If you’re looking to get a cool $30 Million from Google, you’re going to have to do a lot more than optimizing your ad placements. In fact, all the web traffic in the world will not help you get this particular load of cash from Google.

Google is providing a total of $30 Million in prize money for the first private company to land a robotic exploration vehicle on the moon and beam back at least 1GB of still images and video back to Earth. While the prize may seem pretty huge, the winner of the prize will probably not see much of it. Participants in the contest are not only responsible for the research, development and production of their lunar rovers but they are also responsible for launching it to the moon themselves. The grand prize will be $20M while

The rules call for a spacecraft to trek at least 1,312 feet across the lunar surface and return a package of data including self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real time videos. Participants are also responsible for securing a launch vehicle for the probe, either by building it themselves or contracting with an existing rocket company.

Whoever accomplishes the feat by the end of 2012 will receive $20 million. 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.

Perhaps this will lead to Google finally building its lunar office :)

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