On Friday, the U.S. space agency announced it has forged a partnership with the X Prize Foundation, an organization that promotes space exploration, to hold the Lunar Lander Analog Challenge. The contest, for development of a vehicle to simulate a landing on the moon, carries $2.5 million in prizes, including NASA's purse. The X Prize Foundation will host and pay for the competition to take place in Las Cruces, N.M., in October, when it puts on its own X Prize Cup.
It sounds like the X Prize Foundation has had exactly the effect on NASA that it had hoped for. The idea was to spur innovation and they have done it with their own money. Now they've got NASA thinking ahead again. It's a fabulous start.
NASA launches lunar lander contest | Tech News on ZDNet
