The first team to be officially entered into a private race to the Moon has been announced. Odyssey Moon says it wants to "make history" by sending a robotic lander to the lunar surface without any government funding. The company is competing for a share of a $30m prize offered by Google and the X-Prize Foundation, designed to stimulate research into low-cost space missions. "It's amazing to think that over half of the world's population was not alive the last time that humans or even robots were on the surface on the Moon." said William Pomerantz, Director of Space Projects for the X-Prize Foundation. "We are hoping that this prize will kick off an international race that will see humanity extending its influence out to the Moon. This coming decade is going to be all about the Moon - it's the hottest real estate in the universe right now," he added. A top prize of $20m will go the first private company that lands a vehicle on the Moon and successfully completes a series of tasks including travelling across the surface for at least 500m and collecting scientific information. There is a further prize of $5m for the second company to reach the Moon. Teams can earn bonuses of $5m for completing additional missions like taking photos of man-made artefacts such as equipment left behind by the Apollo missions.

Odyssey Moon is based in the Isle of Man and is the brainchild of Dr Robert Richards. "Our goal is to first win the Google Lunar X-Prize, but in doing so to catalyse a new level of commerce and opportunity beyond Earth's orbit to the Moon" he said.

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