If a robotic rover soon cavorts on the surface of the moon, you can trace its genesis to a gala fundraiser held at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., last March.
Hosted by Google co-founder Larry Page, the event raised $2.7 million for the X Prize Foundation. Page is a trustee.
Attendees included Tipper Gore, Sir Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington and Robin Williams. The actor/comedian, whose roles have included a space alien as well as a short-term president-elect of the United States, brought down the house with an impromptu routine.
At that fundraiser, space entrepreneur and foundation CEO Peter Diamandis first pitched Page about sponsoring a lunar prize competition, according to The New York Times. The Google Lunar X Prize, announced this week, offers up to $30 million to private companies that can land and operate a rover on the moon during the next seven years.
In 2005, the X Prize Foundation gave $10 million to the first privately funded group to launch a human into space.
Peter Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, said Google’s lunar goals are feasible. “We think most of the components could be purchased off the shelf,” he told USA Today.
NASA and Google are long-time collaborators on mapping projects and research. Google executives recently reached a unique agreement with NASA allowing them to keep three corporate-related aircraft at Moffett Field, near Google’s headquarters. Moffett is the home of the Ames Research Center.
The X Prize Foundation, which offers prizes for breakthrough innovations that benefit humanity, has high-octane officers and trustees who believe in the power of free enterprise to help fix problems and accomplish goals.
Vice chair Robert Weiss is a Hollywood producer. President Tom Vander Ark previously was an executive with the giant Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Trustees include inventor Ray Kurzweil, PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, a grandson of aviator Charles Lindbergh, and Anousheh Ansari, the Texas businesswoman who paid $20 million for an eight-day stay aboard the
International Space Station.
With NASA, Google Expands Its Realm to the Moon and Mars - New York Times
X PRIZE Foundation Raises $2.7 million at Google Gala - American Venture Magazine
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