Think of Google and you will usually think of a search engine, or an online giant. You can be excused for not thinking of the moon. However the Lunar X prize offered by the internet giant has inspired more private moon landing plans than ever before in the history of mankind’s space exploration.

The expenses associated with space exploration combined with close to no returns on investment had made it absolutely unprofitable for private enterprises to get involved in moon’s exploration. Google changes that scenario when it offered a$30 million prize for landing a robotic vehicle on the moon.

No sooner than the prize was announced a number of private concerns began the race to reach the moon to win the grand prize. many of them can be found online in various degrees of research. One of the more serious contenders is Moon Express. Their coffee table-sized spacecraft, will be totally solar-powered and will use hydrogen peroxide-based fuel to lower costs.

Introduced on  Thursday at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, by CEO Bob Richards, Moon Express wants to send this robotic spacecraft to the moon in 2015. Let’s see if they win the race. Giving science a boost is what this science project initiated by Google is what its all about.