By Bob Richards, CEO Odyssey Moon The announcement last month of Odyssey Moon as the first official team of the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition marked the beginning of a new private race to the Moon. Our work has begun and we are very excited about the team we have assembled. Odyssey Moon as a company has been in development for over a year, creating a commercial business plan for a series of private missions to the Moon during the International Lunar Decade. We’ve been developing a long term vision for commercial lunar development. Now with the Google Lunar X PRIZE we have a short term goal: Odyssey Moon is setting its eyes on the Prize. We believe in competition and we believe in this Prize. For Odyssey Moon, the announcement of the Google Lunar X PRIZE was the right thing at the right time to inspire us to unveil our company, advance our plans and enter the race. It is our intention to seed and lead a new market for private commercial lunar enterprise. First we will take on the early risks and prove it can be done; then we will offer inexpensive reliable lunar products and services to others. It is our goal to lower the price of lunar access by an order of magnitude compared to government programs and in doing so help catalyze a moonrush for the energy and resources that await us on Earth’s eighth continent floating just offshore. Odyssey Moon Limited is an international commercial lunar enterprise based in the Isle of Man. The company has assembled an exceptional international management team of experienced, successful space executives. The founding team has over 150 years of international experience in technology, space projects and commerce. Odyssey Moon Limited has entered into a strategic partnership with MDA Space Missions as its prime contractor, an experienced company with over 30 years of space heritage in providing robotics on the Space Shuttle (the Canada Arm) and International Space Station, and more recently for satellite servicing and planetary exploration. While Odyssey Moon is a business focused on opening a new frontier; we support the Moon 2.0 philosophy of open access, individual participation and communicating the importance of planetary exploration to the public. We were extremely pleased to announce last month that The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group, has joined the Odyssey Moon team to assist in education and public involvement as well as international and science liaison. Founded by the late astronomer Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman, the Society encourages government, non-government and private and public participation in the exploration of other worlds. I want to personally thank The Planetary Society for joining us in our mission to make our missions more accessible to the public. Carl Sagan played a highly influential role in my life as a mentor and a teacher and I am extremely proud and honored that part of his legacy stands behind our effort. We believe that humanity's adventure to explore, understand and protect its home planet will benefit from the power of private enterprise to unleash the resources available to us, both on and off the Earth. Odyssey Moon is founded on the precept that science, exploration and commerce can co-exist in the exploration and development of the Moon, resulting in benefits for everyone on Earth. We believe that the private sector can work effectively with government to deliver value to the public and open up new markets for commerce. It is our intention to play a leading role in Humanity's permanent return to the Moon and to set the example of how a new frontier can be conquered in a responsible way. This competition is a master stroke toward this goal. Future generations will view the Google Lunar X PRIZE as the turning point of the 21st century, when humanity realized the Moon’s critical role for prosperity and survival in space and on Earth.