July 30 2008 Roundup

Why I Gave Up on NASA - HoshiChan.com - Why are young people less interested in NASA's space program? From the article, it sounds like it's not just young people, but even a lot of space scientists - but they're getting interested in commercial space, including prizes like the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Hopefully NASA leadership understands this trend and realizes it has a bigger role in supporting it and benefiting from it.

The Final Frontier - Canadian Business Online - You can't tell from the title, but this is about the field of space law, and how the rise of traditional and new entrepreneurial commercial space, including the parts related to the Ansari and Google Lunar X PRIZEs, is making this field a more important one.

Crewed Circumlunar Flight - The Launch Pad - William looks back to a time at the X PRIZE Foundation when they were considering new prizes. You can guess what one of the ideas was from the post title. Is the idea coming back, perhaps in non-prize form?

Kyoto Planet Capital Partners Invests in SustainPro Conference Adding Momentum to #1 Sustainable Corporate Operations Event and Online Community - CSRWire (link from X PRIZE Foundation news scroller) - Peter Diamandis will be giving the keynote speech. Well-known politicians and their representatives will also be there, as well as former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.

Aerial Robotics Club Competes for $80,000 Prize - University of Arizona College of Engineering News Blog - This is on an entry in the 18th annual International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC). It comes with a test video showing the plane launch and video from the camera in flight. A Virginia Tech helicopter is also shown in video.