Burt Rutan says prizes attract up to 40 times their amount in private investment pursuing them.
Burt Rutan says that prizes attract up to 40 times their amount in terms of total private investment pursuing them (through competing teams). Admittedly, that 40:1 ratio may not be nearly as great when the prize pursued is enormous.
For more on this and related competitive prize issues (including Newt's OpEd in USA Today):
http://www.spaceprojects.com/prizes
(it's a competely NONcommercial site; maintained and updated with purely altruistic intentions).