Science and Discovery Channels partner for Google Lunar XPRIZE

If all goes well with the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, we’ll be seeing an unmanned spacecraft land on the moon before the end of 2015 — and we’ll be seeing it on Discovery Channel and Science Channel, the two networks partnering together to air the process of getting that craft on the moon from start to finish.

“More than half the world’s population has never had the opportunity to experience a live broadcast from the moon,” Robert K. Weiss, vice chairman and president of XPRIZE, said in a statement. “Partnering with Discovery Channel and Science Channel will allow us to engage the public around this milestone event, creating an ‘Apollo Moment’ for the next generation.”

Here’s how it works: Privately funded teams from around the world will race to get their own craft on the moon before December 31, 2015, and whoever gets there first and completes the mission of having the craft travel 500 meters on (or above, or below) the moon’s surface and transmits live pictures and video back to earth gets the $30 million prize.

The competition will air as a miniseries and is planned for 2015.