MDA, ATK, and Odyssey Moon

Christian Sallaberger discusses the MDA and ATK deal on the Odyssey Moon blog at the Google Lunar Challenge site.

More Automotive X PRIZE Articles Roll Out

There are some new articles about the Automotive X PRIZE at The Independent (which seems to be confusing pounds and dollars in the title, but not the article itself), Voice of America, and MSN Autos. The last 2 links are from the X PRIZE Foundation news scroller.

Pomerantz on the Conrad Award

Will Pomerantz, with major appearances by blog guests Josh Neubert and Becky Ramsey, explains how the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award to encourage space entrepreneurialism in students started. It sounds like they have plans to continue the competition in 2008, and hope to make it even bigger, for example with more teacher outreach.

I'm not sure if this part indicates just where they wanted to go at first, or where they'd still like to go:

We planned to do both a student and professional version of this challenge, but quickly realized that we did not have the capability to take both on at first.

Of course if the big jump is too much, it's sometimes possible to take smaller steps (like expanding the competition to have an undergraduate level, or many other options).

Newark Memorial High and Team America Rocketry Challenge

Here's a blog post from a teacher who was a coach in previous years for the team that won the Team America Rocketry Challenge last year. The post mentions that this year the school has 3 TARC teams. It sounds like my kind of school. Here's an old article that describes the school's rocketry class.

Two Elevator Climber Teams

The Space Elevator Blog highlights 2 Space Elevator Challenge teams: one new one (TXL Group, Inc.), and one familiar one (The University of Michigan's MClimber). As you'll see when you read the posts (and other SE Blog posts on teams), each team is unique.

Meanwhile, Photonics.com has its own version of the announcement of Trumpf support for the 2008 games. A LaserMotive photo is included.

Anousheh Ansari on The Space Show

Anousheh Ansari was interviewed on The Space Show recently. She's been involved with a lot of space efforts like her trip to the ISS, so only a small part of the interview is on her work with the X PRIZE Foundation. I think you'll still find it to be an interesting discussion.

Laser Beam Power Space Elevator Teams at Photonics West Conference

The Space Elevator Blog interviews Dr. Georg Treusch from DILAS, which has worked with laser-based beam power teams in the past, and is in discussions with several teams this year. Laser power is expected to be a popular option this year since the competition requirements are much more stringent this time.

The blog also has a post about the Photonics West Exhibition and how it relates to the Space Elevator Games this year.

Update (later in the day): The SE Blog just added a press release from Spaceward on TRUMPF Laser assisting Space Elevator competitors by providing a commercial laser source and related support. Like DILAS, TRUMPF will be at the Photonics West Exhibition.

X PRIZE Foundation Helps On and Off the Job

The X PRIZE Foundation had some fun last Movember raising money for a worthy cause. At first I thought I'd stumbled into the Beastie Boys Sabotage video, but I figured it out soon enough. I'm sure you will too.

Automotive X PRIZE Videos

X PRIZE Cars gets a new log and website design, and points us to this new video from the X PRIZE Foundation promoting the Automotive X PRIZE.

While watching that video, I noticed this one about the X PRIZE Foundation at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show.

2007 Astronaut Glove Challenge - Peter Homer's Story

Wired's Geek Dad blog has a post on last year's Astronaut Glove Challenge. The post is based on this article at NASA.gov that tells the Peter Homer astronaut glove story, including some pictures and a video of Peter testing the glove. Here's a quote from the article:

"I definitely think that's something they ought to pursue more of," he said. "I'm not an anomaly. I'm not just one guy out here. There are lots of people like me who have the training, background and experience, and who, for whatever reason, are not in the industry but who are interested in contributing in some way. There are lots of really intelligent people who can contribute in the way that I hope to contribute by bringing new ideas in a way that NASA can take them over and bring them into their programs."

Unreasonable Rocket and SpeedUp

Unreasonable Rocket is posting faster than I can keep up. There's progress using the helicopter platform, and potential for some video from that platform soon. Maybe having gotten so far with the helicopter, they'll think about competing for (or otherwise participating in) the $80,000 International Aerial Robotics Competition?

Meanwhile, SpeedUp diagnoses some noise they've seen in data collected during tests. Supplier fault tolerance is mentioned, and tether testing may be coming soon.

Space and the 2008 Rice Business Plan Competition

Spaceref posts on the $20,000 NASA Earth/Space Life Sciences Innovation Award. This is for a business plan related to life sciences. The plan should have space and Earth applicability. The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and NASA are involved with the competition. The winner is also eligible to compete in the much larger Rice Business Plan Competition. Here's more about the Space part of the competition.

Multiple Posts from Tom Vander Ark

Tom Vander Ark at the X PRIZE Foundation had 3 posts yesterday:

• one pointing to a suggestion in the journal Nature for an energy-related nanotechnology prize
• a post related to biotechnology and energy
• a post on genome sequencing that relates to the genomics X PRIZE

ProSpace March Storm Space Activism and a Space Prize Bill

Space Politics posts on some space activist efforts, including the ProSpace March Storm that advocates several positions favorable to commercial space, including the Aeronautics and Space Prize Act. See the March Storm Agenda Update and an earlier post on ProSpace in 2008. Among other points, they state:

We also welcome the introduction of the Aeronautics and Space Prize Act (H.R. 4917), which proposes and aeronautics and space prize program to develop aerospace research and development.

I'm a little worried about this part of the Act:

(2) with the advice of NASA and other agencies as appropriate, to carry out a program for tasteful advertising of commercial products and services in conjunction with the Nation's aeronautics and space endeavors in conjunction with NASA, other agencies involved in aeronautics and space, or independently; and

It seems like this might compete with entrepreneurs, and even prize competitors and alliance organizations running the prize competitions, if they want to get sponsorships. Last year it seemed to me that the Space Act of 2007 that ProSpace supported didn't have this potential disadvantage.

January 18 X PRIZE Foundation Newsletter

I just got the latest email newsletter from the X PRIZE Foundation. You can sign up for this service at their main home page. I've posted about most of the news there already, so I won't repeat it all. Here's one new, from my point of view, news item:

Dr. Bard Geesaman has joined the Foundation as the Executive Director of Life Sciences. Geesaman is an MD, venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has experience in many areas of the medical industry. In his new role, Geesaman will be responsible for developing, funding and running new prizes in the area of Life Sciences, which will include any cancer, healthcare and genomics prizes.

Not only does this give you an idea of their management, but it also shows what types of prizes they want to offer in the future. Here's some background information on Dr. Geesaman.