Space Prize Roundup: Elevator Postponed, GLXP LEGO MoonBots, NASA Lunabotics Mining, Conrad Award & AIAA, AUVSI, Apophis Round 2?, NGLLC, GLXP

Here are a few items that happened while I was away:

Space Elevator Contest Held Up - Aviation Week - A technical issue with a helicopter cable system is forcing the Spaceward Foundation to postpone the Space Elevator Power Beaming Challenge Games originally scheduled for this summer at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. ... the problems cropped up during tests of the helicopter-mounted cable system last week.

Review: Space Tethers and Space Elevators - The Space Review (article by Jeff Foust)

Some Regolith Excavation team updates... - Green Cheese Solutions - This post mentions updates from Team Waldbaum, SpaceMiners, and Terra Engineering, which plans to test the BFD (Big Freewheeling Bigger) this upcoming weekend.

@Regolith_Chal - Posted a diagram for the provided communications link, check the FAQ for details. http://regoltih.csewi.org/faq

NASA Announces Lunar Exploration Competition for Students - SpaceRef

NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition - The Lunabotics Mining Competition will be similar to the Regolith Excavation Challenge NASA Centennial Challenge.

Announcing Our 5th Payload, a British Science Instrument... - Odyssey Moon on the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams site - Moonlink has signed up with the International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) to set aside one kilogram of payload capacity on Odyssey Moon’s “MoonOne” lunar lander, to be launched to the Moon in late 2012. Moonlink will be heading up a county wide competition driving innovation in schools, universities, and local industry in the form of a competition to design, build, and fly an experiment to the Moon.

Looking Back, Hopping Forward - Draper Laboratory showcases Google Lunar X-Prize project at Apollo celebration. - MIT Technology Review

NEO News (07/30/09) Impact on Jupiter - Planetary Defense - The prize part of this post is from the Planetary Society. Here's an excerpt: Apophis Mission Design Competition: Last year's successful competition designed ways to tag and track this asteroid. The next step might be to design a mission to send human investigators to explore and characterize a threatening object, such as Apophis.

“Moonbots” Challenges Parent-Child Teams to Conduct Google Lunar X Prize Missions With Lego Robots - Press release from the X PRIZE Foundation - The X PRIZE Foundation, Google Inc., LEGO Systems, National Instruments, and Wired’s GeekDad will announce “MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge” today at National Instruments NIWeek 2009. The new contest will challenge small teams comprised of children and adults to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE ...The competition will encourage the participants to use free software tools such as Google’s SketchUp, LEGO’s Digital Designer, National Instruments LabVIEW, and Google’s YouTube platform to delineate how their entry will be constructed and how their team will function.

moonbots.org - for upcoming information on the competition

@MoonBots - twitter

Enter This Contest and Race to the Moon - GeekDad

AUVSI 2009 International Aerial Robotics Competition Videos and JAUS - I Heart Robotics

SMCPS Receives $100,000 Stem Grant - Southern Maryland Online - The elementary "STEM for ALL" portion of the grant will provide all elementary schools with LEGO Robotics Kits and the resources necessary to offer all interested students a chance to participate on a robotics team at their school. Additionally, an engineering challenge will be designed integrating concepts from the science and mathematics curriculum for third grade students. ... For the STEM 10 engineering course, funds will be used to allow students to participate and compete in the Team America Rocketry Challenge and the Botball Educational Robotics program.

Government Prize Money for Smart Ideas and Technology - Allgov.com - This post points out the following report: Federally Funded Innovation Inducement Prizes (by Deborah D. Stine, Congressional Research Service) (PDF)

Conrad Foundation Announces AIAA As The Official Aerospace Partner Of The 2010 Pete Conrad Spirit Of Innovation Awards - California Space Authority

Masten Space test flights video - RLV News

From Unreasonable Rocket:

Update...
Observations from the fireing
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