August 11, 2008 Roundup

Spider Robinson and Ben Bova win the Heinlein Award - BoingBoing

Lunar Lander team Phoenicia has been blogging quite a bit:

The Wind at Dawn Flight Simulations
A Bit of Progress and Some Quick Thank You's
The Wind at Dawn Drawing
A Little More of The Wind at Dawn
Monday Update

Tohoku University Space Robotic Lab to Develop GLXP Rover - White Label Space

Gingrich’s billion-dollar space prizes - Space Politics - Newt Gingrich responds to the Wall Street Journal call for ideas on how to better the world with $10B: Prizes to Improve Life. His suggestions are all prizes, including some space ones. The details are different, but they're similar to the ones I linked to yesterday. Personally, I'd have to lean more towards smaller, but more numerous (or repeating with a raised bar), prizes similar to the ones the X PRIZE Foundation and others offer now.

McCain’s more detailed space policy - Space Politics - This covers an update to John McCain's formerly brief space policy statement. It's now somewhat more detailed (if still vague on certain specifics about what he'd do if elected). As Al Fansome mentions in the comments, it does mention commercial space and the Google Lunar X PRIZE:

Activity within the commercial sector continues to increase beyond the traditional role of launching satellites. In 2007, the X-Prize Foundation announced a prize of $30 million in a global competition to build the first robotic rover capable of landing on the Moon. Several companies are planning to develop and build spacecraft for space tourism.

It's a generally positive-sounding statement, but it doesn't say what he'd do with commercial space, except as it pertains to the International Space Station. Would he emphasize Centennial Challenge prizes? Space agency use of commercial space services like GLXP-inspired lunar missions, reusable suborbital rockets, crew space transportation services, or commercial space station modules? Would he try to streamline regulations that hamper commercial space? It's hard to tell.