The XPRIZE Foundation is dedicated to supporting radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity. The Google Lunar XPRIZE aims to aid the next leap onto the Moon by awarding prizes from its 40 million dollar pool to the frist private companies successful in reaching the lunar surface, simply dubbed "Moon 2.0".

According to the competition rules a 90% privately funded team must successfully land an unmanned probe on the Moon, travel for a minimum of 500 meters from the landing site and send the so called 'Mooncast' back to Earth. This consists of high resolution 360° panoramic photographs of the lunar landscape, self portraits of the rover, near-real time videos of the journey of the vehicle, High Definition videos of lunar features and transmission of a cached set of data along with the newly recorded information. Registration to compete was closed on December 31, 2010.

The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million, the second team to fulfil the prize criteria $5 million. Another $5 million will awarded in bonus prizes, including imaging other man made artefacts on the Moon, roaming the lunar landscape for more than 5km, discovering water-ice or surviving the chilling lunar night, and up to $10 million can be awarded before a Moon landing for completing terrestrial or in-space milestones.

The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2017.

More info on the competition rules can be found on the GLXP website.