I’M SITTING IN on the Google Lunar X-Prize session, where several of the contestants are talking about their efforts. Interestingly, everybody so far has said they’re planning to establish a long-term lunar business, rather than just undertaking a one-shot effort to win the prize. That’s quite cool, since it holds out the prospect of many competitors continuing their efforts even if someone else wins the prize, thus — as prizes are wont to do — generating a lot of leverage out of the prize money.

There are now 14 competitors registered, from the United States, Romania, Italy, the Isle of Man, and Malaysia. It sounds like they expect more. Of course, they’ve lost Cringely.

UPDATE: Best line from one of the contestants: “Space is hard.”