Google X-Prize

Wow the X-prize foundation is launching a new competition with Google $30 million to land a robotic probe on the moon.

SpaceX with their Falcon launcher are probably the ones to watch here as the only private company with a vehicle that can reach orbit, though all of the Ansari X-Prize contestants will being thinking about it. The X-Prize Foundation's prize's have kicked the market out of its current equilibrium point and up to a new level just as the Gordon-Bennett Prizes did in ballooning and Schneider Trophy spurred on innovation in seaplanes. Exactly as was intended. If this spawns anything like the number of spin offs and new companies as the Ansari X-Prize there will be some very exiting times ahead.