...that's all they want, that their version (Google moon at full zoom) is irrefutable.

I wonder how long it will be before we get photos of the American lunar landings?

This is another "prize", exactly like the original Ansari-X-prize, or the DARPA Challenge, where the prize money is only a fraction of what it will cost to win it.

It's still a good idea. No-one who just wants the money will clog up the entries, and people who have a serious shot at it will relish the exposure and free publicity.

HD broadcasts from the moon, that'll be a challenge.

say cheese!

Now, would anyone like to loan me a film stage on a share of the profits basis?

I promise I'll sweep up all of the rocks and dust afterwards....

Would i be running after their $30M if i had enough juice to do all this???????

will i recieve any royalties for my photographs of google monn????

I know how we can tackle the important issues like climate change and resource dependence... let's set up a prize fund which will guarantee that a whole set of private companies start burning up the limited resources we have on Earth launching private missions to travel 384,403km, many probably failing in the strict requirements, just to go and look at a lump of rock. Genius!

It all makes perfect sense, once they're done launching all these missions, climate change and resource scarcity will be so bad we'll -have- to find a solution pronto!

We can't tolerate non-governmental rocketry. If it can get to the Moon, it can get into Earth orbit. At that stage it could change it's mind and deliver a warhead instead.

Which is precisely what the Japanese are really about - just in case there's trouble over Taiwan with the PRC. And which Bush is happy about, of course.

Bit of a conundrum for the President there. Let's hope the penny drops in time before the Big One does.

Sorry to break this to you mate, but the Japanese have been able to get a rocket into earth orbit for quite a while now. See, they've got a space agency, and the main thing space agencies do is put rockets into space. Otherwise, they'd just be an airforce (Japan has one of those too, by the way).

I can't really see how sending a rover to the moon really confers any military advantage to anyone myself, unless we actually start fighting wars over the moons vast reserves of err, rocks. Seems to me Japan is doing it for the exact same reasons that the US and Russia did back in the day: China is going to the moon, so Japan has to go too.

> ...that's all they want, that their version (Google moon at full zoom) is irrefutable.

... By sending a rover, they're definitely aiming at "Street" View for the moon. :)

I won't accept it as real until they can show me the (now heavily ablated) golf balls Alan Shepard hit/left behind.

Fore!