Last week, Nature painted a pessimistic picture of the Google Lunar X Prize challenge in space exploration - which asks firms to land a robot explorer on the Moon by the end of next year. The technical hurdles are too high, critics say, and the financial incentives too low. A halfway house has been announced to offer encouragement: US$6 million for groups that can demonstrate that their lander works on Earth by September this year (see Nature 506,278; 2014). By then, the X Prize model to encourage scientific progress could have launched its most successful venture yet. The word 'could' is pertinent, for the man talking up the chances of the venture is Richard Branson, the business tycoon with an ear for a catchy and ambitious sound bite. This is a man who does not do pessimism.
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