The deadline for claiming its $20m first prize was originally set for 31 December 2012, but this was subsequently extended to give teams more time to grapple with the major technical and financial obstacles of building a Moon mission. Organisers even handed out some "milestone prizes" in 2014 to further encourage the challengers.
Earlier this year, the foundation announced that it would again extend the competition's deadline, this time to the end of 2017, but only if at least one team came forward with a verified launch contract before 31 December 2015. SpaceIL's announcement meets this provision, and so triggers the extension.
The remaining 15 teams in the competition now have until the end of 2016 to demonstrate their own launch contracts, to complete a mission and claim the prize by 31 December 2017.
How does the prize work?
The competition’s $30 million prize purse will be awarded to teams who are able to land a privately funded rover on the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit back high definition video and images. The first team that successfully completes this mission will be awarded the $20 million dollar Grand Prize. The second team to successfully complete the mission will be awarded $5 million dollars. To win either of these prizes, teams must prove that 90% of their mission costs were funded by private sources. Teams have until the end of 2016 to announce a verified launch contract to remain in the competition and complete their mission by the end of 2017.
