Googling Space Exploration

Microsoft and Apple are you paying attention? You better one up Google and start planning a Mars mission:

Private race to the moon (and money) takes off
10 teams vie for $30 million in Google Lunar X PRIZE competition

“Google and X Prize officials have unveiled nine new privately funded teams that will compete for $30 million in the Google Lunar X Prize challenge, a race to the moon. “It’s not just a new mission,” Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, said during Thursday’s announcement here at Google’s headquarters. “It’s a new way of doing business.”

The Google Lunar X Prize, unveiled last September, aims to encourage privately funded lunar exploration — just as the $10 million Ansari X Prize provided a jump start for space tourism three years ago. Private-sector moonshots could open the way to commercial ventures ranging from robotic mining operations to lunar hotels and virtual reality-TV expeditions.”