He has expressed his admiration in a general sense for what science and technology are capable of, a motive for Google in sponsoring the Lunar X prize.

FORBES: Google's CEO Larry Page on Innovation

The closest most of us 'round here will ever get to outer space is blogging about the Lunar X Prize, so our inner astronauts get rather giddy any time an amateur makes it to the cusp of the gravity well.

ENGADGET: Teens take pictures of space with balloon, Nikon Coolpix camera

We've got conversations with Google's Tamar Yehoshua, OUYA's Julie Uhrman, Jason Parrish and Corinna Proctor from Lenovo, Chris Anderson, DJ Spooky, Mark Frauenfelder, Veronica Belmont, Ryan Block, plus folks from NASA, 3D Robotics, Oculus, Google Lunar X Prize, TechShop, Lunar and IndieGogo.

ENGADGET

We also take a closer look at how the commercial space sector is pushing exploration forward with Google Lunar X Prize senior director, Alexandra Hall, a lunar rover team at Carnegie Mellon, the Space Angels Network VC firm and Laser Motive, which is working on powering crafts through lasers.

ENGADGET

Think the X Prize and lunar landings, robotic cars and other futuristic endeavors pursued by tech geeks in garages come to mind.

FORBES: Wendy Schmidt's X Prize Oil Cleanup Challenge Names Winners

Armadillo came close to winning the X Prize Foundation's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge last year by flying an alcohol-fueled rocket 150 feet in the air to a landing pad 300 feet away.

FORBES: Magazine Article