Lunar X Prize Gets Its First Entrant

Carnegie Mellon robotics professor William "Red" Whittaker became the first official participant in Google's new Lunar X Prize this week, when he and his team announced their intent to compete for the $20 million first prize (an additional $10 million will be divvied up among the rest of the field).

Business Week covers the latest news, and takes a deeper look at the motivations and incentives involved in the process, as part of this well-done summation of the X Prize phenomenon.

The piece looks at the sort of folks who are drawn to innovative contests like the Lunar X Prize, and the Wirefly X Prize Cup - and the corporate entities who sponsor them.