Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Roundup - May 31, 2009

Armadillo begins untethered flight tests at Texas airport - RLV News

More Masten Space videos - RLV News

Sex and the Stratosphere - Inventors Digest - The 2Suit Adds New Meaning to the Term ‘Mother of Invention’ - This article also features Lunar Lander Challenge team BonNova.

X PRIZE lunar spacecraft competition flies into economic realities - Network World

2009 University Rover Challenge

All of this is from the Mars Society:

URC Blog - Day 1
URC Blog - Day 2
University Rover Challenge Under Way, York University Takes Early Lead

Video:
URC Construction Task Description
URC Construction Task - BYU, Part 1
URC - University of Nevada, Reno
URC - Oregon State Introduction

Here's the YouTube channel in case they post more videos.

University Rover Challenge Facebook - One of the posts says "York University Rover Team : The Ultimate Champion!"

Twitter List Twist

Since there seems to be continued interest in the Twitter Links post more than the typical Space Prizes post, I've moved the link to it to the top right for convenience. Yes, that's it, right there above the space-themed wood carving imprint "Just a Reflection".

I've also added a number of links to the list over the last few days.

And, no, I'm not on Twitter, but thanks for asking.

N-Prize Roundup - May 31, 2009

Microlaunchers introduction - RLV News

I'd like to get the time to view the following other recent Google Tech talks:

The History of NASA Ames - April 9, 2009 - Jack Boyd
ComBots / Robogames - April 27, 2009 - David Calkins
Space Tourism Markets What We Know And What We Dont Know - May 21, 2009 - Derek Weber

Back to the N-Prize:

From Team Prometheus:
Near Space Expedition I
Aeronautic Enterprises
Dave's Orbit Simulation

Nebula Aerospace has some videos recently posted to YouTube:
FuelFlowModule
DroguePyroTest

Here are some Google Groups discussions of Daedalus Areospace:
Balloon launch Options
Making wings so everyone can fly

Prize Roundup - May 30, 2009

ISDC 2009 continues ... here are some likely places to start for updates:

@isdc
@jeff_foust
RLV News

Calling all interns... X PRIZE has open positions! - neXt PRIZE

The Spaceward Press Release - Space Elevator Blog

What will I see? - Crazy Eddie blogger at Space Elevator Games (Crazy Eddie is the reason I put the Niven/Pournelle book cover image in a recent post on the Space Elevator Games. If you haven't read the book, an earlier post at the Crazy Eddie blog explains it all).

Anyway, the Space Elevator Games media console I mentioned a few days ago is described, and so are the various camera positions. Now we just need to get some photos of climbers in action from the air other than straight down ...? (How about a blimp as a camera platform?)

The Press/Visit/Follow section notes of the Space Elevator Games site notes:

We can use your help - Volunteer Information
Meet us at: 5/30 - 5/31, Maker Faire #173, San Mateo, CA

(I think the original has a typo in the date, which I changed to what I think is correct here).

USST (one of the Beam Power teams) has a recent message: President's Message - May 2009

Team Registration to Open Soon - Regolith Excavation Challenge blog

Final rules available! - Regolith Excavation Challenge blog

@Regolith_Chal (Regolith Excavation Challenge twitter): http://twitpic.com/67qow - Gearing up for Maker Faire activities this weekend. Two excavators will be on display!

glxp: @Regolith_Chal cool! Hopefully a couple of #GLXP teams will be there as well. Be sure to stop by and say hi.

@bonnova (Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge team): Building Lauryad 2.

@glxp: Just had great discussions with @BobXPF and @PeterDiamandis about a #GLXP education initiative that you guys will LOVE. I am psyched.

@glxp: Just found out another #GLXP team has joined Twitter.... welcome @ARCAspace

@cswiki: Major new addition to CSWiki. Added folder "COMPANIES - Suborbital Vehicles" w/5 company pages now, more to come. http://tinyurl.com/n8h8df

Three of the companies in the new CSWiki folder are/were (depending on what Masten Space Systems decides) Lunar Lander Challenge teams:

Armadillo Aerospace
Masten Space Systems
Unreasonable Rocket

Update: NASA IPP Events - May 30-31, 2009: Maker Faire, San Mateo, CA Started in San Mateo, California in 2006, the do it yourself (DIY) festival Maker Faire has since expanded to Austin and is the premier event for grassroots American innovation. IPP will have an exhibit featuring opportunities for innovators to help address NASA's needs through Centennial Challenges.

Since there will be so many participants involved with space prizes at Maker Faire - in addition to the ones above, I'll repeat this one -

@fitzwillie (Editor of GeekDad.com) Spent my lunch on the phone with LEGO, Google, and the Lunar X-Prize folks. Something cool is brewing. More at @makerfaire in two weeks!

here's the Maker Faire twitter: @makerfaire

Exciting lineup of talks and demos at Maker Faire - Here's an example:

Esther Dyson, daughter of Freeman Dyson and a technology analyst and investor, will talk about her fascination with space. Esther recently completed a five-month training as a cosmonaut in Star City, Russia, just outside of Moscow. She'll talk about her own experience training as well as her interests in the private space industry. Her talk, "What's a nice lady like you doing in (a) space like this?", will be Saturday at 1pm on Stage A.

There's a lot more of interest in the schedule. Here are just a few excerpts, mostly in fields where there are prizes I've covered:

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM Stage A
Amateur Rocketry and Amateur Radio in the Black Rock Desert Kevin Weiler What's it like to join two hundred rocket enthusiasts for three days in the middle of North America's largest desert playa as they put the finishing touches on their rockets and then send them off into the upper atmosphere on pillars of fire? And where does amateur radio fit into all this? Join Kevin Weiler, K6XXX, as he gives a close-up look at some of the temporary but rocket-crazy denizens of the Black Rock Desert. To see additional interesting things you can do with ham radio, go see the Foothills Amateur Radio Society booth at the Faire!

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM West Lot
Rocket Launch LUNAR Rocket Club Build and fly a real model rocket with the LUNAR Rocket Club! Visit our booth and see small, medium, and large model rockets. Talk with expert rocketeers about how easy and fun model rocketry is. Find out how model rocketry gives you a wonderful, rich experience in broad areas for everyone from ages 4 to 104. The sky is the limit!

12:30 PM - 1:00 PM Stage A
SETI@home Dan Werthimer Are We Alone? Chief SETI@home scientist Dan Werthimer will discuss the possibility of life in the universe, and how you can create the possibility of your computer detecting the first signal from a civilization beyond Earth.

6:00 PM - 6:30 PM Stage A
DIY Drones Chris Anderson , Jordi Munoz Making low-cost autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, from planes to blimps.

3:00 PM - 5:00 PM Screening Room
Mousetrap to Mars - Rube Goldberg Documentary Scott Bailey & Dave Vacanti Go behind the scenes of one of the world's most unique competitions -- The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest -- in which teams of engineers design and build overly complex contraptions that ultimately perform very simple tasks. Follow the teams of quirky characters in this fascinating and often hilarious documentary as they strive for imperfection and an appearance on late night TV.

FIRST LEGO League - Youth Robotics Learn and watch LEGO Mindstorms robots built by local youth. The autonomous robots will solve this year's FIRST LEGO League Game Challenge called, "Climate Connections"
Location: Redwood 412

FIRST Tech Challenge -- Youth Robotics Learn and watch Tetrix robots built by local youths. The robots will solve this year's FIRST Tech Challenge Game, called "FACE OFF!" Demo robots will be available for you to try!
Location: Redwood 413

Google SketchUp Google SketchUp is software that you can use to create 3D models of anything you like. We will be showing how to build models and add them to Google Earth.

Plug-In Hybrid Car Conversions The California Cars Initiative's fifth Maker Faire appearance turns a Prius into a 100+MPG plug-in hybrid by adding batteries and electronic systems. We're partnering with a company selling conversion systems, 3Prong Power, and local volunteer advocates. Plus we're explaining the next big thing: Conversions of large internal combustion gas-guzzlers.
Location: Sequioa 614

Tesla Motors, Tesla Roadster San Carlos, California-based Tesla Motors Inc. makes electric vehicles with exceptional design, performance and efficiency, while conforming to all North American and European safety, environmental and durability standards. The Roadster has a 0-to-60 mph acceleration of 3.9 seconds yet is more energy efficient than a Toyota Prius. Tesla expects to begin producing the all-electric, zero-emission Model S sedan in late 2011.

Underwater Robotics (ROV) Jesuit High School is introducing high school students and individuals to the world of underwater robotics.
Location: West Gate Grass J

AeroPac High Power Rocketry We are the association of experimental rocketry of the Pacific. We have many large rockets on display as well as video and printed material. We have a hands on visible rocket and rocket motor as well as having "dummy" propellant grains. We have various construction components as well as rockets in various stages of development. Demos of rocket design software as well as doing static burns of some high power rocket motors out in the parking lot while working hand-in-hand with the LUNAR group and its model rocket launches.
Location: Fiesta Hall Rocket Room

DNA Spirit This exhibit will demonstrate a variety of ways to use hands-on model building to understand and appreciate the beauty of the DNA double helix structure, which encodes the complete genetic makeup of an individual. All models can be built in a short period of time using LEGO, knitting tools and cardboard.

ISS Returns

worden - Looks like yesterday's SOAREX suborbital flight from Wallops a complete success. On to developing a cheap return of small payloads from ISS

Something that seemed similar was once proposed as a Centennial Challenge. It's always struck me as an important piece of space infrastructure, even if the payload is very small (eg: chemical or microbiological samples), but I haven't heard much about such ideas lately. Will we finally see some movement?

Centennial Challenges (PDF) - National Council of Space Grant Directors -2006 Spring Meeting - This document, by Ken Davidian, shows the state of Centennial Challenges at the time of that meeting. Several proposed Challenges are briefly described: Telerobotic Construction, Planetary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Fuel Depot Demonstration, Station-Keeping Solar Sail, Human Lunar All-Terrain Vehicle, Low-Cost Space Pressure Suit, Non-Toxic RCS Engine, Lunar Night Power Source ... and Micro Reentry Vehicle (slide p. 20). From the slide:

Rationale

Demonstrate a low-cost method for returning viable samples on-demand from orbit:

•Routine ISS sample return despite constrained downmass

•Free-flying research platforms in between vomit comets and ISS

•Commercial biotech interest

Rules Summary

To win the estimated $2M prize, the Team shall:

•Launch one dozen raw eggs into LEO (>200km)

•Reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and land within 4km of the team’s pre-designated landing site

•Protect the eggs from temperatures, vibrations, and accelerations resulting in cooking, scrambling, or cracking

Also Supports Spacecraft "Black Box"Data Applications

Aerospace Corporation

Dotting the Last I

It’s on!! - The Space Elevator Blog -

Because of the logistics involved, mainly the use of high-powered lasers and the competition’s location at a secure facility, it will not be open to the public. At http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org, which is the official site of this competition (or on this blog, of course) you will be able to follow all of the events as they are happening. The competition will be televised, live, on NASA TV. There will be webcasts and interviews. There’s going to be all sorts of cool stuff going on.

From the "Upcoming Events" on the side:

June 15,16,17, 2009 - Space Elevator Games onsite testing
July 14-15-16, 2009 - The Space Elevator Games
July 17, 2009 - Space Elevator Day at the Space Frontier's Foundation NewSpace 2009 Space Conference

Power Beaming Challenge - NASA announcement - RLV News

ISDC Excerpt

NASA Plenary - Transterrestrial Musings:

George Whitesides (former NSS Executive Director, now at NASA HQ): ... Talking about Centennial Challenges, showing awards to date (several millions available, less than a million awarded). Want to expand the base of people working on these problems, and open it up to new people with new ideas. Science directorate doing student collaborations with balloons and suborbital flights. Naming contest: Mars Science Lab will be named “Curiosity” by sixth grader. SMD putting on Twitter feed for each mission, and many people have develed affection for rovers. Cubesat, easier access for payloads, easier access for research grants for students. Competition for business ideas, moonbuggy races, etc. Discussing naming of node that resulted in Colbert winning, but naming of the node Tranquility and naming the treadmill COLBERT (for which they came up with an acronym).

Prize Roundup - May 28, 2009

Patience… - Space Elevator Blog - An announcement (positive, joyous, happy, good, etc.) is coming up real-soon-now about the upcoming Space Elevator Games

Notice of Centennial Challenges--2009 Power Beaming Challenge - Justia.com Regulation Tracker - This notice is from Doug Comstock from NASA IPP (and the place and date match the Space Elevator Games "Just the Facts", except that it's a 3-day range here):

The 2009 Power Beaming Challenge is now scheduled and teams that wish to compete may register. A notice on the Tether Challenge will be issued at a later time. ... DATES: The 2009 Power Beaming Challenge will be held on July 14-16, 2009. Location: The 2009 Power Beaming Challenge will be held at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California.

The Engine - Space Elevator Games blog - click on the "more" at the bottom to see the "Laser Ablation" video.

Next step – Tether System Test - Space Elevator Games blog - The tether system test flight, scheduled for June 15th, (two weeks away!) is the first of two major bridges we have to cross to get to the competition. The test is basically a dry run of the games. It includes everything we plan to do – except the lasers. ... The second step (Tuesday) is the actual test flight. ... During this day, we’ll also start exercising the various cameras, so we are familiar with all of the shots we have planned for the games. The eventual live feed will be available on the screen available through the “LIVE COVERAGE” button at the top of the page. Since we’ll be testing EVERYTHING, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to see some of the activities on that console.

segames - Ted Semon - Mojave, California - Official tweets from the Space Elevator Games

Prize Capital has several news items about an Algae Fuel Prize, including the following:

Prize Capital Announces Due Diligence Phase For $10 Million Algae Fuel Prize

Prize Capital Moves Closer to Creating $10 Million Algae Fuel Prize

GreenFuel Bites the Dust - R-Squared Energy Blog makes it clear what the technical and economic challenges are with algae fuel.

Here's a sample of the 2009 ISDC. You should be able to branch out from here to other posts and news sources: ISDC Briefs: GLXP & NG-LLC panel webcast; blog posts - RLV News

Google Lunar X PRIZE and Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Talk at ISDC - The Launch Pad

Masten Space aluminum engine testing - RLV News

ROVERS ON THE MOON CONTEST - SYNERGY MOON (Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page)

Name The Omega Envoy Rover Contest - Omega Envy (Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page)

Rocketeers from Utah State University in Logan Win NASA's University Student Launch - Initiative for Second Straight Year - SpaceRef - press release from Marshall Space Flight Center

i2i Speaker Spotlight: Alph Bingham, Founder, InnoCentive - I2I (incentive2innovate conference) blog - This post compares X PRIZEs to Innocentive prizes from the perspective of the competitor.

Space Prize Roundup - May 26-27

The 2009 ISDC, including numerous space prize, award, and competition talks and events, is starting.

Reach for the Stars Rocket Contest at ISDC 2009 - Space for All

NASA Means Business 2009 finalists - including links to the teams' work to

• Design and prepare a Constellation Program Branding Strategy, and
• Illustrate that strategy in a 30-second video public service announcement (PSA) production.

Some of the proposals included competitions and prizes of different sorts (Constellation-themed model rocket contests, video contests, etc). Some of the ideas seem like they might be useful for other parts of NASA, or commercial space organizations, too.

Bentley University Students Win NASA Marketing Competition Grand Prize - Bentley University Newsroom

Lunar Lander Challenges Official Notice Posted- NASA Watch

Unreasonable update - RLV News

Briefs: SS2. NM spaceport report; Masten Space report & videos - RLV News

Update on University Rover Challenge 2009 - Mars Society - Space for All

Singapore student satellite design contest - Space for All

MIT Spring 2008 Space Systems Engineering Class Report - Next Giant Leap (Google Lunar X PRIZE teams page)

Why InterPlanetary Ventures (part of SYNERGY MOON) joined this race to the moon! - SYNERGY MOON (Google Lunar X PRIZE teams page)

Opportunity

Tibetan kid with team win national rocketry contest, to represent US at international air show - Phayul.com

2009 Space Elevator Games Plans Firming Up?

I'm checking out a blog outlining the latest efforts to set up the 2009 Space Elevator Games. It's not official yet, or you'd be seeing it at the Space Elevator Blog and Spaceward Foundation sites. Since it's not official, I won't point it out, but if they become official the details on the site, preparations, date, and media capabilities are sure to please (in my opinion even better than the earlier ideas). I also like the media console. The blog has a Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle flavor, which is a nice touch because they were at Space Access a couple years ago where some laser launch and elevator power concepts were discussed.

The Foundation site says the following:

We are practically there. It tooks us a while to get all of our ducks in a row, but the location where we'll be holding the games was most definitely worth the wait.
The teams are ready, the helicopter operator is ready - we're sure you are ready too.

The Space Elevator Blog lists the date as: July, 2009

Quick Holiday Weekend Roundup - May 24, 2009

January 2009 Paroramio Photo Contest winners - The image I picked for its other-worldly feel (my impression) is one of the honorable mention ones. Somehow it reminds me of the mobile islands in Hyperion (SF novel).

Here are some additions to the Twitter List:

4frontiers - 4Frontiers Corporation is an emerging space commerce company focused on the settlement of Mars.

the2suit - the (unofficial) real 2suit - as seen on History Channel The Universe - humanity is colonizing the universe in 2s ... Zero-G or Earth ultimate geek gadget FLY!

NewHorizons2015 - The First Space Mission to Explore Planet Pluto and the Kuiper Belt

The Planetary Society has a number of guest bloggers scheduled for the next couple months. Here's one that ends with a note on suborbital RLVs (which, as a member, I hope the Planetary Society gets more into, if not for the important reason Dr. Stern describes, then at least for the Planetary Society's traditional science reasons including its new Earth orbservation goals) : "My First Reaction Was to Look Away From It....It Was Too Beautiful" - Alan Stern -

So I'm looking forward to the dawn of suborbital travel opening up this view to so many more of us. And not by the hundreds, but by the thousands and thousands who will see it in the 20-teens for themselves, simply because they choose to. Perhaps among those who fly in such large numbers will be a few who can describe what they see with justice.

NewSpace 2009 Agenda; ISDC Updates

The Speakers page for NewSpace 2009 isn't filled in yet, but the Agenda gives a hint of what's available, including prizes:

Friday, July 17th: Space Elevator Day
1430-1530 Spaceward and the Elevator Games

Sunday, July 19th: The Business of New Space
0900-1130 Business Plan Competition

Monday, July 20th: Moon, Mars, and Beyond; Where do we go from here?
0930-1030 GLXP Discussion

There are a lot of other topics related to commercial space and Ames-flavored NASA space.

This is in no way meant to distract from the imminent ISDC 2009 conference, which continues to add good speakers and content. Here are some changes I noticed compared to my most recent post on a large amount of ISDC 2009 content related to space prizes, contests, and awards:

- The speaker list for the Google Lunar X Prize / NG Lunar Lander talk has changed. Here's the current list: Will Pomerantz, X Prize Foundation, Moderator; Dave Masten, Masten Space Systems; Ruben Nunez, Omega Envoy; Bob Richards, Odyssey Moon; Scott Zeeb, TrueZer0

- I don't remember if this one is a change, but I'll list it because the speaker has participated heavily in prizes: So You Want to Start a Space Company? Tim Pickens, Orion Propulsion

- This one also features prize competitors: Workforce Refresh Panel: Tracy Anania - NASA KSC, Clay Yonce - NASA KSC, Cassie Kloberdanz - SpaceX, Bob Richards - Odyssey Moon/ISU, Brooke Owens - IAF, Loretta Whitesides - Moderator

- Rusty Schweickart - Apollo 9 Astronaut and Chairman, B612 Foundation - Pioneer Award Presentation

- The speaker for this one is changed and becomes plural, but they still have prize connections: Hands-on Education Roundtable - Josh Neubert, Conrad Foundation, Tony Gannon, Space Florida, Micheal Mealling, Masten Space Systems

- John Mankins - President, Space Power Association - NSS and O'Neill Awards Presentations

- Liquid Bi-Propellant Rocket Development For Lunar Lander X-Prize: Baber, Dr. Eric R. Perrell, Johann S. Schrell

Burroughs Tribute Ideas

Results of poll: Which tribute to author Edgar Rice Burroughs would you most like to see established? - Marooned - Science Fiction books on Mars

The tribute ideas were:

Edgar Rice Burroughs Award for an SF novel
Edgar Rice Burroughs Scholarship for an aspiring SF writer
Edgar Rice Burroughs Foundation
Edgar Rice Burroughs Prize for a one-time prize to the first team of scientists that successfully creates a propulsion system capable of sending a spacecraft to Mars in less than 60 days

Cleanup Prize

X Prize Founder Peter Diamandis Targets Breakthroughs With More Incentive Prizes - Xconomy San Diego - This article broadly covers the X PRIZE Foundation, but with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, the potential Ocean X PRIZE is given special treatment. The Ocean Exploration and Ocean Mapping prizes I've mentioned before are featured, but there's one ocean prize under consideration that I hadn't heard about before, at least at this level of detail:

—Ocean conservation. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a region of the Pacific Ocean where plastic trash accumulates into vast masses of unsinkable drifting litter. The X Prize Foundation is considering a prize that would spur the development of innovative ways to “heal” such garbage patches.

Masten 4 and 5

dmasten: Winds came up before flight. No flight 6 today

Flight 5 - first translate test. Also tested safety abort inadvertently. Works. Refueling for flight 6.

Good weather, everyone is out flying. Including us. Flight 4 beautiful. Flight 5 coming up.

Of course if you want to read them in time order go from the bottom up.

wikkit: Flight number 4 and 5 today, and the BBC and Alan Radecki out watching.

mojaverocketguy: guys headed out to more "Aluminum Falcon" tests... I'm back at the shop trying not to fall asleep. Sleep deprivation catching up with me.

Earth and Space

These seem to go together:

Photos From The Summit of Mt. Everest - NASA Watch

Monumental prize for first team to reach summit of Olympus Mons - Marooned - Science Fiction books on Mars

Here's more from the Earth and Space Foundation site:

The Earth and Space Awards - The Foundation funds expeditions that either use Earth's resources and environments to help us understand other worlds and assist in the exploration of space or expeditions that use space technology and data to help us understand and care for the Earth's environment. Typical categories of expedition that are supported include:
...
Environmental projects using technologies resulting from space exploration. Includes the novel use of satellite communications, GPS, remote sensing, advanced materials and power sources.
Use of data from extraterrestrial expeditions to help further our understanding of the Earth’s environments and the biosphere. ...
Effects of the space environment and space exploration on the Earth. ...
Astro- and exobiology related fieldwork. ...
Field research applying the Earth's environmental and biological resources toward the human exploration and settlement of space. ...
Astronomy at the interface between Earth and space exploration / astroarchaeology. ...
Educational fieldtrips and projects that improve public understanding of the links between environmentalism and space exploration.

Previous Earth and Space Awards

Mars and Lunar Exploration Awards:

Mars Exploration Awards
Southern Polar Award
Northern Polar Award
Olympus Mountaineering Award
Valles Marineris Award

Lunar Exploration Awards
Lunar Circumnavigation Award

Prize Roundup - May 20-21, 2009

Masten Space test flight video - RLV News

Briefs: WK2 flight; Masten Space tethered flights; COMSTAC mtg - RLV News

Briefs: Masten Space static test; Unreasonable update - RLV News

wikkit (Ben Brockert of Masten Space Systems): http://twitpic.com/5nomx - We ran the engine until the trailer ran out of LOX, which meant it shot a bit of fuel out before shutting dow

Bob_Richards: In Toronto forging plans with Odyssey Moon chairman Ramin Khadem, Inmarsat ex-CFO, ISU chairman, all around great human

glxp: RT @SGAC: Space Generation Advisory Council announces “Move An Asteroid 2009” competition http://is.gd/C5tC

Bunch of X PRIZErs going to Mindshare.LA tonight, where @Pomerantz will be speaking. Details here: http://awe.sm/Ee6

THE LIGHTER SIDE OF SPACEWALKING - Cosmic Log - Update for 10:05 p.m. ET May 19: X Prize founder Peter Diamandis is a middleman for the Twitter/Facebook Q&A with Massimino, and he asked the astronaut whether Atlantis' crew could see the moon. Here's the reply: "Peter - yes we can and it is awesome. You can sort of see it in 3D in space so it really looks like a planet out there, just awesome. Currently see about a half moon, and it[s] size is pretty constant except if you see it setting behind earth, and then the moon illusion has some effect, making it appear slightly larger."

Online Community Project Aims for the Moon - Space.com

INNOVATION in ACTION - Xploring Healthcare - X PRIZE Foundation and BT podcast

Robot Competitions

I'm not able to keep up with the prize news of the day, but here's a little something to make up for it:

Robot Competitions - ROBOT CONTESTS AND COMPETITIONS FAQ - Robots.net - This currently covers 121 robot competitions. There's a calendar of competition dates - something I'd do with space prizes if I had the time. There are all sorts of robot competitions: underwater robots, micro air vehicle robots, soccer robots, lawnmower robots, solar power robots, basketball robots, battle robots, bartender robots, blimp robots, etc... the beam power Centennial Challenge is represented.

Prize Roundup - May 19, 2009

Futurist: Reality Show Innovation - Congressional Quarterly Politics

Everybody Deserves a Roof - "Thinking Outside of the Box" - neXt PRIZE

fitzwillie - Editor of GeekDad.com. That says a lot right there.

Spent my lunch on the phone with LEGO, Google, and the Lunar X-Prize folks. Something cool is brewing. More at @makerfaire in two weeks!

makerfaire (twitter) - Maker Faire Bay Area May 30-31
makerfaire (web site) - The World's Largest DIY Festival

PeterDiamandis - Just exchanged emails with my friend Mike Massimino, Shuttle Astronaut who is traveling @17,500 mph 250miles above my head! very cool!

mojaverocketguy - Jonathan A. Goff -Your typical mild-mannered rocket engineer, dad, and entrepreneur:

dang. Scrubbed the test due to weather.

worden - Pharmasat lives! Our next step in understanding how life operates off planet - there will be many more to follow

PharmaSat - My team at SCU and Cal Poly has made contact with me, thanks guys!! I'll talk to you in another ~90 minutes

Given the small budget PharmaSat used, it seems like many of the Centennial Challenges proposed a few years ago (see here) - even those that require actual space missions - could be done on Centennial-Challenge-like budgets.

Doug_Comstock - Just picked 21 technologies to fly in August. See http://tinyurl.com/pzu2fe for more and http://tinyurl.com/qtfvob for list of projects.

Could this one be related to the MoonROx Challenge?

Free-Fall Regolith Heating, Packer Engineering Inc., Naperville, IL

David Masten on NASA's Future

Direction for NASA - Life in the Milky Way, Discovering New Life and Extending Our Reach (David Masten) - This is an excellent analysis what is wrong with NASA's currently implementation of the Vision for Space Exploration, and how to fix it. Numerous small and medium-sized innovation prizes could be one part of such an improvement.

Twitter Roundup - May 18, 2009

nataliaenvy: Really excited to see Maker Faire Africa sprouting! http://makerfaireafrica.com/ A truly global movement of DIY/Ingenuity/Innovation!

Help Create the Maker Faire Africa Logo (Win $250)

Logo - African Gadget Conference - 99designs - You can search the site for all sorts of other contests for logos, web page graphics, and so on.

dmasten: BTW, static test to verify some changes, then on to another tether flight test.

Dang. Just about to do the static test, word from tower TStorm moving in. Battening down the hatches.

milesobrien: @mmealling Apollo on steroids...without the steroids

mmealling: @milesobrien that's one of my beefs with the entire Constellation program. Nothing is meant to leave infrastructure in place....

Plus, I plan to add a few more entries to the twitter list:

interorbital - Randa Milliron - CEO/CoFounder, Interorbital Systems and Trans Lunar Research
SynergyMoon - Google Lunar XPRIZE entrant Team Synergy Moon

Frank4 - Frank Taylor - Google Earth Blogger and sailor. Also read TahinaExpedition.com

xenijardin - Curator of Internet Esoterica, Anomalies, and Curiosities. BB co-editor, Boing Boing Video host/exec producer. http://tv.boingboing.net

Student Space Prize Roundup - May 17, 2009

Briefs: Exp. Sounding Rocket Assoc.; Team America Rocketry Challenge - RLV News covers an organization that, among other things, runs the 4th Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition. SpaceX is a "major sponsor" of this competition, which is scheduled for June 25-26.

The post also covers the results from the 2009 Team America Rocketry Challenge. As noted, the winner of the post-TARC fly-off was a UK team from Royal Liberty School (the winners of UKAYRoC). Here's more about the TARC itself:

Wisconsin student 'rocketeers' win national contest - Madison West High School will represent U.S. in international fly-off today - Rocketry Planet (AIA press release)

For a brief bit of local flavor: Madison West students win national rocket competition - Wisconsin State Journal

top 20 teams (PDF) - Team America Rocketry Challenge

Team America Rocketry Challenge 2009 - Rocket Jones gives some background on the competition as well as an insider's view of the event.

Originally, the plan was for the winning entries for the 2009 Thacher Scholar Awards for secondary school students (grades 9-12) demonstrating the best use of geospatial technologies or data to study Earth to have been awarded by now. However,

Because of the high quality of the entries received for this year's contest, judging and selecting the winners is taking longer than planned. Winning entries will be posted by May 18.

As I'm posting, that's tomorrow. Here's the scope of the contest:

Eligible geospatial tools and data include satellite remote sensing, aerial photography, geographic information systems (GIS), and Global Positioning System (GPS).

Does anyone want to include imagery from suborbital rockets in that set?

A while ago I briefly mentioned the winners of the 2009 NASA/NSS Space Settlement Contest. Here's a post from the National Space Society blog with more information about the other winning entry: Prize-Winning Space Settlement Design

Another Construction Update... - MAVRIC (Mars Analog Vehicle for Robotic Inspection and Construction) - Mars Society University Rover Challenge team

Iowa State’s 2009 Mars rover is ready to roll - Iowa State University College of Engineering

OSURC Mars Rover - URC team from Oregon State University:

Announcement May 15 2009
Successfully tested remote operation in a large gravel parking lot. It was difficult to keep up with the rover, we will not have any speed problems in utah, this thing hauls!

No Boundaries (NASA/USA contest):

All mail entries must be postmarked by May 15, 2009, 11:59 p.m. and received no later than May 20, 2009.

A list of No Boundaries winners is expected June 6, 2009.

Prize Roundup - May 16, 2009

NASA Names High School Winners in Supersonic Research Contest - SpaceRef (Langley Research Center press release)

100 Teams of Student 'Rocketeers' Head to Washington, D.C. Area - SpaceRef (Aerospace Industries Association press release)

2009 AAPT Lesson Plan Competition Winners! - Team America Rocketry Challenge blog

Arielwaldman: Watching Team FREDNET's (a project on @spacehack) picorover prototype in action. Pretty cool!

Bob_Richards: Chilling at hacienda Diamandis - heading out to see Star Trek!

Always cool to be at @glxp ground zero. I'm going to try to hijack Peter's scooter.

Engaging @SpaceShow interview with Alan Stern (Odyssey Moon Science Mission Director & former NASA AA)

airshipventures: Creating the New Look: Here is a timelapse which shows the application of the new decal to the airship. Over 700.. http://tinyurl.com/quljo8

Check the Up Ship! blog for lots of pictures of the decal process and more airship photos.

One giant icon: Flying a piece of aviation history - Airship Z-Prize

Announcing the Newst X PRIZE: Space Tool Detection and Removal - The Launch Pad - Although this is for Friday Funday, I actually think a prize for detection of space objects (mainly large objects whose orbital parameters indicate a collision with the Earth) makes a lot of sense. There are some, uh, interesting prize ideas in the comments.

glxp: RT @milesobrien: Driving Chicago-Oshkosh for Lindbergh Foundation Bd. Mtg and award dinner http://lindberghfoundation.org/

The 2009 Lindbergh Award Celebration - Saturday, May 16, 2009 at EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh ... Join us in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as we honor Lester Brown, president and founder of the Earth Policy Institute and Terry and Mary Kohler, owners of Windway Capital Corp., with 2009 Lindbergh Awards.

Competition and Technological Advancement - SpaceTalk Now

ISDC 2009 Prizes, Contests, and Awards - Update

I'm going to update my earlier post on ISDC 2009 Prizes, Contests, and Awards. A lot more details have been added to the publicly available schedule since then. Here's the update. This only covers "Prizes, Contests, and Awards", or speakers that have contributed a lot to such activities; there's a lot of other interesting-sounding material, too:


The National Space Society's 28th 28th International Space Development Conference features a number of prizes and awards. From the Education page:


Reach for the Stars Rocket Contest
In this annual national contest, each of the competitors will build and launch an Estes solid-fuel powered rocket. The goal is to have the closest landing to a downrange target. Open to ages 10 and up. Prizes for top winners.
Click for more information.


Lunar Lander Eggs Prize Competition
High school teams of up to 5 students are invited to participate in this one-day special event on Saturday, May 30 at ISDC. The LLEP is hosted by Omega Envoy, the only Florida-based team competing for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Prizes include VIP passes to an upcoming Space Shuttle launch or tickets to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Details are online at http://omegaenvoy.org/media/


Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award
This new entrepreneurial competition has student teams develop a concept centered around one of the following: lunar exploration; personal spaceflight; or renewable energy. Team finalists have the opportunity to present their product concepts at ISDC 2009.
Click for more on the Conrad Awards


NASA/NSS Space Settlement Contest
This annual contest, co-sponsored by NASA Ames and the National Space Society (NSS), is for 6-12th graders (11-18 years old) from anywhere in the world. All contest participants are invited to attend ISDC 2009 to present their entries and participate in special activities.
Click for more on the Space Settlement Contest


In addition, the program (PDF) includes the following events for awards, contests, and space prizes, or featuring people involved with prizes. (Note: TEMPO3 isn't a prize or contest, but it won one).


Thursday, May 28

12:00 PM Elon Musk, Co-founder, PayPal and SpaceX - Von Braun Award Presentation

2:30 PM MoonROx Challenge: Lessons Learned - Dr. Peter Schubert & Jonathan Card, Packer Engineering

3:00 PM Google Lunar X Prize / NG Lunar Lander - Will Pomerantz, Michael Mealling, Bob Richards, Jason Dunn

5:00 PM Commercial Space Panel - Ken Davidian, Carissa Christensen, Lon Levin

7:00 PM Richard Garriott Private Space Explorer Pioneer Award Presentation


Friday, May 29

12:00 PM Janet Petro - Deputy Director, NASA Kennedy Space Center - Pioneer Award Presentation

4:00 PM Space Media 2.0 - William Pomerantz, X PRIZE Foundation; Robert Pearlman, collectSPACE; Jeff Foust, The Space Review; Michael Mealling, Masten Space Systems; Benjamin & Cariann Higginbotham, Spacevidcast.com

5:00 PM SSP Panel - W. Kent Tobiska, Space Environment Technologies; Ben Shelef, Spaceward Foundation; Jim Plaxco, Artsnova

5:00 PM NASA Competition and Lunar Analog ResearchDan Hawk, College of Menominee Nation Undergraduate Engineering Team

7:00 PM Gala Dinner - Speakers and Guests To Be Announced - Pioneer Award Presentation


Saturday, May 30

12:00 PM Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 Astronaut - Pioneer & Student Awards Presentations

2:00 PM Hands-on Education Roundtable - Matt Everingham, California Space Authority

3:00 PM Student Space Settlement Design Contest - Lynne Zielinski, NSS & Student Teams

4:00 PM Tethered Experiment for Mars interPlanetary Operations Cubed (TEMPO3)Chris Carberry, The Mars Society

7:00 PM Speaker To Be Announced - NSS and O'Neill Awards Presentations

Redirect Your Energy

The LaserMotive team welcomes a new sponsor - Space Elevator Blog

MoonROx Internship and ISDC Presentation

I haven't posted (or seen) much about the MoonROx Centennial Challenge. However, the 2009 ISDC features a talk related to that Challenge. From the Program Agenda (PDF):

Thursday, May 28, 2:30 (Augusta):
MoonROx Challenge: Lessons Learned
Dr. Peter Schubert & Jonathan Card
Packer Engineering

Here's some related information:

Packer Engineering Company History:

4. Packer Engineering completed a NASA SBIR program on the extraction of oxygen from lunar soil. Lunar soil, also called regolith, is 40% oxygen by weight, but that oxygen is tightly bound in minerals. Oxygen is vitally important for space operations, both for propellant and for life support. To reduce mission constraints, an oxygen factory is needed which produces many times its own weight each year. A new approach to oxygen beneficiation arose during this work, in a collaborative effort between Packer Engineering and CU Aerospace (Urbana, IL) which could produce 40 times its weight in oxygen in one year. This is a potential candidate for the MoonROx Challenge, issued by the California Space Authority, for a $1,000,000 prize to the first team to produce 2.5 kg of oxygen in 4 hours from simulated lunar soil. This work is part of a broader initiative to enable space solar power, a technology with the potential to provide all mankind with pollution-free energy for all time to come.

Packer Engineering Student Internship Description -

... The Summer 2009 position comes at a critical juncture. The student researcher will have three primary responsibilities: (1) prepare detailed design drawings and bill of materials for the patent pending Dust Roaster (image at right) which extracts oxygen from regolith; (2) conduct laboratory experiments to verify free-fall heating of conductive liquids in a rf field (the key technical challenge); and (3) develop a mathematical model of the interface between the Dust Roaster and the Isotope Separator – a different apparatus which extracts metals (Si, Al, Fe, Ti) from the output of the Dust Roaster.

One objective of this work is to prepare to win the MoonROx Challenge, issued by the California Space Authority, a prize for oxygen extraction which carries a $1,000,000 first prize. Another objective is to publish the results of this research in a technical forum in the aerospace field. ...

Prize Roundup - May 14, 2009

I may add to this morning roundup post later today.

Here's the CAFE Foundation blog. They run the Aviation Centennial Challenges for NASA. I linked to a post on this blog earlier, but I wasn't able to actually connect to it and check it at the time.

The most recent CAFE Foundation and PAV News item is on the NASA Ames Workshop (I assume the same one Pete Worden twittered about) covering environmentally-friendly aviation technology. CAFE discussed their Aviation Green Prize.

Briefs: Team Italia in GLXP; TEMPO3 test from balloon - RLV News

Batteries survive cryogenic freezing. - Astrobotic at the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams site - One of the areas of this prize that I find the most interesting is the full lunar day/night bonus prize, but I haven't seen much news about it. The technology shown in the video and text at this post may help.

Dean McLaughlin's novella “Tenbrook of Mars” wins Analog magazine AnLab Award - Marooned - Science Fiction books on Mars

The latest from the KC Space Pirates - Space Elevator Blog

A few more prizes - Conservation International on The Great Turtle Race

MIT IDEAS 2009 Winners ~ Eight Promising Protos - Maximizing Progress
MIT Imaging Ventures ~ 2009 Finale Proposals - Maximizing Progress
SolSource ~ Novel Solar Cooker Wins St Andrews - Maximizing Progress on the $75,000 St Andrews Prize for the Environment
MIT $100K Finale 2009 ~ 20 Years of Venturing! - Maximizing Progress

Winners of Panoramio Contest of December 2008 - Panoramio Blog - The picture for the post is one of the honorable mention ones. I didn't have trouble picking the space theme picture this time, although one of the others sure has an "other-worldly" feel to it. As usual, check them out in Google Earth or Google Maps (the site makes it easy to do this).

Pomerantz: RT @jeff_foust: Odyssey Moon's lunar greenhouse gets mentioned in a trade pub for the produce industry (!): http://is.gd/zVrp

PeterDiamandis: just landed in SFO... long day, Detroit and Dallas. visited Carmack @ Armadillo

i_2_i: @PeterDiamandis is blogging about i2i at http://blog.innocentive.com/ @innoCentive #i2i

Bob_Richards: At The Planetary Society. Thinking of Carl sitting at the table where we talked of many possibilities http://twitpic.com/55y99

More fun hair hijinks at Masten, I assume in celebration of their milestone tethered flight:

colinake: Orsen is cutting @rocketplumber's hair... Here's an intermediate step. http://twitpic.com/56au4

jeff_foust: In addition to their normal tasks, the ISS crew is going to be involved in the Eurovision music contest: http://is.gd/zRzY

Doug_Comstock: http://twitpic.com/4zn1l - Jackson getting his savings bond for winning the essay contest. Just a few minutes to launch!

N-Prize Updates: Prometheus and Aerosplice

From Team Prometheus:

Dave's Orbit Simulation
N-Prize Offical Team Mission Patch
Team Prometheus Mission Patches
More Parts for SS2S
SS2S Parts for Richard Nakka
QUAD POD - Dave Hein Phd. EE and his QUAD POD have joined Team Prometheus! This is a Solid Fuel lander! It's a hoot to watch. There will be more on this in the near future so keep an eye on us! We will be updating the website soon with all the new members and the great news about Aeronautic Enterprises offering Launch Services Right Now!

aerosplice - Finished developments on a mini thermo jet, a type of Valveless pulse jet. ...

The Lunar Greenhouse

While I'm featuring images, I'll show the May picture on the NSS Space Settlement 2009 Calendar Art Contest. It goes well with Odyssey Moon's Google Lunar X PRIZE plans.

Panoramio Contest Winners - November 2008

It's always fun to check out where they are in Google Earth or Google Maps. Don't just check the main winners; there are some great shots in the Honorable Mentions. I'll try to catch up with the months (I'm not THAT far behind, since the winners are announced a couple months after the month in question) and feature a picture that in some way seems to have a space "feel".

Winners of Panoramio Contest of November 2008

Masten Media

Briefs: Masten Space news spreads; Reaction Engines update - RLV News

Masten Space System's Xombie Make First Successful Test Flight - NASA Watch

Masten Space’s XA-0.1B-750 Vehicle Completes First Flight - SpaceRef (MSS press release)

wikkit (Ben Brockert):

Dust storm in Mojave with gusts predicted to 75mph. We can't fly again until it slows down a bit.

http://twitpic.com/51lsv - Here's the after photo. It's not easy to shave the back of your own head.

Press release is out. I wrote most of it. http://is.gd/zdbN I couldn't figure out a fake quote to attribute to Ian, unfortunately.

Out for a two week rocket vacation, @colinake already found a project. And is out cold on the futon.

Gave @colinake the grand tour of shop and airport. The planes up on blocks are always the high point.

Dave bought us steak dinners to celebrate (at 2:30 in the afternoon). Everyone is tired. Been busting ass to get to flight.

X PRIZE Foundation Updates

Here's another X PRIZE Foundation news source:

Say Hello to My Little Friend: Flight Plan - The Launch Pad

MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix Presents an Evening With Peter Diamandis - X PRIZE Foundation press release

Here's more about the event: MIT Entreprise Forum Phoenix

NASA's Exploration Overhaul - William Pomerantz (link from glxp)

Also from glxp:

#GLXP team @whitelabelspace is getting a lot of buzz. See: http://bit.ly/t8GXP http://bit.ly/wqDD5 http://bit.ly/xinhl (comic sans!)

From PeterDiamandis:

giving a keynote @ Autodesk conference in Detroit. speaking about Progressive Auto XP and Rocket Racing!

Closed Ecological Systems for Life Support

Trash into Treasure Art - MTVSwitch.org -

The Trash into Treasure Art Contest wants to see what videos or music you're able to make out of all the junk in the world. In today's world we have a wealth of resources that are often overlooked as useless junk and garbage. The goal of the Trash into Treasure contest is to create Art that gets people to rethink how we use and reuse the stuff we create.

Team America Rocketry Challenge This Weekend

The 2009 Team America Rocketry Challenge is approaching:

TARC National Finals Slated for Saturday, May 16th at Great Meadow in The Plains, VAThe 7th Annual Team America Rocketry Challenge National Finals will take place on Saturday, May 16th (rain date Sunday, May 17th) from 8:30am - 6pm at Great Meadow in The Plains, VA. For more information on the venue, please visit http://www.greatmeadow.org/.

Local group having a blast with project - Newark Advocate.com

Twitter List

Rather than start a huge category on the right, I'm going to use this blog post to record some twitter addresses. I expect the coverage to be broader than the usual content of this blog. I also expect to gradually update the list over time.

U. S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee
NASA_HSF - The Committee will conduct an independent review of ongoing U.S. human space flight plans and programs, as well as alternatives.
AstroDude - Leroy Chiao - Astronaut and more...

Space Prizes

NASAPrize - NASA Centennial Challenges

Regolith Excavation Challenge

Regolith_Chal - Regolith Excavation Challenge (a Centennial Challenge)
paulsrobotics - Serving all your robotic needs - http://www.paulsrobotics.com/

Space Elevator Games

segames - Ted Semon - Mojave, California - Official tweets from the Space Elevator Games

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

NGLLC09 - LunarLanderChallenge - Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, presented by X PRIZE, and prize money from NASA
bonnova - design . innovation . lunar lander challenge team http://www.bonnova.com/
mastenspace - Masten Space Systems
colinake - Recent Georgia Tech Grad (09) working at GTRI and Masten Space Systems. Join me for musings on life, space, technology, and whatever.
wikkit - Ben Brockert - I moved from Iowa to the Mojave Desert to be a rocket scientist.
dmasten - Dave Masten
mojaverocketguy - Jonathan A. Goff - Your typical mild-mannered rocket engineer, dad, and entrepreneur
mmealling - Michael Mealing (Masten Space Systems)

Google Lunar X PRIZE

glxp - Google Lunar X PRIZE
OdysseyMoon - Odyssey Moon, Google Lunar X PRIZE team and commercial space venture
Bob_Richards - Space entrepreneur. Orphan of Apollo. Founder of International Space
University, Singularity University and Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor Odyssey Moon Ltd.
whitelabelspace - White Label Space (Google Lunar X PRIZE team) LunarX_EU - earlier White Label Space twitter
interorbital - Randa Milliron - CEO/CoFounder, Interorbital Systems and Trans Lunar Research SynergyMoon - Google Lunar XPRIZE entrant Team Synergy Moon
OmegaEnvoy - We are the Florida Team competing in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. We are students, engineers, entrepreneurs, and space geeks: Join us on our awesome adventure!
oe_rover - Omega Envoy Rover - I'm the Omega Envoy Rover being built to go to the moon to win the 30 million dollar Google Lunar X PRIZE. Follow me to the moon!
ARCAspace - Asociatia Romana pentru Cosmonautica si Aeronautica (ARCA) este o organizatie non-guvernamentala, lider national in domeniul cercetarii aerospatiale.
NextGiantLeap - Michael Joyce - A Google Lunar X PRIZE team
teamFREDNET - Team FREDNET is an open source and open participation competitor in the Google Lunar X PRIZE
csete - Alexandru Csete - I work with space, communications, video processing and related technologies. I blog for GLXP @teamfrednet.
jeffkrukin - NewSpace Business Development consultant, speaker, and writer
SoldTheMoon - David Gump - http://www.astrobotictech.com/ - private-sector space exploration

N-Prize

nprize - Paul Dear
NebulaAerospace - News from Nebula Aerospace (N-Prize team)
fineri - Iain Finer - Ametuer rocket engineer, aspiring song writer and musician.Just trying to live the dream.
ValkyrieFed - The Valkyrie Federation is a canadian (Quebec) entreprise, which has the goal of space exploration, and the lastest team on the N-Prize!
thomasspacecorp - Thomas Space Corp

Astronaut Glove Challenge

pkhomer - http://www.flagsuit.com/ - Astronaut Glove Guy

X PRIZE Foundation
alias_amanda - Amanda Stiles - Space maven, website designer, crowdsourcing evangelist, and engineer of the entrepreneurial variety.
GLXPFeeds - Google Lunar X PRIZE - Feeds and news related to the Google Lunar X PRIZE. You can follow a human at @glxp
Pomerantz - Will Pomerantz, Senior Director of Space Projects
PeterDiamandis - Peter Diamandis
nickyjor - aerospace eng,space lover, tech girl,dancer,pilot!! social media learner, fashion enthusiast,wine lover and well..I am simply a person who loves life
genomics_xprize - A $10 million prize to the first team to successfully sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days
i_2_i - 2 days at the United Nations that will change your world. June 8 + 9. NYC. How WILL you innovate in today's economy?
progautoxp - The official Progressive Automotive X PRIZE Twitter
HealthXPRIZE - Developing a $10M+ X PRIZE to fix health care
xprize - Radical Breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity
BobXPF

Student Prizes
ConradAwards - Enabling young minds to connect education, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
inventioneer - nancy conrad - Chairman of Conrad Foundation
sedsusa - SEDS - The world's only student run space organization!
FIRSTAtlanta09 - FIRST Championship 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia
astrosociety - American Astronautical Society (listed here because of their CanSat competition coverage)
MoonBots - MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge

Commercial Space
cswiki - Commercial Space Wiki (Ken Davidian)
richardbranson - Richard Branson (Chairman of Virgin Group)
rocketshadow - Aleta Jackson - I build rockets & rocket powered vehicles
rclague - Randall Clague
ikluft - Ian Kluft, Software Engineer and Commercial Pilot/Flight Instructor
Spaceport_NM - Spaceport America in New Mexico
pat_hynes
ISPCS - International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight
SpaceX_Media - cassie kloberdanz
ElonMusk - "I'm the genuine ElonMusk." muskfoundation.org teslamotors.com spacex.com solarcity.com paypal southafrica mars tolkien x.com blastar zip2 tosca kimb
mlaine - LiftPort - Building the Elevator to Space. Company Motto = "Change the world, or go home!" Author, Speaker, Consultant, Teacher, Venture Capitalist
ec_anderson - Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, serial entrepeneur.
edyson - Internet court jEsther
robinsnelson - Robin Snelson - looking for a few good rockets
Virgin_Galactic - The world's first commercial spaceline.
Frank4 - Frank Taylor - Google Earth Blogger and sailor. Also read TahinaExpedition.com
gearth - Google Earth - Grab Google Earth and the Google Pack here
GoogleMoon - Something truly out of this world is coming, you WILL want to follow us...Promise. Clue - Facebook, Twitter & The Moon
digitalearth - All of the latest news about Google Earth, Virtual Earth, Google Maps, etc.
spaceangels - Space Angels Network - Premier source of aerospace dealflow for investors and of early-stage capital for aerospace
burtonlee - www.linkedin.com/in/burtonlee
StephenFleming - Academic VC, professional investor, amateur rocketeer
4frontiers - 4Frontiers Corporation is an emerging space commerce company focused on the settlement of Mars.
the2suit - the (unofficial) real 2suit - as seen on History Channel The Universe - humanity is colonizing the universe in 2s ... Zero-G or Earth ultimate geek gadget FLY!
8C_Project - 8thContinentProject - Colorado School of Mines - The 8th Continent Project connects start-ups built on space technology – in energy, medicine, GPS, materials. We call it Space 2.0.
RichardGarriott - Computer Gaming Pioneer and Private Astronaut (1st 2nd Generation)
gozerog - a privately held space entertainment and tourism company http://www.gozerog.com/
nextstepinspace - Show Your Support for Commercial SpaceFlight!
NewSpaceNews - http://spacefront... - follow NewSpace News to stay informed about developments in the exciting entrepreneurial space arena! *Sponsored by SpaceIsle.com*

Media
jeff_foust - Jeff Foust, Space industry analyst, writer, blogger, baseball fan
HobbySpacer - Clark Lindsey, Publisher and editor of HobbySpace.com and SpaceTransport News.com
SpaceShow - Dr. David Livingston, Host of The Space Show talk show
spacehack - a directory of ways to participate in space exploration. interact + connect with the space community.
milesobrien - Miles Obrien, freelance journalist
SpaceflightNow - Spaceflight Now
NASAWatch - NASA Watch
KeithCowing - Keith Cowing (NASA Watch, also see http://www.cowing.com/)
andrewchaikin - Andrew Chaikin
Free_Space - Irene Klotz blogs about what's happening off Earth
Spacevidcast
cariann
bencredible - Alpha nerd at Innovating Media and TechnologyEvangelist.com
SpaceFellowship - The International Space Fellowship (ISF) is an international news and information network dedicated to the development of the aerospace industry.
b0yle - Alan Boyle (MSNBC/Cosmic Log)
flspacereport - Edward Ellegood
xenijardin - Curator of Internet Esoterica, Anomalies, and Curiosities. BB co-editor, Boing Boing Video host/exec producer. http://tv.boingboing.net/
fitzwillie - Editor of GeekDad.com. That says a lot right there.
MichaelBelfiore - Michael Belfiore - Space & technology writer for Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, HarperCollins, and advanced technology companies.
flighthyperbola - Rob Coppinger is a recovering powerpoint user and engineer who mistakenly thought journalism was more glamorous than production engineering
UniGalactic - SpaceTravel Magazine - UniGalactic is a Unique Print Magazine Covering Space Tourism as well as Space Travel and Exploration Industries.
spacecom - Managing editor, Parabolicarc.com. Communications specialist. Have something to say. Let me help you say it.
robertpearlman - Editor, collectSPACE.com
collectspace - The Source for Space History & Artifacts
spaceteam - Fla Today Space Team - Live space updates at The Flame Trench, honored last year as the best beat reporting on the web.

NASA
Doug_Comstock - Director of NASA Innovative Partnerships Program (includes Centennial Challenges, FAST, SBIRs, etc)
worden - Pete Worden (NASA Ames Director)
waynehale - Wayne Hale (Former Flight Director)
gtwhitesides - George Whitesides
LADEE_NASA - Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer
LCROSS_NASA - NASA mission to explore the Moon and see if there is water ice near one of the lunar poles!
NASA_Ames_Web - NASA Ames Web
NASA_Wallops - NASA Wallops, Wallops Island, VA
PharmaSat - The PharmaSat experiment and flight system are designed to measure the influence of microgravity upon yeast resistance to an antifungal agent.
NASA_Greenspace - NASA_Greenspace
NLSI - NASA Lunar Science - Moon science rocks
NASAGoddard - Check out all the latest in NASA Goddard news and video!
Astro_Mike - Mike Massimino - NASA astronaut, mission specialist for STS-125 (Hubble Telescope servicing mission)
SPOTScott - Scott Parazynski - Drawn to explore high places, via spacecraft, aircraft and even on foot!
NewHorizons2015 - The First Space Mission to Explore Planet Pluto and the Kuiper Belt
flymetothemoon - NASA manager for LCROSS–NASA’s 1st mission back to the Moon, MoM/StepMoM, anthropologist, walker, chef, and BookBabe.
MarsRovers - Spirit and Oppy - Roaming the Red Planet on six wheels. The official mission Twitter of Spirit and Opportunity
jetlab - The latest news from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This Twitter is a service of SpaceLinks.net: http://spacelinks.net/
EarthObser - Earth Observatory from NASA

Innovation Prizes
tedprize - TED Prize
airshipz - Airship Z-Prize - Airships for humanitarian logistics and environmental improvement. The Z-Prize is for successful development of freight airships!

Other
SpaceFrontier - Space Frontier Foundation -People dedicated to opening the space frontier to human settlement
kimbal - Kimbal Musk
isdc - The International Space Development Conference is the premier space activist conference. See http://isdc.nss.org/
nss- National Space Society
spaceelevator - Cheap reliable access to space.
ewalker - Elaine Walker - Bio EPO, Mars Institute
airshipventures - Zeppelin Tours of the San Francisco Bay Area
arielwaldman - Ariel Waldman - Digital Anthropologist. Founder of Spacehack.org; CupcakeCamp. Engadget columnist. Previous NASA program coordinator, Pownce community manager.
antifaev - Youthful engineer/entrepreneur with a special affinity for anything awesome.
InnosightInstit - a non-profit think tank that applies Clayton Christensen’s theories of disruptive innovation to the social sector. See our recently published books to the left.
revrev - Mike Fabio - Community Manager at Google Lunar X PRIZE; musician; nerd; no I will not fix your computer.
fedcity - Diane Murphy
MDRSupdates - MDRS Official Update - You can go to Mars, but you can never leave!
YurisNight - A global celebration marking the anniversary of manned spaceflight.
LunarPioneer - Joel Raupe - Principal Investigator, Lunar Pioneer Research Group; Promoting extended human activity on Earth's Moon
TEMPO3 - Sci-fi 2 sci-fact (Mars Society artificial gravity smallsat project)
TEDMED - Marc Hodosh - TEDMED 2009: OCTOBER 27-30 IN SAN DIEGO! CHECK OUT WWW.TEDMED.COM AND REGISTER TODAY!
shellymurray1 - Michelle Murray - FAA AST Experimental Permit Program Lead
willjwatson - William Watson - Executive Director, Space Frontier Foundation
SpaceFrontier - SpaceFrontierFound'n - People dedicated to opening the space frontier to human settlement
jamesmuncy - Space policy/business consultant
kdavidian - Ken Davidian - One Exciting Challenge After Another
brettalexander - Bretton Alexander
lorettahidalgo - Loretta Whitesides - Co-creator of Yuri's Night, Zero-G Flight Director, and passionate about bring people together to made a huge difference on our home planet...
flight0001 - Russ Dale - Writer, journalist, paleoecologist, scientist, urban farmer, chef, space enthusiast, actor, comedian, space 2.0 advocate and human (featured in the gonzo Russ Dale X-Prize Cup Interview, I might add).
makerfaire - Maker Faire Bay Area May 30-31 (The World's Largest DIY Festival)
Murphian - Ian Murphy - PR expert specializing in Aerospace, Technology and Science
brettsilcox
neiltyson - Neil deGrasse Tyson - Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History. Author: "The Pluto Files" & "Death By Black Hole"; Host: PBS NOVA scienceNOW
digitalart - Jim Plaxco - A digital artist and photographer specializing in astronomical art and abstract art
SpaceSolarPower - Space solar power satellites will provide Earth with abundant, clean electric power.
moonrangerlaura - Space enthusiast; Works on a space telescope; Loves scifi/fantasy, travel, podcasts, fiber arts and of course people. Not officially speaking for anyone but me
Apollo11TheGame - iPhone Game developed by Decode Interactive in conjunction with NASA.
GwenGriffin - Houston and often Cocoa Beach
TeslaMotors - The official Tesla twitter
BadAstronomer - Phil Plait - Astronomer, author, skeptic, funny guy, writer
SGAC - Space Generation Advisory Council in support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications
Moon4You - space instrument bringing the benefits of the Moon back to Earth
ad_astra2 - Erika Wagner - Cambridge, MA (blogging at MIT Giant Leaps)
therealBuzz - Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut, Apollo XI, Gemini 12, Doctorate from MIT in astronautics, married to Lois Aldrin for 21 years. Korean War veteran - fighter pilot of 66 missions
ac_charania - http://planetarydefense.blogspot.com/
wingod - Dennis Wingo
EVA_Interviews - Eva-Jane Lark - EVA is creator and host of EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age™ (and in real life a VP and Investment Advisor at a major Canadian investment co)
AlanStern


Twibes
Moon - http://odysseymoon.com/ - Encouraging participation and collaboration among people interested in expanding humanity's social, legal and economic sphere to our sister world, the Moon.
TeamFREDNET - Team FREDNET is the open source competitor for the Google Lunar XPrize.
Astrogeology - http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/ - Astrogeology, alternatively known as planetary geology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of the celestial bodies such as the planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. The study of these rocks is similar to Earth-based geology.
Astronomy - For anyone intersted in Astronomy or Astrophotography.
Cosmology - Obsession of the Universe in its totality and humanity's place in it. Star seeking and theory, physics and awe.
LunarPioneers - http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com/ - Lunar Pioneer is a long established "Society of Friends interested in exploration of the Moon," founded in 1977 as a private discussion club, the conversation intensified finally into an enterprise. Our goal remains unchanged: As the Rosetta Stone of the Solar System, Earth's Moon is also our Pier, our deep water port to our destiny.
Mars - http://martiansoil.com/ - All about the Planet Mars.
NASA - Encouraging participation and collaboration among people interested in NASA and space. News, views, and reviews to enlighten and inform.
SpaceFellowship - The International Space Fellowship (ISF) is an international news and information network dedicated to the development of the aerospace industry.
TEDTalks
WaterRocket - You're a little Gyro Gearloose somehow and like to tinker with scientific stuff? This is your twibe!
geocaching - A place for geocachers to get together and see what other cachers are twittering about.
space - All things space & Earth & in between. NASA, commercial space, space industry, space geeks, dreamers, explorers. Welcome space tweeps!

Here's another, considerably longer and more comprehensive list that seems to have similar goals. It's too bad I didn't encounter it earlier. The coverage is somewhat different, since I'm going into prize and innovation topics that aren't specific to space, and this list covers a number of space areas I probably won't touch. I'd recommend checking the link below if you didn't find what you were looking for in the list above.

Twitter SpaceMeme - Space People, Missions, Agencies, Events ... - OnOrbit Colab Space

spacehack points out the following list of twitter sites from Star Stryder: astronomy-twitter-users. This list is mainly for astronomy sites of all sorts. The comments have more selections.

... and Ariel from spacehack also has the following list: Space-related web 2.0 accounts that are on my radar

... June 19 update: Follow active and former astronauts on Twitter - collectSPACE

... August 23 update: Top 50 Twitterrati for all of Space - Big on Good