Space Prize Roundup: Poking Fun, Nanosat Launch Seminar, Other Space Florida Prizes, More

Here's a space prize roundup for the last couple weeks:

The Ridiculous Rocket Space Prize - Space for All - In addition to the Ridiculous Rocket Space Prize Facebook event page linked there, there is also a RidiculousRocket Facebook page celebrating the SLS in all of its grandeur.  The image that occurs to me is something like this, but Photoshopped with mighty, if a bit waterlogged and immobile, SLS rockets replacing the columns holding up the bridge.  Or maybe the columns are replaced by barnacle-covered SLS boosters and the road is the SLS core having a rest.  I'm sure someone with graphics art talent and too much free time could do justice to this goofy image.

Team Phoenicia hosting 3rd Nanosat Launch Challenge seminar - Space for All - Team Phoenicia also has some updates:

3rd Team Phoenicia Nanosat Launcher Seminar: Draft Agenda
3rd Annual Team Phoenicia Nanosat Launcher Seminar: Registration Now Open - Team Phoenicia

CubeSats get big - The Space Review - The Nanosatellite Launch Challenge is featured in the article.

CanSat Competition Guide - 2013 - Mission: Sensor Delivery System - Cansat Competition (PDF)

Happy Birthday, GLXP - InstaPom (Will Pomerantz)

Google Lunar X Prize: Hardware Progress - Citizens in Space

The Low-Cost Spacesuit Challenge - Citizens in Space

Space Florida International Space Station (ISS) Research Competition - Space Florida

Space Florida Awards BioCurity $100,000 at Second Annual Igniting Innovation Showcase - Space Florida

Round-up of news coverage of the 2012 Space Elevator Conference - Space Elevator Blog

Prize Roundup: Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundups, Challenge.gov Milestone, NRL CanSat Support, Back of the Napkin, Prometheus ChipIn, Much More

Here are some more Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundups from Nick Azer:

GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE ROUNDUP #6
GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE ROUNDUP #7
GOOGLE LUNAR X PRIZE ROUNDUP #8 - MyMoon

The Google Lunar X PRIZE has brought back an online forum: Google Lunar X PRIZE forums

Here is a sample conversation there: Alright Gentle(wo)men, place your bets!

The Ardusat Kickstarter succeeded, and now Team Prometheus set up a ChipIn site for their Ardusat Test Launch.

NRL Supports 8th Annual CanSat Competition - Naval Research Laboratory

2012 Zero Robotics Tourney Kicks Off Saturday! - NASA Television video on YouTube

Challenge.gov: Two Years and 200 Prizes Later - Cristin Dorgelo for The White House Blog

Space Florida and NanoRacks host ISS research competition - NewSpace Watch - Here is the competition site: International Space Station Research Competition

Weekly Update 8.30.2012 - Space Florida again mentions NASA's RFI on the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge, and suggests that NASA might move ahead with the challenge rules in October.

Weekly Update 9.07.2012 - Space Florida mentions the possibility of TV coverage for the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge

Teenagers Worldwide Invited to Innovate Commercially-viable Products, Services - Spirit of Innovation Challenge: 

The top five teams from each category will travel to the Conrad Foundation’s annual Innovation Summit, hosted at NASA-Johnson Space Center, April 10 – 13, 2013, where they present their innovations and vie for $10,000 next-step grants and commercialization opportunities.

The Back of the Napkin Challenge - Top Gun Maine

NASA sponsors student contest for naming an asteroid - Space for All - The asteroid is the target for the OSIRIS-REx mission.

Centennial Challenges: After the Challenge - NASA Centennial Challenges gives some examples of what happened to competitors after the competition.  The link is from Peter Homer, one of the Astronaut Glove Challenge winners.

Homer Hickam to attend October Sky Festival and Reach for the Stars rocketry competition - Space for All

UAV Demonstrates Utility Of Laser Power - Aviation Week & Space Technology

Galactic Unite awards first scholarships - Space for All

NASA360: Robots, Rocks, and Rovers Premiere! - Sample Return Robot Challenge - In addition to the NASA 360 shout-out, there is a hint of more news coming soon.

2012 CanSat Competition Results

2012 CanSat Competition Winners - American Astronautical Society

2012 Competition Winners - Cansat Competition - This one gives the scores and other details.
2012 Photos - Cansat Competition

Cansat Competition 2012 -- Rocket launch 1
Cansat Competition 2012 -- Rocket Launch 2 - - SandroSalgueiro on YouTube

Student team competes in CanSat Competition - University of Minnesota Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics

Space Prize Roundup: University Rover Challenge, Space Apps, CanSat, High Altitude Astrobiology, More

The University Rover Challenge is scheduled to start on May 31.  You can find a lot more information on the URC Teams page, which links to the sites for all of the teams.  Google Lunar X PRIZE team JURBAN is one of the teams through Johns Hopkins University.

Kevin Sloan interview on the University Rover Challenge - The Space Show

OSTP Sees NASA As Leader In Offering Prizes - NASA Watch

The 6 Space App Challenge winners that want to change the world - DVICE.com

Announcing the Opening of the 2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competition: Winners' Artwork to be Displayed and Performed Worldwide - SpaceRef - See HumansInSpaceArt on Facebook
for examples of the artwork, presumably from previous years' competitions.

5/12/2012: Laramie Rose Free Flight - SpeedUp - I didn't write up the SpeedUp presentation at Space Access because I missed it when there was a change in the schedule there, so I'm glad to be able to link to this.

AISR CanSat Competition - Nina Markham on YouTube

Masten Space fires new Katana engine - RLV News

Briefs: Jordin Kare interview; KSC master plan - RLV News

Citizens in Space opens High Altitude Astrobiology Challenge - RLV News

XCOR announces Lynx suborbital flight winner - RLV News

2011 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court competition finals - Space for All

Space Prize Roundup: TARC 2012, Heinlein Award, SketchUp Models, SpaceApps Global, More

Team America Rocketry Challenge Celebrating Ten Years - Team America Rocketry Challenge - This year's finals for TARC will be held this Saturday, May 12, in The Plains, VA.

TARC Update: If you can't make it to the event, you can use twitter hash tag #TARC12 to follow it.  The @RocketContest twitter account will likely have updates. 

2012 Google Model Your Town Competition - Google SketchUp - The winning team for this year's competition using the modelling tool often integrated with Google Earth will be announced on May 15.  It's not clear whether this competition will be continued in future years, as Google SketchUp will become part of Trimble, well-known for its GPS products.

Space Foundation Student Art Contest Winning Artwork Bounces Off the Moon - SpaceRef

Glasgow school wins 70cm CanSat launch competition - Southgate Amateur Radio News

Stanley Schmidt Wins 2012 Robert A. Heinlein Award - Science Fiction Awards Watch - This award is not to be confused with the Heinlein Prize managed by the Heinlein Prize Trust or the National Space Society's Heinlein Award.  This one is for

outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.

It's also good to see that Science Fiction Awards Watch is back in action, as the original owners were no longer able to maintain the site and it was offline for a while.

Citizen Science Challenge to be unveiled at Maker Faire - RLV News - This in on May 19, which may be a busy day in the space field if schedules hold.

One man's path to space goes through Seattle's Space Needle - Cosmic Log - This involves an Armadillo suborbital flight and the "Space Race 2012" contest at the Seattle Space Needle.

#SpaceApps Global Judging Open Now - open.NASA

Steven Colbert receives NSS award from Buzz Aldrin - Space for All

Video Contest: Why Explore Space? - NASA Watch

Student Prize Roundup: Zero Robotics, Conrad Awards, European CanSat, Genetic Engineering, More

Sparta robotics team tops in U.S. - Asbury Park Press on a top-scoring Zero Robotics team in the semi-finals.  The finals on January 23 will be based on controlling the real SPHERES robots on the ISS.

Semi Finalists - Conrad Awards presents the 80 semi-finalist teams in the Aerospace Exploration, Clean Energy, and Health and Nutrition categories.

Workshop inspires CanSat teachers - ESA Education on preparations for the second European CanSat competition

Thomas Jefferson students win space race - Fairfax Times on a high school student team preparing a CubeSat for launch as a secondary payload on an Orbital Sciences ISS cargo mission.  In spite of the article's title, this isn't part of the sort of competition I usually mention here.  It is part of NASA's Cubesat Launch Initiative, where NASA funds the launch part of the effort.

Space Foundation Student Art Contest - National Space Symposium

Joshua Neubert on the Night Rover Challenge - The Space Show - Although it's not only for students, the interview mentioned the strong interest by university and other student teams in this Centennial Challenge.

NASA-Supported Student Team Wins at International Genetic Engineering Contest - NASA

Space Prize Roundup: Shredder Challenge, Cost Saving Idea, Nanosat Allied Org, LEAG, more

This isn't a space prize, but it's an interesting one nonetheless: the DARPA Shredder Challenge.

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White House Selects NASA Idea for Savings - Lori Garver at NASA discusses the NASA finalist for the SAVE Award.

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YouTube Space Lab Competition Expands Panel of Prestigious Judges: YouTube and Lenovo Tap Renowned Science and Technology Experts to Ignite Students' Interest in Space - press release at CNBC - The new Teachers in Space effort is well represented.

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NASA And Space Florida Small Satellite Research Center Partner In Space Launch Challenge - This is a NASA press release on the long-awaited selection of the allied organization for the $2M Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge


2nd Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar Draft Agenda Updated 11/2/2011 - Team Phoenicia presents the latest update on the schedule for the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge seminar.  This includes Space Florida, NASA representatives, spaceports, potential suppliers and teams, and more.  The seminar is this weekend, and a parallel seminar covers NASA's other Centennial Challenges.

@unrocket: Saturday I'm going to NanoSat conference. I really like this particular Centennial challenge, IMHO best one yet.. (http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/early_stage_innovation/centennial_challenges/nano_satellite/index.html)

Space Florida promises Virgin Galactic payloads - Florida Today shows that Space Florida is keeping busy with space prize activity.  The researcher and payloads for the suborbital flight will be selected using a competition.  Part of the competition will be for Florida university students.

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NASA 2011 OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest - SpaceRef notes that registration is now open for the 2011 version of this contest.

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Teams selected for the 2012 CanSat competition - ESA on the high school finalists for the European CanSat competition

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NASA prepares for moon tourism - USA Today

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Rules have been updated - Sample Return Robot Challenge - WPI

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WSJ Innovator of the Year in Tech award for Elon Musk - RLV News

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Finding Commercial Applications for Laser Power Designed for Space - Space News

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FUTURE MISSIONS OF EXPLORATION AND SCIENCE (PDF)
FORGING INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS I: COMMERCIAL LUNAR EXPLORATION (PDF) - The LEAG (Lunar Exploration Analysis Group) meeting agenda includes X PRIZE Foundation and Google Lunar X PRIZE team participation.

Notables sign letter to Congress in support of Commercial Crew - RLV News - This includes representatives of the X PRIZE Foundation and Google Lunar X PRIZE teams.

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Here is some news about some former Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge competitors, including their latest work and the Carmack 100kft Micro Prize:

Armadillo Stig-A rocket video
Briefs: Armadillo rocket snapshot; New Virgin Galactic vid
Masten Space update
Armadillo Stig snapshot
Briefs: Ben Brockert interview; Derek Deville interview
Briefs: Ben Brockert pt. 2; Ken Murphy interview
Derek Deville's Qu8k rocket in USA Today
Unreasonable composite tank test - all from RLV News

Prize Roundup: 100kft Prize, Crater Finder, Sample Agreement, AIAA Booster Plane, Debris Removal, and Prop Depot Designs, More

The Carmack 100kft Micro Prize - Armadillo Aerospace - Currently one launch attempt is scheduled, the Proteus 7 sounding rocket, at the Tripoli Rocket Association's Black Rock Desert high power rocket event.

NASA Tournament Lab: Open Innovation On-Demand - OSTP Blog discusses NASA's prize and open innovation work, including the recent NASA Tournament Lab announcement of the winner of a contest to create ideas to automate detection of craters.

Competition Shines Light on Dark Matter - OSTP Blog

Team Agreement – For Review - Sample Return Robot Challenge

HeinleinPrizeTrust - YouTube - The Heinlein Prize Trust YouTube channel has some newly uploaded videos of the 2011 Heinlein Prize Award ceremony to Elon Musk.

The 2010-2011 academic year's AIAA Design Competitions include a Low-Cost Access to Space Booster Aircraft, an Orbital Debris Removal Spacecraft, and a Propellant Depot Design and Analysis of Economic Benefit.

The next 2 links are from the Science in School - Competitions page.

Entries wanted for the 2012 European CanSat competition - ESA

Explore the dynamic high-energy Universe – competition for secondary students - ESA - The competition is open to secondary students from "ESA Member States and Cooperating States, Russia and the USA".

A Busy Summer Looms for Masten - Parabolic Arc describes a highlight in a visit to Mojave.

Google Lunar X Prize Appoints New Senior Director - Parabolic Arc presents a press release on the new director of the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

Altius Selected as Finalist for the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition - Altius Space Machines (link from RLV News)

We-Are-Space Video Contest Finalists Now Online - Space Frontier Foundation (link from Space for All)

NASA/Etsy Space Craft winner's work on Atlantis - Space for All

Prize Roundup: Suborbital Sweepstakes, XHab, SFF First Prize, NASA Day, CanSat, More

Students rocket to Cross Plains for hands-on competition - Reporter News reports on the 2011 CanSat competition in Texas.

LaserMotive to Present at NASA Day on the Hill - LaserMotive

@spacehack: The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is open for a few more weeks: http://is.gd/zUyPyj (thx @basilleaf)

SFF Announces $25,000 First Prize for the NewSpace Business Plan Competition - Space Frontier Foundation

NASA Offers Grants For 2012 University Competitions - NASA - This is for the 2012 University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) and Lunabotics Mining Competition.

Students Build Space Habitats at NASA's Johnson Space Center - NASA

Visioneering Workshop 2011: VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE X PRIZE CONCEPT! - X PRIZE Foundation

7-Eleven announces sweepstakes with space prizes - RLV News

KSC Star Trek exhibit sweepstakes offers Lynx ride prize - RLV News

Prize Roundup: OSIRIS-REx, 8-Band Research, CanSat, Mars Rover Challenge, More

NASA has selected the OSIRIS-REx mission to examine asteroid 1999 RQ36 and to bring a sample of it back to Earth as its next New Frontier mission.  The Planetary Society plans to be involved with the mission, including running some contests: 

As stated in the OSIRIS-REx Concept Study Report, Planetary Society "publishes OSIRIS-REx scientist- and engineer-authored articles; creates radio stories and holds interviews with OSIRS-REx personnel; collects names to be imprinted on a microchip and flown to RQ36 and back; runs the contest to name RQ36; holds a Planetfest at the time of asteroid sampling; and features images of RQ36 on the Planetary Society web site, and runs a 'choose your favorite OSIRIS-REx image' contest." 

The latest Space News has an article about DigitalGlobe's 8-Band Research Challenge, which encourages researchers to find new ways to use the data products of DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 satellite 

in topics such as Land Use/Land Cover, environmental monitoring, coastal habitat mapping, feature extraction and mapping, natural resource mapping and monitoring, or other related disciplines. 

The winning papers are now compiled here (large PDF).

It's a big time of the year for student competitions!  The @Lunabotics competition continues later this morning, the Mar's Society 2011 University Rover Challenge will be held from June 2-4 at the Mars Desert Research Station, and the 2011 CanSat Competition in Texas is planned for June 10-12.

Challenge.gov: Mapping Dark Matter - NASA Watch - Also see the SpaceHack page.

Update May 29:

Laurentian students win NASA Lunabotics - CBC News

Draft Rules Available for Review! - Sample Return Robot Challenge (WPI)

Prize Roundup: Phoenicia History, NW Startup Win, Rover Captions, SBIR, More

IEEE Presentation: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Launch Pad - Check out the presentation within this Team Phoenicia blog post.  It has a lot of interesting information about the team.

Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [21] - Team Phoenicia

@LaserMotive: LaserMotive won the NW Startup Demo, beating out some other very good demos.

@MarsRovers: Here are the winning entries from the Oppy caption contest. Drumroll, please: http://on.fb.me/g5WsT0

@jetlab: Students Bounce to the Top at JPL Competition: With rubber band contraptions, leaf blowers, balloons and o... http://bit.ly/hmy1TQ

Internacional Cansat Competition 2011 - coming soon ...

Briefs: Masten Space's SBIR; Rocket City Space Pioneers update - RLV News

Aviation Prize Workshop, ISPCS, Art Contest, Pop! Tech, Much More

@NASAPrize: Brainstorming session for future aviation prizes in Hampton, VA was well attended with lots of good ideas and insights. Thanks to all.

The conference Aviation Unleashed included the Aviation Unleashed Centennial Challenge Prize Workshop that I'm sure was the brainstorming session mentioned above. The conference also included the Edison2 Progressive Automotive X PRIZE team.

@nss: Tell kids/teens 10-17 to enter NASA art-music contest on Human Space Flight: www.humansinspaceart.org. Deadline Dec. 3.

a CanSat that points to the sun. - CanSat DeSoto team on YouTube

Weekend Update - Unreasonable Rocket

Astrobotic gets NASA grant for prototype lunar mining robot - RLV News has more details about the phase II SBIR award I mentioned Monday.

Registration Open for NASA’s Great Moon Buggy Race - Parabolic Arc

Richards & Moon Express - RLV News

ISPCS 2010 update #2 - RLV News - I'm just picking 1 of many posts on the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. You'll find a lot of discussion involving past and present prize teams (e.g.: Armadillo, Masten, Rocket City Space Pioneers) and other related topics from these posts. This one in particular gives a twitter link that will keep you busy.

@sedsusa: SEDS Video Contest official contest end date is in two days. Get your submissions in! http://tinyurl.com/SEDSVidAd

@ad_astra2: Great #XPRIZE session at #poptech today, but secretly wish I could have helped w the weather balloon launch! #spacetweep

Using prizes and challenges to drive innovation - Pop! Tech blog

@NASA_Technology: The Weightlessness of Creativity @Etsy Blog http://goo.gl/1Gac featuring @NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg. Have you submitted your Space Craft?

@glxp: Please welcome our newest #glxp team to Twitter: @Moon_Ex!

NASA Awards Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Contracts! - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration discusses the recent lunar engineering data news.

@ISS_NatLab: Discussion: Microelectronics & competitions like FIRST will blur lines between what students & traditional researchers can do on ISS.

Student Competitions: Suborbital Researchers Competition, CanSat-France, SEDS Video Ad, Lunabotics, TARC Internship; Plus Altius, Unreasonable, more

@Suborbi_Science: NSRC-2011 registration is now open http://nsrc.swri.org/ !!

The 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference includes a student contest sponsored by Masten Space Systems. Here's the contest flyer (PDF). The contest site includes lots more details, but here's a brief summary from that site:

The competition is divided into two categories, i) a proposed experiment to fly in the microgravity environment of a suborbital flight, open to teams and individuals; ii) an essay on the benefits of suborbital spaceflight...

@sedsusa: Good at editing videos? Check out the SEDS Video Ad Contest! Now with flier http://tinyurl.com/VidAdFlier , http://tinyurl.com/SEDSVidAd

@b0yle: Great to hear "Case for Pluto" is a finalist for AAAS prize. But @RebeccaSkloot will be hard to beat. #honor2bnominated http://bit.ly/cqeu8F

@NASA_Lunar: University students: compete to design a rover for NASA! Lunabotics is on for the spring: http://bit.ly/avp6eZ

@teamprometheus: The humble new home of Team Prometheus! Lot's of work to do! Nice high ceiling and very long! http://fb.me/BH0GPvoy

First test part in the bag - Unreasonable Rocket

Altius Space Machines new blog and first contract - RLV News

The CanSat 2011 competition is underway - Enjoy Space - Just so there is no confusion, since there are a lot of CanSat competitions, this is about the CanSat-France Competition.

Intern: Team America Rocketry Challenge (Rosslyn, VA) - Washington, DC craigslist internship listing

Use contests effectively! - Advice Unlimited

CanSat 2011 Guide, Google Lunar X PRIZE Summit, More

2011 Student CanSat Competition will be held June 10-12 in Abilene, Texas. - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Penn State chapter:

The mission for 2011 will be to launch an autonomous CanSat with a deployable lander containing one large raw hen's egg. ... The official web site http://www.cansatcompetition.com has been updated with a revised Competition Guide, application forms, photos from previous competitions and names of the 2010 winning teams.

Cansat Competition Guide 2011

Here's a good place to start if you want to know what's happening at the Google Lunar X PRIZE summit and you're not there:

GLXP Summit this week
GLXP Summit updates
GLXP Summit updates (not a repeat of the previous link) - RLV News

That's a lot, but if even that isn't enough, since not everyone is using the hashtag, you could also try some Google Lunar X PRIZE twitter accounts to supplement this. You'll have to figure out which Google Lunar X PRIZE tweets are from the summit, of course.

Tanks the other hard part - Unreasonable Rocket

Supporting Commercial Space at NASA - LaserMotive

Here are a few non-space prize updates:

SolSource Wins! ~ Scot Frank's 500K Euro Check - Maximizing Progress - From the Green Challenge site:

Scot Frank has won the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge 2010 for the affordable portable solar concentrator SolSource.

Grand Forks lands international UAS competition - Grand Forks Herald

GE's Open Innovation Ecomagination Challenge involving $200M in investments finished its first phase on September 30. From their blog:

We’ve pledged to announce the idea that received the most votes by October 7th, and to announce the innovation award winners by early November. Given the large number of entries, we need time to properly evaluate business plans and determine those for investment, commercialization or other potential partnerships.

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.

CanSat Competition 2010 Results

Here's information on the results from the 2010 CanSat Competition:

IIIT-H's team Mission Gaganyaan wins CanSat 2010 - SiliconIndia

City lad part of team to bag first prize at CANSAT-10 - The Times of India

From the official site:

2010 Photos
2010 Winners

IIIT Hyderabad's Photos - Cansat 2010 - This is from the team's Facebook page.

Team IIIT-H at CanSat 2010

Queen's Space Engineering Team - This team came in 2nd place. It has also been a contender in the Space Elevator Games.

Prize Roundup: Falcon 9 Congrats, Cansat 2010, Model Your Town, Armadillo Restart, More

Winners of Panoramio Contest of March 2010 - Panoramio's Blog

There are far too many posts and tweets from people in the space prize community on the successful Falcon 9 flight to cover here. I'll just give a small sample of tweets here:

@PTScientists: Congratulations #SpaceX for the first succesful launch of Falcon9 ! :-) It's an important day for the GoogleLunarX-Prize #glxp #space

@PeterDiamandis: Against all the odds, SpaceX has pulled off the 1st Falcon-9 flight. This will herald a new era of private launch at a much reduced cost!

@Way to go Spacex!!!!! - Unreasonable Rocket

@Eurospaceward: August 6-8. 2010, Japan University Futawa Campus, Japan SE Technology and Engineering Competition JSETEC regulations up at http://jsea.jp/

@glxp: Are you 10-17 yrs old? Share your vision of future human space exploration in this art competition: http://bit.ly/drPLu9 (via @lealem)

@TeamPrometheus: I posted 28 photos on Facebook in the album "Ah oh what's this?" http://bit.ly/9OITul

@Doug_Comstock: Discussing technical objectives of next Centennial Challenge prize competitions at NASA HQ today, plan to announce 3 new competitions soon.

Armadillo - 2000ft boosted hop, engine shutdown/restart, safe landing - RLV News

Some Data - Unreasonable Rocket:

As I've said several times this year, I currently have more rocket time than rocket $, I can continue to do interesting things with my leftover LLC hardware, but it does not match the far end goal. The far end goal is a 100Km 5Kg payload rocket that is reusable and can be reproduced for less than 10K.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #20 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration
Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #21 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

8 Scientists Share $3 Million in Prizes - The New York Times covers this year's winners of the Kavli Prize, including the one in astrophysics.

This is from a few weeks ago: Google announces the winner of their "Model Your Town" competition - Google Earth Blog

The 2010 Annual Texas CanSat Competition is scheduled for June 11 - 13 in Amarillo, Texas.

Cansat 2010 preliminary design - Student Space Programs Laboratory

According to POTROCS,

The CANSAT event this year will be an non rocket event. The CANSAT's will be dropped from a helicopter. This change is necessary because of the wheat harvest in the Wayside area.

Team Phoenicia keeps up its recent surge in posts with pictures:

Material Science Testing
How to Get Purty (part 8)
How to Get Purty (part 7)
How to Get to Purty (part 6)

Prize Roundup: GLXP Deadline, Centennial Challenges Move, Heinlein Prize at Rice, TARC, LEEM CanSat, Moonbuggies, LASER, more

1-Year Deadline Extension Proposed for Google Lunar X Prize - Space News

Draper, MIT Students Test Lunar Hopper with Eyes on Google Prize - Space News

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #14 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

NASA To Lead Way With Lunar Robotics, Mining? - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

NASA Open Government Plan - Centennial Challenges (PDF) - NASA

$15,000 Heinlein Commercial Space Award - HeinleinPrize.com - You can see the full set of prizes at the Rice University Business Plan Competition, including multiple space prizes, here.

Great Moonbuggies at Marshall Spaceflight Center - Space for All

Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Program Assignments (PDF) - NASA - The Centennial Challenges program is one of the new MSFC responsibilities.

LASER '10 - The Space Elevator Blog reports on the Lego® Bricks Activity and Space Elevator Race.

MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge - This is on Facebook.

World’s Largest Rocket Contest Finalists Revealed for May 15 ‘Fly Off’ - AIA News 2010

Here are several posts on the International CanSat Competition:

DeSoto is awarded 2nd Prize.
DeSoto in the 2nd International CanSat Competition.
Opening ceremony of 2nd Int. CanSat Competition.
Finishing preparation for 2nd International CanSat Competition

That's for 1 team's experience. Here's an overview of the competition:

1st All You CAN Fly! Competition - LEEM

Weekend Twitter Update: Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundups, Madrid CanSats, Space Show, Beam Power Competition

@LunaCI: Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #12: http://is.gd/aVlDU Pretty active week around the GLXP :)

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #13!: http://is.gd/bc3Fj

@PTScientists: http://twitpic.com/1cvhky - I've got a cool new Jogging shirt! Thanks #SpaceX :-)

@glxp: "This is not your father's moon": NewScientist article on the state of lunar science http://bit.ly/d1AKUY (thx @iamjem)

@TeamPrometheus: Going back to Calli! With three launch Goals! Lander, Rockoon and Amatuer Altitude record! Not coming back to Texas... http://bit.ly/8XLjJd

Here's a couple Space Show interviews with prize themes (of course the interviews cover a lot of other ground, too):

Peter Homer - March 19th, 2010 (Astronaut Glove Challenge)
Dr. Paul Dear - March 26, 2010 (N-Prize)

The Space Elevator Games are still active:

Vertical no more - LaserMotive

Space Elevator Blog celebrates its 4 year anniversary - Space Elevator Blog

The McGill Space Elevator Team site has a new look. They're in the game for the 2010 competition:

We are currently working hard to finish our climber and power beaming laser system for the upcoming competition scheduled for May 2010. Be sure to visit our blog for frequent updates.

Lunar payloads for sale - Dispatches from the Final Frontier

CMU researchers aim for the moon by developing lunar rover - Pittsburgh Business Times

ECO-MARATHON ULM in Vichy - This is s competition for flying as far as possible using as little energy as possible.

2nd International CanSat Competition - DeSoto: ESA´s CanSat competition.

Weekend Prize Roundup: FAR Results, Electric Aircraft Prizes, UROC contests, more

@alias_amanda: Successful tethered test with @unrocket's Blue vehicle. They are moving to another pad for a higher flight (1200 ft?)

http://twitpic.com/19vxac - There was an in-flight abort at 100+ ft. Vehicle fell to ground.

@wikkit: Super boring rocket video. I know you're all sick of them. :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKfnhjdE2wY&fmt=22

@mattcannella: http://twitpic.com/19xq2x - Great Pic our rocket Xombie (@MastenSpace), & the @unrocket blue-ball rocket on the same pad! Bummer day for blu

@ad_astra2: RT @Xconomy Lindbergh Grandson Launches Incentive Prizes for Advances in Electric Aircraft and Green Aviation http://xconomy.com/?p=69372

Here's an excerpt:

The four LEAP awards, which have yet to be funded, will be awarded annually at the EAA’s annual AirVenture “fly-in,” the popular air show held each July in Oshkosh, WI. ...

Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) - Space for All

I should also mention some items on the CAFE Foundation, another organization with ties to EAA and electric/green aviation:

Eco-Marathon an Echo of the Green Flight Challenge - CAFE Foundation Blog - This relatively new blog has quite a few other posts, too.

The 2010 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium - CAFE Foundation - The dates are April 23-24.

TeamPrometheus: Gimbal control module! Very simple and effective! http://bit.ly/aR2EcT

Space Policy Essay Competition - Space for All

NorthWest Entrepreneur Network Panel Features Tom - LaserMotive

WPI By the Numbers - Worcester Polytechnic Institute

New meeting - DeSoto: ESA´s CanSat competition.

January 2010 Meeting Minutes - UROC.org - The Utah Rocket Club minutes cover Utah TARC entries and the club's Pioneer contest. They will also be involved with NARAM 52 in Pueblo, CO, and hope to help with rocket contests there, too.