A Look at the 10 Teams Ready to Compete in Google's $30 Million Moon Challenge

It's a robotic race to the moon and the first two teams to meet the challenge will win $30-million in prizes. The challenge to return to the moon is part of the Google Lunar X Prize. Digital Journal -- The first two teams to land a robot on the moon and transmit video, images and data back to Earth will win $30 million in prizes. The challenge is part of the Google Lunar X Prize and the first 10 teams have been announced. The international group of rocket scientists, computer programmers and businessmen are competing to land a privately funded robotic craft on the moon. The rover must be able to crawl the surface for at least 500 metres, send video, images and data back to earth. Google is in on the action to try and encourage a return to the moon. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he is excited about the possibility of a private team making it back to the moon before NASA. “I think we’re going to see an exciting and very competitive race to the Moon, highlighted by some very creative designs unlike anything we’ve seen come out of the government space programs," Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, said in a news release. "Many of these teams represent some of the most creative and entrepreneurial minds in space exploration today. I wish them all the very best of luck. I can’t wait to join with Google in paying the winner,” said Diamandis. Diamandis says the response to this challenge has been incredible; six months after announcing the challenge, the X Prize Foundation received interest from 560 groups from more than 53 countries. By comparison, the group's Ansari X Prize challenge only had two teams registered after six months. "We are excited that ten teams from around the world have taken up the challenge of the Google Lunar X PRIZE," said Megan Smith, Google's Vice President for New Business Development. "We look forward to the exciting achievements and scientific advancements that will result from the efforts of these teams as they participate in the next great space race." The first team to launch from Florida and complete this mission successfully will win the grand prize of $20 million. Second place is $5 million and $5 million in bonus prizes. The contest will run until Dec. 31, 2012 at which point it will drop to a $15 million prize. If no contestants successfully complete the mission, it will be closed on Dec. 31, 2014. So who are the groups ready to stir up some moon dust? In no particular order, they are:

- Team ARCA's moon rover. Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA): This group wins the prize for having the biggest mouthful of a name. Based out of Romania, the group has made its mark for a 2B rocket and Stabilio (described as a "two-stage manned suborbital air-launched vehicle).

- Team Astrobotic's moon rover. Team Astrobotic: Simple name, but it kinda says "watch out, we're serious." This group is using technology from Carnegie Mellon University, Raytheon Company and additional institutions. The specialty here will be "autonomous navigation through stereo vision and other technologies." In plain English: Carnegie Mellon robots can avoid obstacles and select their own route on unmapped terrain, all on their own.

- Team Chandah's moon rover. Chandah: The name actually means "moon" in Sanskrit and this group is Texas' largest independent retail electricity provider, Tara. This team is interested in commercialization of space (a la Richard Branson) and wants to move forward in space travel, tourism, science and technology.

- Team FREDNET's moon rover. FREDNET: The name sounds like something right out of a William Gibson novel. Geeky yet cool, technical yet advanced-sounding. This multi-national team of open source developers, engineers and scientists want to use the same approach to this challenge as they do when developing systems like the Internet and Linux.

- Team LunaTrex's moon rover. LunaTrex: This one sounds like an athletic shoe but don't let that fool you: The team is comprised of several people from companies and universities across the U.S. who have experience with rocket science, high-altitude near-space R&D, defence directed-energy technology, aviation design and development, robotics, trajectories, and non-conventional propulsion expertise.

- Team Micro-Space's moon rover. Micro-Space: This team sounds like it was named after a company that makes memory cards for digital cameras. But in fact, the group based out of Colorado has 31 years of experience making high-tech products. The company has developed and flown 17 bipropellant liquid fuel rockets, three near-hover rockets with vectored thrust guidance, scores of flights with telemetry and radio tracking, and several innovative life support systems.

- Team Odyssey Moon rover. Odyssey Moon: Anytime you're talkin' about space, you gotta have someone who names something "Odyssey." It's just too cool to not use. This private commercial lunar enterprise is based on the Isle of Man (it's in the Irish Sea). The team is already actively developing lunar landers.

- Team Quantum3's moon rover. Quantum3: This team sounds like it could be named after a next-gen Bowflex workout machine, or perhaps a super-duper Duracell battery. This American team uses a partnership approach to combine private sector with academic communities. They propose a small East Coast-launched spacecraft that uses launch-coast-burn trajectory for a propulsive soft landing on the surface of the moon at the Sea of Tranquility.

- Team Southern California Selene Group's moon rover. Southern California Selene Group: This group sounds like it was named after a venture capital firm, as the name rolls of your tongue with a bit of expensive-sounding aftertaste. This Santa Monica-based group will use an "elegantly simple design that is relatively inexpensive to implement.” Their space craft will mix new electronic and sensor technology with some of the earliest communications satellites.

- Team Italia moon rover. Team Italia: It's not the World Cup, but when you have "Team Italia" in a space race, you can't help but think about some passionate soccer fan sitting in the back of the room screaming "Italia" and bellowing victory songs long before the competition is even over. Team Italia is made up of people from several universities who are working on a prototype that is a single big rover or a colony of many robots. They are currently studying and developing robots that are mobile and light, with many legs and wheels. The idea behind this team's moon lander would be quick distribution: Upon landing Team Italia wants to get all over the big ol' dust rock as quickly as possible with cameras and sensory support. Kind of like a little army of soccer players. And you know they take their game seriously, so watch out.