SAN FRANCISCO — Although the Google-sponsored Lunar XPrize is eight years old, the first bona fide contender for a $20 million payday has just emerged out of Israel.
Tel Aviv-based non-profit SpaceIL announced Wednesday that it had met XPrize eligibility criteria by securing a ride to the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to be launched by the end of 2017 by Seattle-based satellite services company Spaceflight Industries.
To win the prize, which includes $5 million for a runner-up and another $5 million for special achievements such as surviving a lunar night and visiting an Apollo landing site, a team much have its unmanned vehicle roam 500 yards on the moon's surface while sending back high-resolution images.
Another requirement is that the venture be almost entirely privately funded. SpaceIL inked its deal with Spaceflight thanks to financial assistance from from the foundations of Las Vegas casino impresario Sheldon Adelson and early tech software investor Morris Khan. Khan has retired in Israel and Adelson is a longtime benefactor to Israeli causes.
SpaceIL CEO Eran Privman said he was hopeful that success in the Lunar XPrize, which would place Israel in the company of the U.S.,  Russia and China in terms of lunar exploration, will ignite a passion for science and exploration among the small country's population. "This takes us one huge step closer to realize our vision of recreating an ‘Apollo effect’ in Israel, to inspire a new generation to pursue science, engineering, technology, and math," so called STEM courses, Privman said in a statement.
Google established its Lunar XPrize in order to try and fill a void in space exploration left when governments pulled out of the pursuit. Initially, the rules required the various multi-national teams that accepted the challenge to present a privately-funded contract for a trip to the moon for their technology by the end of 2015. That deadline has now been extended to Dec. 31, 2016, with all trips needing to be completed by the end of 2017.



"This really is the beginning of a new age in space exploration where private industry will be taking on the task of doing so," says Chandra Gonzalez, senior director, Google Lunar XPrize. "We wanted to create incentivized competition, which ultimately could help drive down the cost of exploration in this field."
Gonzalez adds that she remains hopeful that other teams will lock in contracts for trips to the moon between now and the end of 2016. "A couple of teams have stated that they have such contracts, but they haven't yet provided the verification required by us," she says. "We remain hopeful."
The XPrizes Foundation, started in 1995 by engineer and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, is a non-profit that encourages public competitions in areas ranging from adult literacy to ocean health that carry awards provided by a range of organizations.
Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twiter: @marcodellacava

"The Real Connection Between Netanyahu and Adelson's Israel Hayom

 I filed a Freedom of Information Law request on February 11, four months ago. Today the answer arrived. I nearly fell off my chair.

 Raviv Drucker Jun 13, 2015 5:32 PM
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.660914"

 Remember, America is funding all of this with tax dollars and American gambling profits being used by Adelson to ramp up Israeli Zionist racial war against Arab Palestinians. 

 Boycott Google which is becoming more and more the accomplice of corporate 2% billionaire takeover of world governments through the worst sorts of capitalist exploitation, arms selling at the top of the list running down to Las Vegas gambling.