There's something to be said about a car that gets 100 miles per gallon and floats. We're still trying to figure out what exactly that phrase is, but we're certain something has to be exclaimed. Designer Lon Ballard has concocted the, um, object you see above, which is actually an automobile modeled after Crocs and built almost entirely from foam. In fact, 90 percent of the Spira's makeup is foam, which doesn't exactly give us loads of confidence about its ability to withstand major (or minor, really) impacts on the American freeway. At any rate, this 302 pound automobile -- which can hit a top speed of 70mph via a 100cc engine -- is expected to make a literal splash in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, though we kind of doubt you'll ever see this thing mass produced in its existing form. Have a look at a pretty ridiculous video just past the break to see what kind of fun we're all missing out on.

[Via Wired, thanks Eric]

With about three weeks left to go, the Progressive Automotive X-Prize has already got 25 submissions (20 names have been publicly released) with creators ranging from college students to large auto makers already in the game. Here's the deal with the contest: the cars must be production-capable and fall in with federal safety guidelines, and it's got to be possible to produce and sell 10,000 of them annually, with a working business plan in place for this to happen by 2014. The car must deliver at least 100 MPGs, and CO2 emissions can't exceed 200 grams per kilometer. The prize for the competition is ten million dollars. We've seen some of these in the past -- Aptera's 2e, MDI's AirCar, and the Tata Nano are all on offer -- but there are a few new guys, too. Some of the more interesting entries are the totally rad looking diesel Avion which has gotten up to 103.7 miles per gallon, Kinetix Motors' diesel-electric hybrid E4 Sports Hatch, which should cost less than $25,000 with a top speed of 95 miles per hour. The company also claims the sporty ride goes from zero to sixty miles in 6.1 seconds. Finally, there's Physics Lab of Lake Havasu Green Giant, an electric truck that gets 50 miles per gallon on its battery, with plans to bump that figure to 100 miles per gallon using other sources of energy. Check out the gallery of other prospects, and hit the read link for the full, delicious list.

Although the swoopy Aptera electric went up for pre-orders back in October of 2007, we haven't really seen much of the futuristic car outside of the odd Star Trek cameo. Hopefully that's about to change, though -- the company just rolled out the first pre-production example its flagship model, the 2e. The three-wheeled car gets the equivalent of 200mpg, and the company claims the lithium-ion battery pack will last for 100 miles on a single charge. Aptera isn't giving out final pricing information apart from "between $25,000 and $45,000" but it says over 4,000 potential customers have already signed up for a planned California-only October release. We'll see how it goes -- and we'd bet the folks at the Automotive X-Prize are keeping a sharp eye as well.

Just under a year after Google ponied up the money for the Lunar X Prize, there's a team set to attempt a launch and claim the $20M reward. The Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCA) has scheduled up a launch of a 92-pound rover called the European Lunar Lander within the next three months, with the plan being to float a balloon over the sea to a height of 11 miles, at which point a STABILO rocket will carry the payload to space. To win the prize, the ELL has to land, travel 500 feet on the surface of the moon, and send video, images, and data back to Earth. That's quite a tall order -- we'll be watching this one closely, since even if ARCA succeeds, there's still several $5M prizes out there for second places and the completion of several other objectives.

While we spent our high school days trying not to cut our thumbs off in shop class, these West Philly High School kids have been making a run on the $10 million Automotive X Prize. They're building a plug-in diesel hybrid in an attempt to reach that magical 100 mpg mark "without sacrificing style, safety or affordability." Pictured above is a previous project, a K1 Attack modded up hybrid and biofuel-style. Seems like they've got the chops, but they're certainly up against a lot of competition.

As the sole contestant in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Armadillo Aerospace's predictably named Armadillo managed to complete two parts of a NASA challenge to win $350,000 in prize money. However, on attempting the top task -- fly 50 meters up, fly 50 meters sideways, and land -- the Armadillo tripped up, plummeting to the ground and losing the chance to win $1 million. It'll get another chance today, although at least the team won't be rushed by the non-existent competitors. Packing 1,800 pounds of thrust to the vessel's 1,500 pound weight, the Armadillo is guided by GPS and other sensors: one day we could be taking trips to the moon in the distant, distant successor to this little beast.

[Via Crave]

We have bad enough luck with cellphone coverage in our own apartment to worry much about balls of dirt floating around in space, but YouNeverCall is tacking a slim $10k onto Google's existing $30 million in moon-related prize money for the first cellphone call made by a device or a person on the moon, so if you're headed there any time soon you might want to give it a shot. Sure, $10k probably pales in comparison to the expense of even adding a phone and related hardware to the payload -- not to mention those hefty interstellar roaming charges -- and it mainly seems like a bit of cheap PR for the YouNeverCall peeps, but we like the concept of a moon rover doing something more than just roaming and pesky science while it's chilling out way up there. Whoever or whatever is making the call will need to be able to answer some simple questions while on the phone, and the call must pass through a commercially available cellphone -- though technical details are murky beyond that. Secondary prizes are also on offer for first SMS message and first usage for the Crazy Frog Ringtone.

[Via MobileWhack]

Google's sponsering a new X Prize, and this one has its sights set a bit higher than suborbital. The new contest wants competitors to send a robotic rover to the moon and beam back a gigabyte of data -- including pictures and video -- of the trip. The rover also has to travel 1,312 feet across the surface of the moon. Contest entrants are required to pony up for the launch vehicle themselves, by building it from scratch or contracting with an existing company; like the last X Prize there's no government freeloading to be had here. If somebody is successful in this feat by 2012 they'll win the $20 million, while $5 million goes to second place, and another $5 million bonus goes to teams able to surpass the minum requirements. The prize drops to $15 million after 2012 and expires in 2014 if nobody manages to win by then. More details will be announced at the WIRED Nextfest in LA this weekend.

While we've seen a couple of entrants into the Automotive X-Prize competition so far, Team Velozzi has announced a showstopper of a vehicle that will reportedly be created for the contest. Aiming to craft a vehicle that gets around 200 miles-per-gallon and receives locomotion from potent Li-ion batteries, the R&D group's potential participant currently resembles vehicles from some of the more exotic of automakers. Curiously, the company's website insinuates that it wants the vehicle to be "mainstream," but with specs consisting of a full carbon-fiber body / chassis, Brembo brakes and racing suspension, a multi-format hybrid energy system, "high-end interior," a Weismann F1 transmission, and twin AC electric engines, we can't exactly imagine this supercar fitting into the average joe's (or jane's) budget. Still, there's no denying the sexy regardless of cost, so be sure to hit the links below to get a more in-depth view of Velozzi's forthcoming automobile.

[Via AutoblogGreen]