASA hitting s*** as they launch missions into space because of all the crap circling the earth?

no. even though there are over 25000 man made satellites in orbit around earth, they are very small, making the space between them very big ;p the chances of hitting one by accident with a rocket supposedly destined for the moon are astronomically small. heh.

That's awesome - I've actually read something recently about some dudes trying to get to the moon for something like this. I'll have to dig around for it.

astronomically small. heh.

ahahahahaha I get it

yeah iswydt

So what are the odds of anyone actually doing this :P I mean, is it just a 'fake' promise for PR purposes or is it truthfully meant to stimulate some competition?

i agree that it would seem impossible for any private concern to sucessfully complete such a mission. the final 'prize' of ~$US30million is pitifully small compared to the actual cost of the mission. nasa estimates that in todays currency a lunar lander mission would cost approximately $US140million which makes the 'prize' something of a joke.

also, only the russians & americans have rockets capable of delivering a heavy payload to the moon... developing such a rocket privately would not be feasable in my opinion. & the cost of buying one from nasa would negate the prize monies.

carmack should get into some of this...

doesnt his rockets always crash?

^^^^ didnt he already loose a packet on then last x-prize?

Calling S1 to the thread - modify a 180sx and bam off you go.. $7,000 for car, $1,000 for exhaust, $1,000 for fuel and $1,000 for sealy no gaps to prevent oxygen escape.

$10k outlay for $30mil profit.

carmack's rocket 'pixel' came closest out of several competitors for the 'verticle take-off & landing' part of the last x-prize comp... but failed to take the prize coz the rocket was damaged on landing. the prize money was $350000 & i believe the cost of his rocket was ~$200000, so he would have done ok if it hadn't been damaged.

i guess the main idea with these sorta incentives is to try & drive a wider range of technical innovation without just proceeding up the tried & true (& fukn expensive) path & hopefully develop a more innovative & cheaper way of operating.

ticman, you forgot $500 for f***ing massive 2nd-hand turbo off a truck.