Lunar X-Prize inspires retired scientists to try their hand at a new challenge
Science: As a legendary designer of communications satellites, Harold Rosen doesn't need to spend his ninth decade figuring out how to land a cheap probe that can maneuver and send back pictures from the moon's surface. But when Google announced last year that it was joining with the nonprofit X Prize Foundation to sponsor the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize, the National Medal of Technology winner decided to dust off an idea for a tubular, spinning payload that had been "in the back of my head" for decades. "We think we have the team to win it, and we're raring to go," says Rosen, who believes he can do for $20 million.
