Google the Moon

Google (who kindly hosts this very site and controls the world with a brightly colored, magnanimous fist) is offering a $20 million prize to the first team of independent space explorers to land a rover on the moon by the end of 2012. To meet all the qualifications, the rover also has to be able to move at least 500 meters and send back data, photos, and video. There's a smaller prize for those who complete the mission past the deadline. The program, called the Google Lunar X Prize hopes to develop cheaper and more efficient methods of space exploration and travel than what can be achieved under a government-funded system. Anything that can get me to the anarchistic and sexually limitless adventures of a lunar pleasure dome for under $1,500 is worth it in my book. More details here.