The Google Lunar X-Prize challenge to put a privately funded and operated rover on the Moon by 2012 now has ten teams competing for the $20 million dollar first prize, plus various other prizes. According to the X-Prize Foundation, all ten teams seem to be positioning themselves to make serious runs at winning.
So far, seven American teams have entered, plus teams from Italy, Romania, and the Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea. Odyssey Moon, of the Isle, entered the competition last December. More entries are expected.
A group called Space Florida is further sweetening the money pot. It is offering launch services to teams that launch from Florida, and if the winner launches from Florida, the group will kick in another $2 million in prize money. Space Florida's purpose is to ensure that the state's historic role in spaceflight is maintained into a new era.
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