Prize Roundup: XHab Award, Zero-G Benefit, CRuSR Test Flights, ARLISS, Lunar Architecture, More

Today is the "anticipated award date" for the inflatable structure eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge, and we already have:

@glxp: Congrats! RT @nathanpwong: Just found out my team got accepted for the xhab competition.

A Personal Odyssey - Bob Richards: B-LOG - Musings on our Future in Space, Earth and Life.

Armadillo Aerospace & Masten Space to get $475k from NASA - RLV News

ZERO-G flight with James Cameron benefits X-PRIZE Foundation - RLV News

Google Lunar X-Prize teams progress - Lunar Networks

Moon Capital: A Commercial Gateway to the Moon - Commercial Space Gateway gives another look at this competition I mentioned in the previous post.

Weare NH Project ARLISS - The Goffstown Edge

X PRIZE, Govt. of India & IIT Delhi Announce Partnership to Create Global Competition to Develop Clean-Burning Cookstoves - X PRIZE Foundation press release

Prize Roundup: NASA and TopCoder/Yet2/InnoCentive, LaserMotive Copter, Armadillo Office Space, Moon Capital, More

Laser-Powered Helicopter Demo At AUVSI Trade Show - LaserMotive

@lasermotive: Update: here's the url for our article in the Unmanned Daily News at the AUVSI trade show. http://bit.ly/ar0XoJ page 12

LaserMotive is getting a lot of interest in booth 227 at the AUVSI trade show!

We have arrived at trade show setup. http://yfrog.com/n3szlj

Laser-powered helicopter in our AUVSI booth: http://yfrog.com/jn4acj

Booth 227 at AUVSI is now complete! http://yfrog.com/n4ptdaj

@pomerantz: #GLXP competitors @JUXTOPIA_JURBAN are co-hosting another Space Entrepreneurship Forum on Capitol Hill this fall: http://bit.ly/dojZ3i

@soldthemoon: Caterpillar joins the sponsors supporting Astrobotic's Moon expedition http://www.astrobotictech.com/ Their slogan: Madagascar to the Moon

Expo displays progress toward Google Lunar X Prize - Astrobotic at the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

@hobbyspacer: Students program ISS robots in NASA/MIT contest: NASA and MIT are sponsoring the Zero Robotics competition in whi... http://bit.ly/bWbDxm

Office cubicle workers, feast your eyes on this one:

@wikkit: Like any job, at 7:30 on a Friday you want to go home, but it's hard to walk out without noticing that it's the on http://twitpic.com/2isgjg

@unrocket: Did first pass garage cleaning last wk. Last night made a pressure test fixture for printed motor. Hope to do static motor test 9/18.

Out of this world - My South End.com:

The competition, called the Moon Capital Competition 2010, calls architects, urban planners, artists, and engineers to submit innovative lunar concept designs for two categories of judging.

Robots explore a Lego lunar surface (photos) - CNET News

NASA Technology Innovation - Volume 15, Number 3 - Magazine for Business & Technology - This 56-pager includes the various Centennial Challenges and LAUNCH:Health in its Upcoming Events section. It also has an article "Open Innovation: A New Business Model for NASA's Space Life Sciences Directorate" on ways for this Directorate to work with external problems solvers using open innovation mediators InnoCentive and Yet2.com. Here's a descriptions of the Yet2 approach:

The posting was for a technology need seeking accurate measurement techniques for bone density and structure. Yet2.com acts as an actual technology scout by searching their network of companies, development organizations and experts for potential solutions based on the specific challenges or gaps, bringing together buyers and sellers of technologies who then establish technology development partnerships.

The Directorate also used TopCoder, the Harvard Business School and the London Business School in an approach where

competitors develop algorithms to help NASA make decisions involved with optimizing the contents of a medical supplies kit that may be carried onboard long-term space missions.

Prize Roundup: European High School CanSats, NASA Data Purchase, LAUNCH Health Challenge, NASAMICI Kick Off, Start-ups

@wikkit: Machining is the art of removing everything that isn't a rocket engine. http://twitpic.com/2g7809

@fineri: Started welding my new engine up... http://twitpic.com/2fa5a2

European Cansat 2010 - AndoyaRocketRange on YouTube

The first European CanSat Competition for high-school students opened at ARR - Andøya Rocket Range, the Cost-Effective Entrance to Space

Truailliú: ESA's CanSat Competition - This has numerous posts from one of the teams - a bit too many to link to individual posts. Here's one, though: The prize winners of the first European Cansat Competition

Laurel Hill students represent Ireland in Norway - Limerick Post on the web

Teens to launch rocket in Nevada - New Hampshire.com

Next Giant Leap Offering Lunar Mission Data To NASA - Aero-News.Net

A hop, skip and a jump on the moon — and beyond - MIT News

Racing to the moon turning lucrative for Oakland's Astrobotic Technologies - Pop City

USAID Partners With NASA, NIKE and State Department to Address Global Health Challenges - press release on SpaceRef:

People can submit their ideas through the InnoCentive website, which allows hundreds of thousands of problem solvers throughout the world to collaborate on the posted challenges. Innovators can submit their health related proposals via the LAUNCH Health challenge at: https://gw.innocentive.com/ar/challenge/9625880 ... Those who are selected will be invited to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Oct. 30-31 where the LAUNCH: Health forum will take place.

Minority Innovation Challenges Institute Kick Off - SpaceRef

Start-up enterprise: Launching the new space race - New Scientist briefly mentions Masten Space Systems, Centennial Challenges, and early aviation's competitions in this article about new commercial space companies.

Space Elevator Prize Activity

It's an active time for prizes with a Space Elevator theme:

@SEGames: The "Strong Tether" Competition of the Space Elevator Games is scheduled for Friday, August 13th. Watch this space for more details.

The SEGames twitter account linked above tweated a number of times recently about the games and the related conference. I wouldn't be surprised if more updates will happen from there soon, since there is also the 2010 Space Elevator Conference.

The Space Elevator Blog has been quite active, too:

Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson are HERE - ... and you'll see more pictures of them in some of the twitter links below ...
Latest updates on the Strong Tether Challenge - From this post: Ben Shelef ... tells me that there will be at least two contestants, and possibly a third, in this year’s Strong Tether Challenge. All of the contestants are bringing entries made out of carbon nanotubes.
Results from Japan’s 2010 JSETEC Competition - This includes a summary of the competion, and also some good links. Here's one of those, and it features a couple teams from the earlier NASA competitions: Kanagawa University Egami Team B wins 2nd Japan Space Elevator Technical and Engineering Competition Grand Prize (PDF)
Strong Tether challenge just 3 days away… - ... and that was 3 days ago! I like the tug-of-war theme ...
Looking for a few good teams… - The Kansas City Space Pirates want more competitors ... to get over the funding hump!
The Mighty Tether - now on YouTube - on Team Astroaraneae

You can see more about the games and conference from Michael Lane. Here are a few examples:

@mlaine: RT @piboeing: Space elevator pioneers take part in Redmond conference http://bit.ly/af1pyg

Jerome Pearson for #SE2010 kick-off dinner. They are discussing Dyson Spheres. http://tweetphoto.com/38554156

Historical meeting. Yuri Artsutanov. #SE2010 http://tweetphoto.com/38551635

Laubscher - Now talking about @NASA_Technology Centennial Challenges - Power Beaming $1.1M left to win!

Laubscher - "But tomorrow..." is the #NASA Strong Tether competition. $2M at stake tomorrow! #SE2010

It might be worth trying that #SE2010 hashtag to keep up to date on the games and conference, but there's no guarantee that everyone will use that.

Here's some other Space Elevator prize news:

Next giant leaps for NASA tech - Cosmic Log:

... There's also a project to be conducted jointly with the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, looking into beam-powered space propulsion. That follows up on NASA's Power Beaming Challenge, which paid out $900,000 to the Seattle-based LaserMotive team during last year's Space Elevator Games.

Here's more about Japan's Space Elevator Games:

@newspacenews: Japan hosts an international space elevator competition representing 15 different engineering universities http://yhoo.it/d8sIYk

From the article linked by NewSpaceNews:

Fifteen teams from Japanese, US and German universities took part in the two day event which kicked off as teams, one-by-one, attached their mechanical climbers to cabling suspended from a balloon 300 meters above ground. ... While many teams, including last year's Munich University champions experienced trouble, Nihon University's team's climber was the only climber to make it to the top during the morning competition.

Update (Friday afternoon):

@SEGames: Finally - URL for Strong Tether Competition is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-centennial-challenge---strong-tether-competition.

Competition is scheduled to start at 4:15pm US Pacific time - less than two hours from now

We have 3 competitors and all of them have carbon nanotube entries.

@NASAPrize: At the Space Elevator Conference. Talking about Centennial Challenges at 3:45 PDT

Carbon nanotubes are HERE - The Space Elevator Blog
Another Tether entry - The Space Elevator Blog

There are plenty of updates on the whole conference at twitter hashtag #SE2010, but I'd also recommend checking NASAPrize and SEGames twitter accounts, since they haven't been using that tag (yet?).

Post-Games Update:

Results from the 2010 Strong Tether Challenge - The Space Elevator Blog
Tethers tortured in $2 million contest - Cosmic Log (through Tether contest wrap-up at RLV News)

More on Planetary Society NEO Competition

Report from the Exploration of Near-Earth Objects Objectives Workshop - Day 2 - The Planetary Society Blog: Bruce Betts gives an overview of NASA's Explore NOW workshop. Some of his notes concern a new competition planned by the Planetary Society:

I also discussed the Planetary Society's Human Mission to an Asteroid competition that will challenge people to design a human mission to an asteroid. We will have open and college design competition categories, and an essay competition for high school and below. We are currently assembling our advisory committee and partners and determining the details of the competition. Stay tuned in coming weeks and months for more information.

Speaking of competitions, at this meeting I ran into the Principal Investigator of the winning entry from the Planetary Society Apophis Mission Design competition, Mark Schaffer from SpaceWorks Engineering, Inc. Though the content will be quite different, the human asteroid mission will follow the same type of process as the Apophis competition did, and we expect lots of spectacular entries like we got for Apophis.

Bruce's slide presentation from the workshop, Public Participation in the Exploration of NEOs (PDF), offers a lot of information on the Planetary Society's experience with public participation through space prizes and competitions. This is depicted through a pyramid of prizes and participation opportunities where the base of the pyramid includes the largest number of participants for more accessible competitions and other forms of participation, and the tip of the pyramid includes the most difficult challenges and richest rewards. In this context, the presentation offers the following information, and more, about the NEO competition now under development:

TPS Human Asteroid Design Competition

• In coming months, Planetary Society will hold an open competition to design a human mission to a near Earth asteroid.
• Will emphasize the portions of the mission when near or on the asteroid (input invited on details) ...
• $20K prize from Google ...
• Doing in collaboration with NASA and other organizations and agencies ...

The open competition mentioned above is expected to be at the level of aerospace companies, while the college competition is expected to be at the level of design classes. The goals of the competition include contributions to actual NEA plans, NEO education, and making the concept of HSF missions to NEOs familiar to the public.

Prize Roundup: NSF Robotics Competitions, Asteroid Prize Plan, Many Space Elevator Prizes, NASA Lunar Lander Data Purchase, More

Here's an excerpt from the 2011 Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill report (PDF):

Promoting STEM Education Through Competition.—The future of U.S. competitiveness rests on our ability to train the next generation of scientists and engineers. The Committee has acted on the ‘‘Rising Above the Gathering Storm’’ recommendation to improve K–12 STEM education by robustly funding the National Science Foundation and other science agencies. The Committee also recognizes the important contributions of groups and organizations that have developed nationwide STEM robotics competitions to inspire and train America’s students. The Committee directs NSF to set aside $2,000,000 for a competitive program of grants to promote STEM education through robotics competitions.

BLOG: Update on the NASA Authorization Bill - The Planetary Society - The reason that I included this here is that there's an interesting hint about a possible new Planetary Society prize at the end of the post:

A big first step will be consideration of the human asteroid mission. The Planetary Society will be participating in an upcoming NASA workshop on this subject, and we're getting ready to announce a new competition to advance the concept of humans exploring an asteroid. So stay tuned!

More Masten Space pictures
A brief glimpse of leg at Masten Space
Armadillo Aerospace flies Pixel - all 3 from RLV News

ISEC e-Newsletter #6 - August 2010 - International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) - This newsletter has a lot of information about Space Elevator Games Centennial Challenges and other prizes. Here are some excerpts, but the newsletter has many more details:

The Climber / Power-Beaming competition has been postponed until next year. ... The Strong Tether competition will be held at the upcoming Space Elevator Conference. The current schedule calls for this competition to be held on Friday, August 13th, at 4:15pm (US Pacific time) ...

In March, the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) announced the Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson Prizes for Space Elevator research. ... the prize committee did not feel that any of them met the criteria; ... the prize committee did award an "Honorable Mention" to a paper submitted by Mr. Gaylen R. Hinton and he and his entry will be honored at the upcoming Space Elevator Conference. These prizes will be repeated next year. A new topic will be chosen for ... the Pearson prize ...

From August 6th-8th, the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) will host it's second annual JSETEC (Japan Space Elevator Technical & Engineering Competition) event. ... The 2009 competition was held on a 150 meter tether. This year's competition will be held on a 300 meter tether. Next year, they plan on using a 600 meter tether. But, unlike the Space Elevator Games, they plan on holding the tether aloft with balloons, not a helicopter.

NASA Centennial Challenges 2010 Strong Tether Challenge - SpaceRef

Astrobotic designs excavator to recover lunar volatiles - Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

NASA Seeks Data from Innovative Lunar Demonstrations - NASA:

NASA has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to purchase specific data resulting from industry efforts to test and verify vehicle capabilities through demonstrations of small robotic landers. The purpose is to inform the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles. ... The ILDD BAA challenges industry to demonstrate Earth-to-lunar surface flight system capabilities and test technologies.

Astrobotic to pursue NASA data purchase offer - RLV News

First Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prizes Announced At AirVenture - Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) - You can find out about this year's prizes at the link. There is also some information about next year's prizes:

LEAP announced that in 2011, LEAP prizes will be awarded at Aero-Friedrichschafen in Germany as well as at AirVenture.

Fueling Innovation (100 MPGe at a time) - Energy Blog (Department of Energy)

See much, much more about the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE here.

And the winner is… Offering a cash prize to encourage innovation is all the rage. Sometimes it works rather well - The Economist

More Details about 3 New Centennial Challenges

I recently posted about 3 new Centennial Challenges: the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge, the Night Rover Challenge, and the Sample Return Robot Challenge. These links to the 3 challenges have some information that either I didn't catch and post about when these challenges were introduced, or that wasn't available then.

Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge

The current description of the objectives for the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge is more detailed and nuanced than the one I originally saw:

• Safe, low-cost, small payload delivery system for frequent access to Earth orbit.
• Innovations in propulsion and other technologies as well as operations and management for broader applications in future launch systems.
• A commercial capability for dedicated launches of small satellites at a cost comparable to secondary payload launches--a potential new market with Government, commercial, and academic customers.

The preliminary description also briefly mentions tracking, range safety, sponsorships and other partnerships, and FAA licensing.

The prize purse section mentions the possibility of additional prize money for a 2nd-place or a bonus prize. My interpretation is that NASA would like to have a 2nd-place prize and bonus prizes, but Centennial Challenges doesn't have the money to do that. Will someone else step up to the plate, or will Centennial Challenges fund these augmentations in a later year?

Night Rover Challenge

In my earlier post, I speculated about the length of the "night" in the Night Rover Challenge, given some hints about the Moon in the material on the challenge. I recall that some other observers on the Internet were wondering the same thing. The current description of the challenge's objectives makes it more likely that the Moon's day/night cycle will govern the length of the "night" in the challenge with the following point:

• Innovations in energy storage technology for space operations and, in particular, to meet the demands imposed by the daylight/darkness cycle on the Moon.

That should make this challenge all the more interesting to Google Lunar X PRIZE teams interested in a bonus prize. However, in this case the energy storage system needs to survive more than 1 night cycle:

The Challenge would be to demonstrate a portable energy collection and storage system through several cycles of daylight and darkness. ... The winning system would be the one that moved the greatest distance during darkness in an allotted time period (over several day/night cycles) using only its own stored energy.

The competition could be held in a typical Earth environment, but

Competitors with successful and appropriate system designs might be invited to test their energy storage systems in NASA thermal-vacuum chambers to demonstrate applicability to the space and lunar environment.

Sample Return Robot Challenge

The description gives some ideas about what the sample return environment will be like:

The roving area should include rolling terrain, granular medium, soft soils, and a variety of rocks. A pre-cached sample and several other samples would be located in smaller sampling zones within the larger roving area.

There could be 2 levels of prizes in this competition:

In order to win a Level-1 prize, a robot must retrieve only the pre-cached sample. Robots should be autonomous, but periodic intervention with teleoperation would be permitted with penalties imposed for its use.

In order to win a Level-2 prize, a team must autonomously navigate at all times and must retrieve the pre-cached sample and several additional sample types that may include rock, regolith, gas, liquid, etc...

America COMPETES Includes Competitions

I recently took a look at a Senate Appropriations report that gave details on proposed funding levels for NASA Space Technology. That report didn't specify funds for Centennial Challenge prizes.

Interestingly, the same day that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation put forth the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 that seems to have served as a model for the Senate Appropriations bill, that committee also issued the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. Here is a working draft of the bill. There is a prize section of the bill that starts at page 15 of the draft. As noted by the OSTP blog, the Senate Advances Prizes in America COMPETES. From the OSTP comments:

The Prize Competitions section of the Committee bill would provide Federal Agencies across the Executive Branch with explicit authority to conduct prize competitions.

Here are some excerpts from the draft bill:

IN GENERAL.—Each head of an agency, or the heads of multiple agencies in cooperation, may carry out a program to award prizes competitively to stimulate innovation that has the potential to advance the mission of the respective agency.

...

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.—

‘‘(1) PROHIBITION ON THE GOVERNMENT ACQUIRING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS.—The Federal Government may not gain an interest in intellectual property developed by a participant in a competition without the written consent of the participant.

‘‘(2) LICENSES.—The Federal Government may negotiate a license for the use of intellectual property developed by a participant for a competition.

...

LIMITATION ON AMOUNT.—
‘‘(A) NOTICE TO CONGRESS.—No prize competition under this section may offer a prize in an amount greater than $50,000,000 unless 30 days have elapsed after written notice has been transmitted to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science and Technology of the House of Representatives.

‘‘(B) APPROVAL OF HEAD OF AGENCY.— No prize competition under this section may result in the award of more than $1,000,000 in cash prizes without the approval of the head of an agency.

...

the General Services Administration shall provide government wide services to share best practices and assist agencies in developing guidelines for issuing prize competitions. The General Services Administration shall develop a contract vehicle to provide agencies access to relevant products and services, including technical assistance in structuring and conducting prize competitions to take maximum benefit of the marketplace as they identify and pursue prize competitions to further the policy objectives of the Federal Government.

...

REPEAL OF SPACE ACT LIMITATION.—Section 314(a) of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (42 U.S.C. 2459f-1 is amended by striking ‘‘The Administration may carry out a program to award prizes only in conformity with this section.’’.

It will be interesting to see how this develops across the various agencies, including the agencies with an interest in space.

There is also a section of the bill on NASA starting at page 27 in the draft. Part of this section covers space technology:

It is the sense of Congress that a renewed emphasis on technology development would enhance current mission capabilities and enable future missions, while encouraging NASA, private industry, and academia to spur innovation. NASA’s Innovative Partnership Program is a valuable mechanism to accelerate technology maturation and encourage the transfer of technology into the private sector.

The bill also includes a section specifically on various cybersecurity competitions at levels appropriate for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, and also for universities and research labs.

The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, directly or through appropriate Federal entities, shall establish cybersecurity competitions and challenges with cash prizes ...

There are authorized to be appropriated to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to carry out this section $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2013.

Prize Roundup: Electric Aircraft at AirVenture, Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, Lunar Hopper, More

Tomorrow (July 30) the World Symposium of Electric Flight will be held at 2010 EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Register Today for Electric Aircraft Symposium - EAA AirVenture - Here's some information about the event:

Among the confirmed participants for the symposium are Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan; FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt; Electric Aircraft Corporation founder Randall Fishman; Yuneec founder Tian Yu; Sonex Aircraft founder John Monnett; and Earthstar Aircraft founder Mark Beierle, who displayed his eGull ultralight aircraft at AirVenture 2009. Commercial pilot and flight instructor Erik Lindbergh, grandson of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh and founder of the nonprofit Creative Solutions Alliance, will also be on hand to announce the LEAP (Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize) winners.

AirVenture 2010 World Symposium At Eagle Hangar - CAFE Foundation Blog

Introducing The Oil Cleanup X Challenge - Wendy Schmidt at The Huffington Post

X Prize Foundation Unveils $1.4 Million Oil Cleanup X Challenge - Fast Company

Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE:

The judges will select the top teams to demonstrate their ability to efficiently and rapidly clean up oil on the ocean surface in a head-to-head competition. These demonstrations, which will determine the winner, will take place at the National Oil Spill Response Research & Renewable Energy Test Facility (OHSMETT) in New Jersey, USA.

New Look, Same InnoCentive - Perspectives on Innovation Blog

Evadot Podcast #30 – NextGiantLeap

Archon Genomics X PRIZE Powers Into Phase II: Genomics Technologies Progressing Towards Prize Vision - neXt PRIZE

Centennial Challenges and the Senate Appropriations Report

The Senate Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2011 is accompanied by a report (PDF) that gives more detail on what the Appropriators intend. The NASA section of the report starts on page 115. Here are the amounts for NASA's Space Technology account. Figures are in millions of dollars:

Space Technology:
Early Stage Innovation ........................... 193,000
----Space Technology Research Grants .............. 20,000
----NIAC Phase I and Phase II ...................... 2,000
----Center Innovations Fund ....................... 10,400
----SBIR/STTR .................................... 160,600
Game Changing Technology .......................... 53,000
----Game-Changing Developments .................... 50,000
----Small Satellite Subsystem Technologies ......... 3,000
Crosscutting Capability Demonstrations ............ 64,000
----Technology Demonstration Missions ............. 42,000
----Edison Small Satellite Demonstration Missions .. 5,000
----Flight Opportunities .......................... 17,000
Partnership Development and Strategic Integration . 15,000
Subtotal, Space Technology ....................... 325,000

As with commercial space, exploration technology development and demonstrations, robotic precursor missions, and various other accounts, the Senate dramatically cuts NASA's request in certain areas to support a government heavy lift rocket, a crew vehicle, and an additional Shuttle flight. Although cut significantly, Space Technology does much better than some of the other accounts, perhaps because it is built on an existing NASA program. For comparison, here are the Space Technology figures from NASA's FY2011 budget request (PDF) for FY2011 (most amounts are considerably larger in later years in that budget's outlook):

Space Technology:
Early Stage Innovation ........................... 298,600
----Space Technology Research Grants .............. 70,000
----NIAC Phase I and Phase II ...................... 3,000
----Center Innovations Fund ....................... 50,000
----SBIR/STTR .................................... 165,600
----Centennial Challenges ......................... 10,000
Game Changing Technology ......................... 129,600
----Game-Changing Developments ................... 123,600
----Small Satellite Subsystem Technologies ......... 6,000
Crosscutting Capability Demonstrations ........... 102,000
----Technology Demonstration Missions ............. 75,000
----Edison Small Satellite Demonstration Missions . 10,000
----Flight Opportunities .......................... 17,000
Partnership Development and Strategic Integration . 42,000
Subtotal, Space Technology ....................... 572,200

The line for the Centennial Challenges space/aeronautics prize program continues at $10M per year for the 5 years covered in NASA's budget request. Note that the Senate report doesn't contain a line for Centennial Challenges.

Prize Roundup: Steps to Green Flight, Penn Manor, Oil Cleanup, NewSpace Awards, More

Green Flight Challenge: Six Steps to Synergy - CAFE Foundation Blog

CAFE News: Become a Part of Aviation History – Help Fund the Green Flight Challenge - CAFE Foundation Blog

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #27 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Penn Manor Rocket Team Beats the World! - Penn Points - The Student News Magazine of PMHS
U.S. Team Wins International Youth Rocketry Challenge - Raytheon

X Prize Contest Coming For Oil Clean Up - EarthTechling
X Prize Foundation to Announce Multi-Million Dollar Incentive Competition to Clean Up Oil - MarketWire:

Who: X PRIZE Foundation
What: Press Conference to Launch the Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE
When: Thursday, July 29, 2010
Where: National Press Club - Holeman Lounge
529 14th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20545
Time: 1:00 PM (ET); Noon (CT); 10:00 AM (PT)

Armadillo posts 2010 Space Access Society video in HD - RLV News

Power-Beaming competition postponed… - The Space Elevator Blog - They anticipate a date somewhere in the March-April 2011 timeframe. The Tether Challenge is still on for the Space Elevator Conference this August 13-15, and so are the Artsutanov and Pearson research paper prizes. Speaking of that conference:
Watch this space… - The Space Elevator Blog:
Coming very soon - a special announcement about the upcoming Space Elevator Conference.

Here are a few tweets from Jeff Foust about awards at the NewSpace 2010 conference:

@jeff_foust: @dmasten recalls being asked what his conpany's ultimate goal is when accepting his #newspace2010 award. "Solar system domination."

Duncan Jones, director of "Moon", accepts his award at #newspace2010: http://yfrog.com/b5mufhj

Congrats to @spacevidcast for the Best Presentation of Space award at #newspace2010!

Art Dula gets the Pioneer of NewSpace award. "How the heck am I supposed to get this into my suitcase?" #newspace2010

Lori Garver's acceptance video at #newspace2010: http://yfrog.com/2obaxyj

Miles O'Brien on the big screen accepting his award: #newspace2010 http://yfrog.com/5mu9dxj

Space Prize Roundup: SpeedUp Update, Spacesuit Flair, Phoenicia Video, more

07/16/2010: Another Hard Start - SpeedUp

A Bit of Goofiness - Team Phoenicia

New Private Spacesuit Unveiled With New York Flair - Space.com:

Two private spacesuit designers unveiled their first steps toward serious attire for future space travelers Friday night in front of a young, hip crowd of artists and tech geeks in Manhattan. ... Moiseev and Southern first combined their talents as former competitors to win a $100,000 second place prize in NASA's 2009 astronaut glove challenge. Now they have expanded their partnership under the name of Final Frontier Design to go from glove to full-fledged spacesuit designed to be worn inside a spacecraft during launch and re-entry.

Here's the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center notice for the event. There's more information and links about the gloves and spacesuit at that site, and at Spacesuit Gloves. For example, check out Lasercut Glove Patterns.

LaserMotive Video – Who We Are, and What Is Power Beaming - LaserMotive

“Vision of the Future” and “Best Presentation of Space” Winners Announced - Space Frontier Foundation

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #26 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

The Lurio Report - July 17, 2010 - RLV News - This includes some information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

New Centennial Challenges and More at the Forum

Here's some prize news from day 1 of NASA's Space Technology Industry Forum.

NASA annoucnes three new Centennial Challenges - RLV News

Nanosat Launch Challenge - RLV News - As mentioned here, although there are definitely huge differences (payload mass, prize amount, etc), there may be some interest from N-Prize competitors.

The forum presentation by Brant Sponberg on the Franklin Small Satellite Subsystem Technology Program & Edison Small Satellite Demonstration Missions Program (PDF) also notes that future plans for small satellites include

Dedicated Small Spacecraft Launch
– Follow-on launch service procurement to Centennial Challenges Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge or industry developments

Briefs: New NASA Challenges; An "almost perfect" Challenge; X-Hab student challenge - RLV News

The summary for the new Centennial Challenges (from the NASA Centennial Challenges site) is:

The Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge: to place a small satellite into Earth orbit, twice in one week. The prize purse is $2 million.

Night Rover Challenge: to demonstrate a solar-powered exploration vehicle that can operate in darkness using its own stored energy. The prize purse is $1.5 million.

Sample Return Robot Challenge: to demonstrate a robot that can locate and retrieve geologic samples from a wide and varied terrain without human control. The prize purse is $1.5 million.

In addition,

NASA is seeking Allied Organizations as partners to manage each of these new challenges.

Here are more details from Centennial Challenges Program (PDF), the presentation at the forum by Andrew Petro:

Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge:

Satellite mass - at least 1 kg
Satellite dimensions - at least 10 cm cube
Must complete at least one Earth orbit
Task must be accomplished twice in one week

To stimulate innovations in launch technology
To encourage creation of commercial nano-sat delivery services

Night Rover Challenge

Vehicle generates and stores it own energy using a renewable source available on the Moon and operates over several daylight/darkness cycles

To stimulate innovations in energy storage technologies of value in extreme space environments and in renewable energy systems on Earth.

Sample Return Robot Challenge

Autonomous robot
Easily identified samples
Terrain maps provided but no use of GPS

To encourage innovations in robotic navigation and sample manipulation technologies

The Night Rover Challenge reminds me of the earlier Lunar Night Power Source Centennial Challenge proposal described on slide 25 here (PDF). That one was for $500,000 for power storage that could pass lunar vacuum and thermal tests, recharge quickly, and meet volume and power requirements. The Night Rover Challenge will involve a full vehicle. Will it be similar to the $1M Human Lunar All-Terrain Vehicle proposal on page 22 at the same link?

It will also be interested to see how the Night Rover Challenge interacts with the Google Lunar X PRIZE bonus for surviving a lunar night. Will Google Lunar X PRIZE teams be interested in the Night Rover Challenge?

Should I assume that the nights in the Night Rover Challenge are 14-day nights, given the lunar picture in the slide presentation, and the mention of the Moon there?

The Sample Return Challenge reminds me a little bit of the Telerobotic Construction Challenge idea. However, in that case there was "minimal human intervention" with the robots. The Sample Return Challenge case is "without human control". Of course sample return and construction are different types of assignments, too.

Meanwhile, Doug Comstock's presentation at the forum, Partnerships, Innovation & Commercial Space (PDF), describes the Innocentive NASA Innovation Pavilion (slides 11-12) and new X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge for inflatable habitats (slide 13). On the Innovation Pavilion:

Radio Frequency Engineer from Lempster, NH awarded $30,000 for a mathematical model to be used for solar forecasting. 579 “project rooms” participated

Mechanical Engineer from Foxboro, MA awarded $20,000 for novel compact and resistive exercise device design. 564 “project rooms” participated

NASA Space Technology Industry Forum

NASA's OCT (Office of the Chief Technologist) will hold a space technology meeting this Tuesday and Wednesday to go over NASA's new general Space Technology research, development, and demonstration program. The technologies covered by this program are intended to be broadly applicable, as opposed to the new exploration-specific Flagship Technology Demonstrations, Enabling Technology Development and Demonstrations, or Heavy Lift and Propulsion Technology (all PDFs) efforts, or the existing technology efforts associated with areas like Science. From the meeting link:

The first day will also feature the announcement of three new Centennial Challenges prize competitions. There will be a Q&A session with the news media on July 13 at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the importance of innovation and technology to NASA’s future exploration plans, the planning status of NASA’s new Space Technology Programs, and the three new Centennial Challenges.

The Forum Agenda shows that Andy Petro will announce the new Centennial Challenges. There will also be a discussion of Centennial Challenges from 9:30 to 11:00 on Wedneday, July 14.

Other topics on the agenda include:

• Technology Demonstration Missions
• Flight Opportunities
• Franklin Small Satellite Subsystem Technology
• Edison Small Satellite Missions
• NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC)
• Space Technology Research Grants
• SBIR/STTR
• Game Changing Development
• Partnership, Innovation & Commercial Space

Here's a presentation that explains NASA's Space Technology program (PDF) in the context of NASA's overall efforts, including exploration. NASA's FY2011 budget proposal also includes details in its Space Technology section (PDF). The forum will undoubtably provide many more interesting details.

Prize Roundup: Lunar Lander Teams Still At It, Resistance to Prizes, Oil Cleanup Prize, Moon Art

Multi-million Dollar Oil Spill Cleanup X PRIZE Announced at TEDxOilSpill - TEDxOilSpill.com
Official Statement Regarding Oil Spill Clean-up - X PRIZE Foundation - Just to be clear on where that competition stands:

The X PRIZE Foundation is considering, but has not yet developed, a multi-million dollar competition to help alleviate the effects of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #25 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

2010 NASA art contest winners - Space for All

It's good to see all sorts of activity from former Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams continue:

Armadillo Aerospace Mod flight with roll vane - RLV News

More printed Motor Progress - Unreasonable Rocket

New Sponsor: The Graphite Store!
Team Phoenicia Needs You! - Team Phoenicia

@mastenspace: Students: Want to intern this fall with @mastenspace? Applications due Sunday! http://masten-space.com/internships.html

Why is there resistance to prize funds? - Knowledge Ecology International