Google offers $20M as moon rover prize

0 Comments | USA TODAY, September, 2007 | by Traci Watson

Nearly 40 years after the U.S. beat the Soviets to the moon, Internet giant Google said Thursday it will give $20 million to the first private group to land a roving robot on the lunar surface.

The purse is being offered by the X Prize Foundation, which awarded $10 million in 2005 to a group that included Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen for launching a human into space.

In the '70s, the Soviets launched the only robotic rovers to have negotiated the moon. Budget woes forced NASA this spring to cancel its lunar-rover plan.

Google is taking part because the contest "is really going to accomplish something very, very impressive," company co-founder Sergey Brin said Thursday in a video announcement. The goal is "something ... only a couple of...