The Wire

More than 40 years ago, a space race between the Soviet Union and the United States led to man walking on the moon. Today, another space race is underway, but this time the competitors aren’t governments, they’re highly-qualified teams funded by the private sector. Their aim: to invent a cost-effective way to explore the moon. Their prize: 20 million US dollars. The Google Lunar X Prize will go to the first team to successfully get a robot to the moon that can rove half a kilometre over the lunar surface and send back high definition images and video. Twenty nine teams have qualified to take part, and a winner is expected by 2015.