Friday, December 02, 2011

Sample Return and University Rover Rules, NEA Search, SunSat Art, Space Generation Prizes, Nanosat Launch Seminar, More

Proposal Information Updated - Sample Return Robot Challenge

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URC 2012 Rules are Live! - University Rover Challenge

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NASA Human Exploration Community Workshop on the Global Exploration Workshop (PPT) - FISO - This includes "NEA Next" and "Moon Next" scenarios.  The "NEA Next" scenario covers the need to add to our list of reachable potential asteroid destinations.  Earth-based detection of these is mentioned: 

A prize based approach may also provide incentives to include more public participation.

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SGAC Announces the Barcelona Zero-G Aerobatics Challenge Winners - Space Generation Advisory Council

SGAC-EIC Space Entrepreneurship Paper Competition - Space Generation Advisory Council

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Rocket firm presentations at Team Phoenicia Nanosat Launcher Seminar - RLV News

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A lot is happening with the Google Lunar X PRIZE.  For example:

Moon Express announces alliance with Autodesk - RLV News

Did Moon Express just take the lead in the POINT of the Google Lunar X PRIZE? - Evadot

Astrobotic Wins NASA Contract for Robot Teams to Explore Martian and Lunar Caves - Astrobotic

On NASA’s Lunar Heritage Guidelines - Will Pomerantz on his personal site, InstaPom

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Two NASA Goddard Engineers Receive Prestigious Awards - SpaceRef

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International SunSat Design Competition - National Space Society blog

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Space Lab student competition on YouTube attracts 5500 teams - ESA

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Here are a couple of interesting non-space prizes:

NASA Tournament Lab/Patent Office Challenge - NASAHackSpace

DSTA launches TechX Challenge 2013 - Singapore's Defence Science & Technology Agency starts the 2nd robotic TechX challenge; the first was held in 2008.  The winning team gets S$1 million, which a currency converter tells me is a nice prize.