"Interesting, but the question remains - an investment into what exactly?"<br /><br /><br />I've heard this question a lot in this thread and many others. What other competition could you have? America's Space Prize will not have a winner but by 2012 we could have at least two private companies with manned orbital Capabilities. SpaceX, SpaceDev, and t/Space come to mind. With NASA giving Kistler's money to someone else, we have possibly broadened the field. I hope t/Space gets it because I think the ULA/SpaceDev joint venture may get financed on its own without COTS money.<br /><br />If the competition is not suborbital (already done) and the orbital side is taking care of itself, what else is there? A prize to send humans to the moon is a bit ambitious right now. Logically, the X-Prize Foundation has picked the right competition for the time.<br /><br />themanwithoutapast,<br /><br />To answer your question, a brand new lunar architecture with a new lunar lander (I see Armadillo all over this) is simply the foundation for Bigelow's, Musk's, and others' aspirations beyond LEO. In the year 2025, we'll look back at Sept.13, 2007 as a day that helped kickstart lunar tourism and affordable scientific research.<br /><br />Immediate (<10 years) return on investment? Maybe not. But we are seeing more money flowing into private aerospace now than ever before with no end in sight. I don't know the exact market trends but I do believe this competition will attract investors because we are seeing a surge of interest in this area like never before. If Google wants a piece of it, there are others for sure.<br /><br />SLJ