Turns out trans-lunar injection is resource intensive. WHO KNEW?
One time? At a space conference? I was peacefully sitting in a chair above the main floor when these two douches showed up. They sat on either side of me. The dude from Ansari said "I'm, sorry, we're having a meeting" and I said "dude, I was sitting here!" and he's all "don't make me call security."
Fuck Ansari and fuck their prize.
Only thing really capable until the Falcon Heavy are the Delta IV family and the Atlas V with solid's attached and that was not going to happen at $30 million payout. Falcon 9 MAY be able to get a small orbiter to lunar orbit considering the size of some of the GEO missions and TESS, but landing? Shocked it went this far, honestly. If the Heavy really does cost the estimated $90M a launch, and they can get the thing to not shake apart at liftoff, then I can see 4-5 of these groups pooling together to do a landing and rover. There is a reason only three organizations have landed on the moon; all three were national governments with deep pockets.
I guess an F9 will do it. Granted, SpaceX wants $61m to give you a try so no, $30m wasn't exactly an adequate prize.