Despite the fact that everyone from the Mythbusters to Buzz “Punch-Out” Aldrin has shot them down, moon landing conspiracy theories just will not die. So a bunch of Germans, sick to death of hearing about them, are going to disprove them by sending a robot to the moon to explore the lunar landing site.
Admittedly, they’re also doing it because they can make a ton of cash. Google has a Lunar X-Prize, essentially a giant cash reward of $20 million to get a robot on the moon and met certain criteria, like traveling a few hundred feet and sending photos back to Earth. Teams also get a bonus for exploring a lunar landing site, so the Germans has some cash at stake. Since lunar landing sites are important history that need to be preserved, the rover can only get about 200 meters away, but that’s more than close enough to snap a few pictures and both secure a giant pile of cash and stick it to every tiresome jerk on the internet.
Either way, 2017 promises to be interesting, as in order to get the prize, the teams have to land on the Moon by 2017. And once they do that, well, we have a viable method of landing robots on the moon and poking around. Or possibly digging out tunnels for a lunar colony, although one step at a time.
(via Gizmodo)