Saturday, June 27, 2009

Prize Roundup - June 26-27 - MoonROx and Sandbox, Nanotech, EurekaFest, Astronaut Glove, Space Map, Pirate Show, Green Racing for Green $, Lego Team

This post features the June picture (and Orbital category winner) from the 2009 Space Settlement Calendar resulting from the 2009 National Space Society calendar contest.

In my previous post, I gave a quick link to the announcement, but here's more on what's happening with NASA Ames and the Regolith Excavation Challenge, and what the implications are: Best. Sandbox. Ever. - The Launch Pad

From the Foresight Institute:
2009 Foresight Institute Feynman Prize for Theoretical and Experimental Molecular Nanotechnology - Submissions/nominations are due June 30, 2009
2009 Foresight Institute Prize in Communication - Submissions/nominations are due June 30, 2009
Foresight Institute Distinguished Student Award - Submissions/nominations are due August 22, 2009

In other nanotechnology prize news:

WORLD-RENOWNED NANOTECHNOLOGY EXPERT PROVES THERE IS BIG POTENTIAL IN THE SMALLEST OF MATTER - Lemelson-MIT Program - Professor Chad Mirkin Awarded the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Revolutionary Advancements in Nanotechnology - (link from Cosmic Log):

A prolific inventor and entrepreneur, his innovations have the potential to transform the future of medical diagnostics and patient point-of-care and to ignite change across many industries from semi-conductors to healthcare. ... Mirkin, the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University (NU), will accept the prize and present his accomplishments to the public at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the Lemelson-MIT Program’s third-annual EurekaFest, a multi-day celebration of the inventive spirit, June 25-27.

EurekaFest has a lot of other activities, too. Here are some more pointers:

2009 winner of the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability
2009 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize Winner
Joel Selanikio ~ Lemelson-MIT Sustainability Hero - Maximizing Progress

Here's something from the MoonROx Challenge Team Agreement:

The CHALLENGE, and the opportunity to win the prize purse, expires on June 1, 2009. ...
CHALLENGE will be conducted through June 1, 2009, unless extended at CSEWI's discretion.

So, what happens next? Is it extended, are the rules changed, does the money go to another prize, or does the Treasury keep it? I don't know.

Celebration for "Reach for the Stars Rocket Contest" winners - Space for All

KC Space Pirates to appear on the Science Channel - Space Elevator Blog
Testing Results - Space Elevator Blog - This gives pointers to some of the recent posts on the Space Elevator Games site.

This may or not be news, but it's the first I noticed it. The Centennial Challenges site shows where the 2009 Astronaut Glove Challenge will be held: November 2009 → MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA → 2009 Purse $400K

Friday Funday Space Map Wrapup - The Launch Pad - The map shows where a lot of space activity is, including prize teams and organizations, Launch Pad followers, and others.

Racing Goes Green - Cosmic Log
On the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE: Fox said the detailed rules and schedules for the competition ahead - including on-the-road semifinals and finals - should be announced sometime in the next few weeks

Here's one of the links from the Cosmic Log article: MICHELIN EMBRACES GREEN RACING WITH MICHELIN® GREEN X® CHALLENGE

@teamfrednet - You can read more about our #GLXP Lego Mindstorm project at http://bit.ly/13L9XI

Exploring journalism's future - MIT News - In order to encourage interaction and collaboration among the conference participants, the Knight News Challenge sponsors announced early on that they would offer additional grants of $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 to the top three proposals submitted by attendees, involving collaborations between groups that have not previously worked together.