[melling]

These prizes are a cost effective way to get people and companies to solve difficult problems. The idea goes back hundreds of years. Take the Longitude Prize, as an example. It was won by a clock maker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison

[luckyeights]

I don't mean to argue with that. I'm all for the prize; I think both Google and these competing companies are doing great things for our space technology.

What I really want is for these companies to get inspired and make it to the moon. Claim that prize. And once they've done that, I'll be more interested in hearing about their commercialization and their "Moon Idol" idea.