Google is offering $30m prize pot to the first private firms that manage to land a robot rover on the moon. In order the win the money the robot must first reach the moons surface. It must then perform several tasks including shooting a video and roaming for a certain distance. The competition is open until 2012. The top prize of $20m will go to the firm that lands a rover and completes the objectives. There will be a second prize of $5m for the firm that comes second and $5m of bonuses are on offer if the rovers go further than expected. Rovers taking part must be fitted with high-definition video and still cameras. It seems like a good excuse to build a cool robot, but I’m not sure my skills are quite up to the task.
