Search giant Google is offering a $30m prize pot to private firms that land a robot rover on the Moon.

The competition to send a robot craft to the Moon is being run with the X-Prize Foundation.

To claim the cash, any craft reaching the lunar surface must perform a series of tasks such as shoot video and roam for specific distances.

Firms interested in trying for the prize have until the end of 2012 to mount their Moonshot. 

High flier

In a statement announcing the competition, Google and the X-Prize Foundation said it had been created in a bid to stimulate research into low-cost robotic exploration of space.

The top prize of $20m will be given to the private firm that soft lands a rover on the Moon which then completes a series of objectives.

These include roaming the lunar surface for at least 500m and gathering a specific set of images, video and data.

A prize of $5m will be given to the second firm that manages to reach the Moon with a rover that roams the surface and shoots some pictures.

Google said it would give bonuses of $5m if the rovers complete other objectives such as travelling further on the Moon, taking pictures of Apollo hardware, finding water-ice and surviving the freezing lunar night.

Rovers taking part must be fitted with high-definition video and still cameras.

"We are confident that teams from around the world will help develop new robotic and virtual presence technology, which will dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration," said Dr Peter Diamandis, chairman of the X-Prize Foundation in a statement.

Great test

The prize will be on offer until 2012. After that a smaller sum of $15m will be offered and, if the cash goes unclaimed, the competition will end in 2014.

Source - BBC

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