To think that less than 40 years ago man walked on the moon, and now X-Prize and Google are sponsoring a contest for a private entity to put a robotic rover on the moon by 2012. (Man first achieved that in 1966!)

Technology really develops fast. If the US thought the space race against the Soviets was tough, then this is the Indy 500 of space races—

The international group of widely diverse teams will compete to land a privately funded robotic craft on the Moon that is capable of roaming the lunar surface for at least 1,600 feet and sending video, images and data back to the Earth. Since the competition was first announced six months ago, 567 potential teams from 53 countries have requested registration information…

All in all only 10 teams were chosen. A list and description of the teams can be found here.

And they’re off…

Only 384,403 kilometers to go. Good luck.

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