Google to offer $30 million lunar prize

[nemaroller]

First private company to land on the moon and stream back images wins $30 million.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/0....ap/index.html

My proposal: I propose a four thruster system attached to a canon EOS digital with a giant bouncy spring on the bottom and huge suction cup on the side.

The spring will allow the vehicle to bounce along the lunar surface.

Here's the brilliant part:
The suction cup will allow the vehicle to escape Earth's gravitational pull by covertly attaching itself to the Space Shuttle Discovery two seconds after its scheduled liftoff on October 20 of this year. Once in space, the suction cup will detach and the onboard thrusters will take the craft to the moon.

[crptcblade]

Why not just bribe an astronaut to take a camera up next time and throw it out the window in the direction of the moon? Think of all the savings on fuel...

[timeshifter]

But imagine how accurate the throw would have to be... it would have to overcome the constant pull of Earth's gravity all the way to the moon, as well as be on a perfect intercept course so it doesn't miss the moon altogether...

Maybe a computer-guided throwing slingshot system... hell, why not just throw the astronaut to the moon then?

[CodedFire]

What about faking the whole thing, hey it worked before

[nemaroller]

What about faking the whole thing, hey it worked before

Pfftt... that would be incredibly expensive. Post production costs are enormous now. It'd be cheaper using one of the alternatives above.

[penagate]

It's a funny fact of the Moon conspiracy that they had the technology then to send men to the Moon but they didn't have the technology to convincingly fake it.

[kregg]

They just had Tom and Jerry cheese to prove it.