Prize Roundup: Canadian Sat Challenge,UCF Conference, Prometheus Activity, EAA Electric Planes, More

Seven Entries for EAA's Electric Flight Prize - EAA AirVenture 2011

USST, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team, was one of the prominent Space Elevator Games climber teams.  They are also participating in another competition, the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.

Ladies and Gentleman, Start Your Rocket Engines - Peter Diamandis at The Huffington Post

Future of Space Tourism, Research Will Be Focus of Conference - University of Central Florida Newsroom

GPS progress.... - Unreasonable Rocket

Team Prometheus had a number of interesting tweets recently.  Here are a couple of them:

@TeamPrometheus: John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace just agreed to donate $5000 to Team Prometheus to launch the Prometheus III... http://fb.me/V84sgdTG

@TeamPrometheus: I uploaded a YouTube video -- "Q" motor Static test http://youtu.be/Qt6nYh27BAQ?a

@tedprize: Check out this story from NPR on "Tuning In Space Noise For Sounds Of Life". Includes interview w/ Jill Tarter. http://n.pr/gguVPI

@evadot: Working on a proposed #GLXP panel for ISDC 2011. Would be nice if some teams could come. I know @rcspacepioneers and @ptscientists are.

@sedsusa: SEDS-USA is happy to announce the SEDS 2011 High-Powered Rocketry Competition! Full rules and details can be found at http://bit.ly/gAMsb1

@dmasten: A little Xaero flying action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=H8rOcDW4Pbk

@FLspacereport: Anousheh Ansari, private-sector astronaut, gives keynote address today at @EmbryRiddle for Engineering Week.

@National Engineers Week at Embry-Riddle Features Anousheh Ansari, Space Explorer and X Prize Creator - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University News Center - This news release gives more information about the keynote speech and some competitions at Engineers Week.

@wikkit: Need a good machine shop? Nosala Engineering has been used by Armadillo, Altius, XCOR, and Masten. http://nosala.com/ Wnosala@aol.com

Ansari X PRIZE Anniversary

Here are some thoughts on the anniversary of the winning of the Ansari X PRIZE:

Two Anniversaries and Our (Private Sector) Future in Space - Pajamas Media (Rand Simberg)

Five years later, is now the time? - The Space Review (Jeff Foust)

WHAT'S NEXT FOR X? - Cosmic Log

Launching Commercial Space Flight: Part Five -- Brian Binnie Makes History - The Huffington Post (Brian Binnie)

Twitter Marathon: October 1-2, 2009

Today it's all about a quick compilation of a stack of tweets with no comments from me (other than this introduction). If you don't know who the tweeter is, just follow the opening link.

@bonnova - RT @NGLLC09: Officially announcing a 4th competitor for #NGLLC. Welcome @BonNovA! Details: http://bit.ly/3orl76

@unrocket - First silver tether flight was stable, climbed too high and was aborted. Will try again late today or early fri.

Pressure sensor intermitant short. Killed a/d inputs hard to find and fix in desert going home back fri nighr

@NGLLC09 - RT @wikkit: We ran another full load through the test stand today, in 5 engine runs. Looking really good on a fix for #ngllc problem.

@tedprize - RT @TEDchris - TED Prize winner Sylvia Earle's spectacular new book, The World Is Blue: http://bit.ly/FflGE

@fineri - Working out an engine start sequence, watching video's of various components moving to sort out the timing......

@ARCAspace - ARCA team visited the Constanta, Venus and Fulgerul ships prior to equipments arrival on board. These ships will... http://bit.ly/3aedLj [... be used for the launch of Mission 3. ]

@grncheese - See our lunar regolith excavator in action: http://bit.ly/2WWidF

@paulsrobotics - Workin' hard 24/7 on the @W_P_I entry for the @Regolith_Chal. Students, prof, and alum working together towards $500K prize.

http://yfrog.com/17rrylj our test sandbox

http://yfrog.com/3d22vgj electronics dust cover

http://yfrog.com/14s2rj rear bump switch

@Regolith_Chal - Had an important milestone meeting today and it was a great success. Thanks to teams, judges, and other contributors to this.

@jmcenanly I heard that Charles Bolden mentioned @regolith_chal in a speach recently. Help us carry the message that prizes are helping.

@glxp - Our newest team is on Twitter: @openmoon

#xprize tweetups now happening on Monday in Houston, Albuquerque, San Francisco, and LA. This calls for a hashtag: #XPTweetup

Just got off a telecon with @mmealling and others to discuss media for #NGLLC next week - Masten plans to fly again in one week.

@Pomerantz - RT @glxp: Announcing 2 events next week to celebrate 5th anniversary of winning Ansari X PRIZE: http://bit.ly/OhJ95

@NASAPrize - Lots of ideas for new prize challenges posted at http://bit.ly/2sBodo

@ConradAwards - Upcoming webinar 10/06/07- Josh Neubert The Innovation Classroom. Questions encouraged! @ www.conradawards.org "The exchange" 3:00 PM PT

@Virgin_Galactic - We are working on the format of the SpaceShipTwo unveiling event in December.

@ISPCS - new confirmed: Anousheh Ansari, Space Ambassador CEO, Chairman & Co-founder Prodea Systems, Inc.

Prize Roundup: Best Ideas, Google Earth Climate Change, Michigan Tech Nanosat Team, Heinlein SF Award, More

Climate change tools for Google Earth - Google Earth Blog:

... In addition, they're asking you to submit your own thoughts and questions on climate change to their channel, and some of these videos will be broadcast on screens around the conference in December. The top rated video submissions will win a trip to Copenhagen, so submit your videos and see if you can win the prize.

To the Moon, Rover! - UCF Today

Seems like yesterday... - RLV News on an important anniversary

New USST Video on YouTube - The Space Elevator Blog

Ten Best New Space Ideas - Matt Wronkiewicz's Weblog - Number 8 is X PRIZEs.

InnoCentive ~ Innovation Marketplace For Ideas - Maximizing Progress

Tech Tour Day Three: A Tour De Force At MTU - WWJ News Radio:

... I met with four members of the Michigan Tech Aerospace Enterprise team, who are designing a small Earth satellite that will help authorities track dangerous space junk. ... the Aerospace Enterprise is competing in the United States Air Force's Nanosatellite competition. The program has 11 student teams around the country design a small, affordable satellite with space-to-space imaging that will track other satellites and space debris, as well as contain a model to calibrate the ground-based telescopes that monitor space junk. ... The Aerospace Enterprise is also working on the High Altitude Autonomous Research Platform, an autonomous glider designed to take pictures up to 35,000 feet, and the Cansat Project, a university competition that sees the students design and build a rocket payload that must return to earth at a determined speed, right itself once it lands, and transmit data all the while.

Here's a link to the MTU Aerospace Enterprise team, and here's one for the University Nanosatellite Program

Space Tourism - Taking Off? - The National Space Society of Phoenix

BSFS Heinlein Award - Science Fiction Awards Watch: The winners of the 2009 BSFS Robert. A Heinlein Award are Joe Haldeman and John Varley.

Also see posts on the same topic from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and Locus. As Locus notes: The award is for "outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings to inspire the human exploration of space."

@planetarytv - I uploaded a YouTube video -- PTV - Team America Rocketry Challenge 2010 http://bit.ly/1PnXHo

An Update on Design Judging - X PRIZE Cars

Space Foundation Symposium

Space Foundation Symposium - RLV News - On the Symposium Agenda:

Tuesday, March 31, 2009
4:00 PM
Ms. Nicole Jordan - Manager, Rocket Operations, X Prize Foundation

I'll hazard a guess that this is from the Symposium: Nicky and Neil deGrasse Tyson - The Launch Pad

Thursday, April 2, 2009
3:30 PM
Ms. Anousheh Ansari - Co-Founder and Chairman, Prodea Systems, First Female Private Space Explorer, and First Space Ambassador

Also see the following for discussion of the Ansari X PRIZE goals, as well as other topics: Anousheh Ansari interview - RLV News

Space Prize Roundup - March 22, 2009

Check out the new wheels for the Kansas City Space Pirates! - Space Elevator Blog

Interorbital Systems - SYNERGY MOON at Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams site - The video gives an overview of Interorbital Systems, part of SYNERGY MOON. It also includes some cool Mojave scenery for when the computer work and welding is done for the day.

Oddly enough, this one doesn't appear on the "Teams" page "Latest Team Announcements" list for March 20, but it's on the main page and the SYNERGY MOON page.

ARCA Stabilo engine tests completed successfully - ARCA at Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams site - Two videos are included. Also see ARCA engine test videos (RLV News) for links to more new ARCA material.

ZeroGravity Teacher Commended - Spaceports:

... While planning to tout ZeroGravity flights in Virginia, Seals got an unexpected honor from her native Wise County with a dedication of $1,000 to offset the $5,000 costs of the next teacher-to-zerogravity flight comeptition to be sponsored by the Southwestern Virginia Technology Council. Wise County specifically donated the money to honor Seals.

A competition will be held among the southwestern Virginia public school teachers to fly later this year. A significant part of the selection process will be based upon the merit of the zerogravity student experiement designed with the teacher's classroom students. The Teachers-in-Space Team of the Space Frontier Foundation will assist in the selection process.


Here are some recent Mars-themed SF award and contest links from the "Marooned - Science Fiction books on Mars" blog:

Joe Haldeman’s novel Marsbound gets honorable mention in 2008 Readers’ Choice poll

Nebula Awards ballot error almost discards Ruth Nestvold’s short story “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide”

Nominated for Nebula Award, Ruth Nestvold’s short story “Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” now online

Bookspot Central Book Tournament tips off, features three Mars novels

Robert J. Sawyer’s collection Identity Theft and Other Stories nominated for 2009 Aurora Award

EVA Interviews Rex Ridenoure, CEO of Ecliptic Enterprises - Out of the Cradle (also see RLV News for more related information) - This interview covers Rex's career, including a lot of involvement with space prizes (especially if you count Blastoff! as a predecessor of the Google Lunar X PRIZE as suggested by Peter Diamandis):

... Soon the firm was re-named BlastOff Corporation (from Spacelab!) and in just six months or so we had 50 employees, a baseline mission and system design, a rocket on order and a huge head of steam. Sadly, the dot-com bubble began to pop in late 2000 and the entire BlastOff effort came to a screeching halt ... The onboard RocketCam™ video from SpaceShipOne during its two Ansari XPRIZE flights also gave us quite a boost–globally. ... Within the first two days after the GLXP was announced in September 2007, I got calls from four different team leaders (all of whom I knew already) asking about whether Ecliptic could supply their team with onboard imaging systems. That sort of brand validation was very satisfying, to say the least! ... I registered Ecliptic as a “stealth” team at the end of 2007, with the notion that we’d participate for as long as it took to figure out how many other teams were competing and which ones we’d prefer to be part of. ... Now, Ecliptic is still a candidate supplier to several GLXP teams, and we’ve also covered the costs of filing the patent for the SCSG spinning lander/hopper concept and will control this intellectual property from now on. Ecliptic has no plans to field a GLXP team on its own.

Space Prize Roundup - March 12, 2009

NASA and NIA Announce Moon Design Team Competitors - SpaceRef (press release):

HAMPTON, Va. - Fifteen teams have made it to the finals of a NASA and National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) sponsored competition that challenged university students to think about the conditions astronauts will face when we return to the moon, then design projects that could become part of real lunar exploration.

The undergraduate and graduate engineering students won the right to compete against each other at the 2009 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage or RASC-AL forum to be held in Cocoa Beach, Fla., June 1-4.

Also see RASC-AL Student Competition Finalists Announced by NASA/NIA - Luna C/I blog

From AnoushehAnsari.com:

Anousheh Ansari will be appearing at the following upcoming events and locations.

March 14, 2009 - National Air and Space Museum
Washington, DC
Event: Family Day
Topic: Women in Aviation & Space day
Location: The Steven F. Udvar- Hazy Center
For details: http://www.nasm.si.edu/events/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=1149

March 26, 2009 - Universities Space Research Association (USRA) Annual Symposium Celebration of USRA’s Fortieth Anniversary
Washington, DC
Theme: Our Future in Space: Perspectives from Civil Space Exploration, National Securities, Commercial Ventures, and International Collaboration
Location: The Auditorium of the National Academy of Science

March 30- April 1st, 2009 - Education without Borders
Dubai, UAE
Theme: Innovative Solutions to Global Challenges
For details: http://ewb2009.hct.ac.ae/Default.aspx

NASA to Award $80,000 in Rice University Business Plan Competition - NASA Johnson Space Center press release:

The Innovation Partnerships Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center has announced the addition of three separate $20,000 awards to one already granted, bringing the total to $80,000, to be presented as part of the 2009 Rice University Business Plan Competition.

The three new prizes will be awarded for the best business plans representing an engineering technology that has applications to both the NASA space program and to earth-based activities, according to Michele Brekke, director of the JSC Innovation Partnerships Office (IPO).

MIT professors honored with Turing Award and $250,000 - TG Daily

Barbara Liskov wins Turing Award - ACM cites 'foundational innovations' in programming language design - MIT News

Interview with Bob Richards and Michael Potter - RLV News

KC Space Pirates March, 2009 update - Space Elevator Blog

Interviews with author of SpaceShipOne book - RLV News

Space Prize Roundup - March 10, 2009

Mojave Air and Space Port thriving - Aerotech News (link from X PRIZE Foundation) - The article covers a number of former and current space prize teams, including Ansari X PRIZE winner Scaled Composites, Lunar Lander Challenge team Masten Space Systems, and Interorbital Research, member of Google Lunar X PRIZE team Synergy Moon. eSpaceTickets.com is also mentioned in the context of Synergy Moon.

CRASHING GALAXIES WIN CONTEST - Cosmic Log - The people have spoken, and that means the tangled-up group of galaxies known as Arp 274 will get an exclusive photo shoot with the Hubble Space Telescope. The interacting galaxies won almost half of the 139,944 votes cast in the Hubble team's first-ever "People's Choice" ballot.

Web-site and interview - Googlokhod

Unreasonable and Masten test videos - RLV News

The Space Show this week - Space for All - Sunday, March 15, 2009, 12-1:30 PM PDT: Dr. Paul Dear returns to the program to update us on new developments with his N-Prize program.

Prize Roundup - January 23, 2008

NSS Space Elevator Team News - 1-18-2009 - We finally recieved a copy of the BBC Show that we were part of. Here's a clip of it. James May is the super-brilliantiant host of Top Gear on the BBC.

See the link for the actual clip.

SpaceX donates launch to Heinlein microgravity competition - RLV News has more details on the competition from SpaceX.

Free Patches from Anousheh Ansari's ISS Mission - The Launch Pad

Mapping Space on Earth, a #FFD Friday Funday Wrapup - The Launch Pad

Cambridge Making Carbon Nanotube Ribbons at Centimeter Lengths... - Next Big Future

Industrial Scale Production of Cambridge Carbon Nanotube Tethers Will Enable Hypersonic Skyhooks and Better Moon and Mars Space Elevators - Next Big Future

Laser Launch on Next Big Future - LaserMotive (Beam Power team):

The Next Big Future blog talks about Jordin’s work on space launch via laser array. The post talks about his NIAC report, and various presentations and discussions that have happened in the intervening years. If you’re not familiar with laser launch, the post is a reasonable introduction to the idea and the work Jordin has done on it.

Enter the Popular Science Invention Awards! - PopSci.com

The Car of the Future Promised for October - Wired on Aptera (Automotive X PRIZE team) - link from X PRIZE Foundation

NAME THAT MARS ROVER - Cosmic Log - I already mentioned the contest a few days ago, but Cosmic Log has more details.

Space Prize Roundup - January 16, 2009

There's just a quick link roundup today:

Latest Mock SpaceShipOne Soars Above Sponsor's Museum - Space.com (link from X PRIZE Foundation)

Pioneering tourist spaceship installed in museum - Astronomy.com blog (link from X PRIZE Foundation)

Briefs: BonNova Lauryad video; CECE test video - RLV News

Teams on Twitter - The Launch Pad (on Google Lunar X PRIZE teams)

Name That Rover - NASA Watch - Deadline Nears for Student Contest to Name NASA's Next Mars Rover

Briefs: Pushing for British astronauts; UK space academy contest - HobbySpace -

Prize

35 fully funded places at Space School UK, a 6 or 8 day residential summer space school hosted by the University of Leicester can be won (25 places for students aged 16-18, 10 places for students aged 14-15). Space School UK includes lectures and workshops by some of the world’s leading space scientists. There’s also the chance to build and launch high-speed rockets, as well as to take part in telescope observing sessions, simulated space missions, SCUBA diving, flying in the Airkix vertical windtunnel and visiting the laboratories where Europe’s ExoMars rover is being built.

Here's the Space Academy Competition 2009 Flyer (PDF).

The 2009 Photonics West Exhibition - The Space Elevator Blog

Spaceward to appear at the Photonics West Exhibition - The Space Elevator Blog - Booth help or video mixing help is requested.

Iranian Award Winners Around the World

In The Spotlight: International Awards and the Accomplished Iranians Who Have Earned Them - Payvand's Iran News - Most readers that pay attention to cinema will know about at least some of the numerous film awards Iranians have won, and the Ansari X PRIZE is probably the most well-known and ground-breaking one so far of the ones covered here. This post covers these, and also awards in a number of other areas, many of which are key to space like business, math, and science, and many others of which are rising in importance to the space field.

How Stuff Works

A while ago I posted on a "How Stuff Works" Google Lunar X PRIZE page. Now there's one for the Ansari X PRIZE. The link is from the X PRIZE Foundation web site news article widget.

Jim Benson Remembered

Jim Benson Has Died - Michael Belfiore - Michael remembers him through a couple events involving Michael's coverage of SpaceShipOne.

X PRIZE Anniversaries

The Launch Pad and neXt PRIZE note this date is an important one from an anniversary point of view for space and the X PRIZE Foundation.

Bailout Brought Down to Scale

WHAT'S THAT IN APOLLOS? - Cosmic Log - To help us wrap our minds around the $700B or more bailout figure, Cosmic Log translates that huge value into "currency" representing different space and science efforts, like the Apollo program. It figures the bailout amount is the equivalent of 7 Apollo programs. Of course, Apollo itself was mind-bogglingly huge, so it stands to reason that a whole new currency system based on different sized space projects will let us comprehend the size of something like the bailout as well as other adventures in Federal funding of various sizes. The currency Cosmic Log comes up with includes Apollo, rovers, colliders, a Shuttle launch, and development of SpaceShipOne, which he figures at $25M.

So ... he figures a Shuttle launch costs $1B, or 40 SpaceShipOnes. The bailout costs 700 Shuttle launches ... or 28,000 SpaceShipOnes.

Now, I know that breakthroughs like SpaceShipOne aren't simply a matter of throwing money at problems. However, suspend judgement for a minute and just imagine if we could buy 28,000 innovation, design, science, and engineering breakthroughs on the scale of SpaceShipOne instead of bailing out Wall Street. I guess after about 500 of those there wouldn't be a mortgage crisis because we'd have all of the real estate in the galaxy available, and we'd be able to grow cities like blades of lawn grass. After that, ...?

Commercial Space Wiki Update

It looks like Ken made some updates to the prize area in the The Commercial Space Wiki a few days ago. I don't think I've seen the Ansari X PRIZE Files before, so maybe that's new altogether? I like it, so I think I'll replace my current Ansari X PRIZE Contestants link on the right with this one.

August 1 2008 Roundup

Interview: Bob Richards and James Antifaev of Odyssey Moon - The Launch Pad - This interview covers the multinational Odyssey Moon GLXP team, Canada's growing space capabilities, and the MDA-ATK sale attempt.

Oshkosh Bloggin' - The Launch Pad - William is there for some GLXP panels, and is also posting a lot of photos from the show, some by the SpaceShipOne replica (check the main Launch Pad page to see the latest).

Briefs: WK2 debut audio; GLXP at Oshkosh; Space shoe spinoff - RLV News covers the Launch Pad activity, as well as an 8th Continent post about one of their space/Earth business plan winners, iShoe.

Rocket Racing demo flight 2 - RLV News

French space tourism contest - RLV News - This covers the winning of the Rocketplane/Nestle suborbital ride contest I mentioned a bit after Space Access '08. The OK article makes it sound like the promotion was a success in terms of driving business. One of the linked posts discusses the legal responsibilities of the spaceflight participant and the ride company using Willy Wonka as an appropriate analogy.

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.

Diamandis on Rocket Racing League Flights

SUCCESS!!! Using Economic Engines to open the space frontier - The Launch Pad (Peter Diamandis) - Peter talks about the importance of the big WK2 and RRL rollouts on the 50th anniversary of the NASA Space Act (just go to Google.com and click the picture). It's all about private industry, low cost, reliability, and fast repeatable operations.

It's a big time in the prize calendar as well. Quickly following these somewhat prize-related events are 2 NASA Centennial Challenge competitions: the General Aviation Challenge and the Regolith Excavation Challenge. Not only that, but I'll bet that some GLXP teams will be carefully watching the Falcon 1 launch.

WK2 and RRL Rollouts

RLV News is a good place to go for White Knight 2 rollout, and planned Rocket Racer rollout, news and links, which I've only skimmed over so far.

WhiteKnightTwo rolls out

Mothership "Eve" Roll Out [Update]

Virgin America and Virgin Galactic working together

WhiteKnightTwo rollout [Update]

XCOR X-Racer prepares for Tuesday debut

More WK2 rollout response

WK2 rollout impressions and pictures; SS2 accident report