Google Lunar X Prize Teams Now In a Race With China As Well As Each Other 32
MarkWhittington writes "The Google Lunar X Prize rules of competition have a clause that reduces the $20 million grand prize to $15 million for the first private group to land a rover on the lunar surface should a government funded rover land first. The first scheduled government funded rover to land on the moon is the Chinese Chang'e 3. It is slated for a 2013 landing."
Re:Lunokhod? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, more exactly, they think that their expected return is positive. So, if they think that the chance of a full payout was 10%, their premiums are presumably going to total something more than $ 2 million (minus a little bit for the present value of future money, which is always 1). Insurance works by making many such bets, and getting right on a large enough aggregate.
My understanding is that the first X Prize was funded on the cheap, as the Insurance company really didn't think they would ever have to pay out. That is not likely to happen again.