Google offers reward to land robot on moon
Saturday, 15 September 2007
NEW YORK, Sept 14 (AFP) : Internet search giant Google Thursday offered 30 million dollars in prize money for companies to land a robot camera to roam on the moon and send back high-resolution snaps and data.
Google launched Google Moon, a page on its site with images mapping out stretches of the orb's pock-marked surface. They are compiled from photographs taken by previous moon missions including the historic first landing by the Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and crew in 1969.
The site is aimed at encouraging companies interested in the challenge, giving them visuals of the moon "so the teams can scout locations" for a robot camera, Google joked in a blog announcing the competition, launched jointly with the X Prize Foundation which promotes technological innovation.
It offers a 20 million dollar top prize for a vehicle that can move around automatically and transmit data back to Earth and a second prize of five million for a stationary device that sends data.
A five million dollar bonus is offered for a robot vehicle that discovers ice or water, that can travel further than five kilometers or captures images of space vehicles abandoned there from old missions.
Google launched Google Moon, a page on its site with images mapping out stretches of the orb's pock-marked surface. They are compiled from photographs taken by previous moon missions including the historic first landing by the Apollo 11 with Neil Armstrong and crew in 1969.
The site is aimed at encouraging companies interested in the challenge, giving them visuals of the moon "so the teams can scout locations" for a robot camera, Google joked in a blog announcing the competition, launched jointly with the X Prize Foundation which promotes technological innovation.
It offers a 20 million dollar top prize for a vehicle that can move around automatically and transmit data back to Earth and a second prize of five million for a stationary device that sends data.
A five million dollar bonus is offered for a robot vehicle that discovers ice or water, that can travel further than five kilometers or captures images of space vehicles abandoned there from old missions.