"Hi, my name is Alwin Paul. I go to Penn State and major in... space?" Paul actually majors in engineering, but he's one member of Penn State's student-faculty team (named "Lunar Lion) attempting to launch a rocket into space. If they succeed, they'll receive $20 million as part of Google's Lunar XPrize contest, Popular Science reported.

Actually, the Lunar Lions -- the only team out of 18 with direct ties to a university (Carnegie Mellon has a more loosely affiliated group) -- face an "easier" task than launching a rocket into space (I don't think they'd be in the contest if the rocket part wasn't taken care of). That part of the journey is covered by the private space company, Pheonicia. Once the rocket is in range, they'll have to land a rover on the moon, have it move at least 500 feet, and send high definition pictures and videos back to Earth. All this will be required on a pea-sized budget compared to the money available to the only other three groups -- the space agencies of the United States, China, and the former Soviet Union -- ever to complete a "soft landing" on the moon, according to Popular Science.

Given resource restrictions, Penn State's team has learned to be "frugal in their engineering," according to Michael Paul, Lunar Lion's director and a space systems engineer at Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory.

But do they believe they can actually do it?

Based on Paul's other quote given to Popular Science, it would appear the Lunar Lions are willing to accept failure for other aims.

"Our goal is really education and research," Paul said.

Yet, the ride from Pheonicia is costing them $10 million alone. At that price, it would seem that failure is not an option.

Paul (no relation to Alwin) added: "What we're doing, we hope, becomes a model for other universities." That model, as Popular Science pointed out, is a model for funding. Corporate and private donors have spurred Lunar Lion's progress (though it's unclear how much of the $10 million was contributed privately and how much was contributed by the school). Thus, colleges and universities wishing to pursue similarly ambitious projects could look outside their endowments and into partnerships. No doubt, if Penn State wins the contest, its donors will be more than compensated for their overtures.

Still, money is tight. The Lions are seeking an additional $400,000 through crowdfunding, according to Popular Science. With Pheonicia's rocket launch scheduled for December of 2015, the group is just emerging out of the design stage and ready to start building and testing the $20 million hover craft.