One Step For Man, One Giant Search For GOOGLE!

First it conquered cyberspace. Now, Google is setting its sights on outer space. Leave it to innovators to push the envelope… all the way to the MOON!

The company on Thursday announced the first 10 teams of competitors in its $30 million contest to send a spacecraft back to the moon to gain greater insights into the solar system and to find new sources of clean energy.

The Google Lunar X-Prize contest requires each team -- largely composed of scientists and business people -- to build a robotic craft that can roam across the moon's surface, beam video, images and data back to Earth and even tap into natural resources.

Google isn't paying the costs for the teams to develop the rockets; it's simply holding out the carrot of a top prize of $20 million to the team that builds a vessel that can land on the moon and accomplish its mission. Each team has to raise the money to construct a spacecraft on its own.

The contest, announced last fall, is being co-sponsored by the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit organization that administers competitions to spur the development of technologies that aspire to solve dire problems around the world.

Google's contest might get a spacecraft on the moon before the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration does. The company said it will award a cash prize of $20 million by the end of 2012 to the contestant that lands a privately funded craft on the moon, roams the lunar surface for at least 50 meters (164 feet) and transmits a specified set of images and data back to Earth. By contrast, NASA has a deadline of 2020 to get another craft to the moon.

In addition to the first-place prize, Google will award $5 million to a runner-up. The company also plans to dole out another $5 million in "bonus prizes," likely spread among several entrants.

If my memory serves me correctly, the last spacecraft to land on the Moon was NASA's Apollo 12 mission, nearly 40 years ago. It's now time to re-create that historic moment.

The interest in space travel is back and in my opinion it is in the right hands. Big budgets that governments bring to the table are sometimes necessary to create technology and perform research. Now the ball is in the hands of the entrepreneurs and they have all the data and technology they need.

Science has had a bad marketing campaign and this is the perfect way to reignite the fire and wonder that we once held for man’s final frontier. This is an exciting time in our history and I simply can’t wait to see what happens next. I’m on the edge of my seat and I hope you’re with me !?!