Google is bankrolling a $30 million contest that could significantly boost the commercial space industry and spur the first non-governmental flight to the moon. It’s called Google Lunar X Prize.

The bulk of the prize will go to the first private company that can land a robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth, the Internet search leader said Thursday.

The winning spacecraft must be tough enough to survive a landing and be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras. And it must be smart enough to trek at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real-time videos back to Earth that will be streamed on Google’s Web site.

If there is no winner, the purse will drop to $15 million until the end of 2014, when the contest expires. There is also a $5 million second-place prize and $5 million in bonus money to teams that go beyond the minimum requirements.

Technorati Tags: Google Lunar X Prize, google, google moon contest, moon challenge, google earth

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