Lunar XPrize Scorecard

The success of the original X Prize Foundation contest has led to a host of follow on X Prize contests in several different areas. One of these is the Lunar Challenge, which is jointly sponsored by the X Prize and Google. Michael Doornbos has started a scorecard to keep track of the 28 teams competing in the contest. You can see it here. He also has podcasts and other information on the site to learn more about the teams and their approach.
While these contests are motivating, I thought it was interesting what Tim Pickens said in this Wired magazine article about the prize money. He is a member of the Rocket City Space Pioneers team and helped build the craft that won the original X Prize in 2004.

“If you need the prize to make your team’s business work, you’re hosed. The prize money is an awesome consolation and a great way to recoup development costs, but it isn’t going to cover your mission costs. There are much, much less risky ways to make money. For the value of the prize versus the risk, you might as well be doing something else.”