Prize Roundup - Arkyd Hosting CubeSats, EuSPEC, Aerial Robotics, New Physics Prize, More

A Spacecraft Within A Spacecraft (link from NewSpace Watch) - Planetary Resources announces that each of their Arkyd 100 spacecraft will be able to deploy a CubeSat, and that they will hold a competition for one of them: 

Planetary Resources is proud to support this community by providing a 1U Cubesat spot to the public – free of charge – through its Arkyd CubeSat Challenge. And, best of all, our online community – YOU – will help to select the winner! ... In the coming weeks, we will be announcing additional information regarding the Challenge’s structure, requirements, and timeframe. Stay tuned here for more details.

EuSPEC 2012 planning well underway… - Space Elevator Blog on the 2012 European Space Elevator Challenge

Citizens In Space - SpaceHack

2012 International Aerial Robotics Competition - This is being held in Grand Forks North Dakota (July 31-August 3) and Beijing China (August 7-9)

Russian tycoon kicks off physics prize with $27 million in awards - Cosmic Log

Life Technologies to Compete in $10 Million Archon Genomics X PRIZE - X PRIZE Foundation

Here's a prize-related Kickstarter project that successfully met its funding goal: Atlas: A Human-Powered Helicopter for a Historical First! - A helicopter, powered solely by the pilot, designed to achieve one of the greatest challenges in aviation history: the Sikorsky Prize.

Space Prize for DBAs, Copter Ropes, Sample Return Sponsors, Radical Benefit, Lots and Lots of Student Competions, More

Potential Sponsors for Competitors - Sample Return Robot Challenge

WPI Receives Accreditation for First-in-the-Nation Robotics Engineering Undergraduate Degree Program -Worcester Polytechnic Institute - WPI's management of the Sample Return Robot Challenge, the Regolith Excavation Challenge win, and FIRST Robotics competitions are all mentioned.

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NASA Sponsors 2011 Western Region Robotics Competition - NASA Ames

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Here's some recent information from the X PRIZE Foundation:

Welcome to the Blog - Archon Genomics X PRIZE:

... our team will be making a major announcement regarding this PRIZE on October 26, 2011 in New York City. 

@PeterDiamandis: Great #xprize benefit, just recovering! Thanks to @wendySchmidt, @JamesCameron and @AliVelshi for amazing help. $2.7M raised to fund XPF!

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Mars Education Challenge Webinar #3 will be held by David Black - Explore Mars - The webinar will be held on October 24.  Also: 

Over the next couple of months, Explore Mare plans to have all of the other MEC winners present their materials in special webinars to help guarantee that these materials are as widely distributed as possible.  We hope that these education webinars will also build up excitement about the 2011-2012 Mars Education Challenge was launched in September 2011.

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Gingrich calls for privatizing human spaceflight - Space Politics - Prizes are featured in Gingrich's proposal.

Newt Gingrich calls Space Launch System “disgraceful” pork - Space Frontier Foundation

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Student Rocketeers Wanted for World’s Largest Rocket Contest - The Aerospace Industries Association announces that the Team America Rocketry Challenge is open for registration.

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The following are all from Space for All:

NASA announces two microgravity contests for students - This is for the latest DIME and WING competitions.
IAA student art competition results
Jim Baen memorial contest for manned space sci-fi short stories
Reach for the Stars National Rocket Competition results

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SpaceVision 2011 - includes student biz plan competition - RLV News

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Military dangles prize for helicopter fast-rope solution - MSNBC: 

Problem-solvers must create a device — added to or replacing a glove — that has enough grip on a "FAST" rope for a controlled descent by someone weighing 300 to 400 pounds with gear. It must also somehow dissipate the heat that builds up from the friction between glove and rope, and allow Special Forces operators, soldiers or Marines to fire their weapon as soon as they touch the ground.

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Database Admins! Red Gate Wants To Send One Of You INTO SPACE - TechCrunch

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E. Coli Testing Technology From Yale Engineers Could Save Thousands Of Lives - Huffington Post: 

Weber told The Huffington Post that a prototype is still a year or so off, but the team's design was promising enough to take top honors at this year's NASA Tech Brief Engineering competition. It beat out 900 other designs from 50 countries for a $20,000 prize.

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NASA, NIA Announce 2012 Student Rover Contest - SpaceRef on the RASC-AL (Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage) Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge

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10/15/2011: More Tether Testing - SpeedUp 

... our team will be making a major announcement regarding this PRIZE on October 26, 2011 in New York City.

Roundup: Lunar Prize Site Map, COMPETES Signed, Space Art, Masten Mud, More

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #39 - Luna C/I

Google Lunar X PRIZE Proposed Landing Sites - EvaDot

LaserMotive: 2010 Year In Review - LaserMotive

COMPETES Passage Keeps America's Leadership on Target - The President signed the America COMPETES Act yesterday, so the Office of Science and Technology Policy reposted comments by John Holdren made when it passed Congress.  Here's an excerpt:

And in a great boost for the cause of generating novel solutions to tough national problems, COMPETES gives every department and agency the authority to conduct prize competitions. Prizes and challenges have an excellent track record of accelerating problem-solving by tapping America’s top talent and best expertise wherever it may lie. The Administration has supported this approach as part of its all-hands-on-deck approach to stimulating innovation, and under COMPETES we can expect a further blossoming of new ideas from citizen solvers across the land.

Challenge.gov in long tradition of giving prizes for solutions to tough problems - The Washington Post

@LRO_NASA: Suuuper cute. Winners of space science art contest for grades 2-4. http://fb.me/CEDznEpZ

@genomics_xprize: Genomics X PRIZE Advisor, Leroy Hood wins $500k prize 4 "for automating DNA sequencing that revolutionized biomedicine" http://bit.ly/dROa4E

Crawley wins National Academy of Engineering’s Gordon Prize - MIT News

It looks like my college dorm's field after a Rugby game:

@MdlRcktScientst: Getting ready to attempt a hold-down test. In the mud. Awesome. http://twitpic.com/3n2w6q

@ConradAwards: Conrad Foundation and Constellation Energy Group give students a new chance to win http://pitch.pe/114727

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

Prize Roundup - May 4, 2009

Here are some recent Twitter posts:

NASAPrize:

Plans approved for 2009 Lunar Lander Challenge. Open period from July 1 through October 31. Open location.

You can comment on the Green Aviation Challenge rules at http://tinyurl.com/ck2qjw (go to Appendix A)

(Note: The CAFE Foundation site seems to be down at the moment, so I can't confirm the previous link).

Pomerantz:

I've got an article up on the Huffington Post about the @FIRST09 Robotics finals. Please check it out & spread the word! http://bit.ly/4k7FI

PeterDiamandis:

Taking the redeye to NYC tonight for 3 days of meetings. Giving keynote address at American Farm School... "space, tech and farming...

Here's a brief writeup of the anticipated talk tonight (on page 9): The Sower Issue 163 (PDF)

Holding a two-day X PRIZE Board of Trustees meeting ... Great group of Board members... Jim Gianopulos, Ratan Tata, Pat Soon-Shiong, Arianna Huffington, Ansari Family, Richard Garriott, Adeo Ressi ... Eric Anderson, Bob Weiss, Gregg Maryniak, Larry Page, Diane Murphy, Gil Elbaz, Craig Venter, Jack Bader.

richardbranson: (apparently a follower of NASA_Ames_Web twitter)

Heat, a little space dust and a 3rd win! http://tinyurl.com/cuwzpm

From that blog post:

Eagle-eyed supporters may have noticed we changed the logos a little for this race and the cars sported the Virgin Galactic brand. We have some of the space team in the Gulf talking about our venture to prospective astronauts.

Indeed the GP win was not the only sucess of the weekend - Galactic signed up both Rubens Barrichello and Niki Lauda to be astronauts. While Niki actually wants to learn to fly the spaceship himself.

gtwhitesides:

Heading over to catch the end of the 2009 Arthur C. Clarke awards at the Cosmos Club.

(Note: That tweet was a couple weeks ago.)

Bob_Richards:

Google co-founder Sergey Brin blogs about importance of genetic mapping and @23andMe http://too.blogspot.com/

In the non-Twitter world:

Armadillo engine picts - RLV News

Priory keeps science a priority - Star Bulletin

Plantation teens get head start on rocketry careers - SunSentinel.com

Pittsburgh-Based Astrobotic Technology and CMU Shooting for Moon-Landing Prize - Global Pittsburgh blogspot

Prize Roundup - April 24, 2009

Next Up - A Look at the Next Few Weeks - Washington Post -

The Week of May 15
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy watching a rocket shoot skyward. You also don't have to travel to Florida to see a launch -- just go to Great Meadow on May 16 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the Team America Rocketry Challenge.

Students shoot for the moon in spacecraft contest - Purdue Exponent

Space exploration brought down to earth - JC Online -

While the class opted to buy a commercial rocket for its plan, everything else was designed by the class. ... "It is very realistic, and the challenges are typical of what you will be given in your work," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations, who sat in for the presentation. ... Westerman expects an increase in private space travel, the kind the Google contest is promoting, to happen soon. After graduation he will work at SpaceX -- Space Exploration Technologies Corp. -- a space transportation company.

NASA, Odyssey Moon to Create Robotic Lunar Landers - GearLog

There are also more updates on the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page, including 2 from Odyssey Moon (one including more Engineering TV Bob Richards interview video).

Human genome map for sale on eBay - CNN

Mapping a Human Genome, via an eBay Auction - New York Times (link from X PRIZE Foundation) -

Proceeds will go to the X Prize Foundation, which is offering a $10 million prize to the first group that can sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days at less than $10,000 per genome. There are 17 entrants in the X Prize contest.

TopCoder—Crowdsourcing Software Long Before Crowdsourcing Got Cool - Xconomy Boston -

“The modularity of the problems is a hugely important thing,” Harvard’s Lakhani says. “Only an IBM or an Accenture or a WIPRO could come in and try to create an entire ERP system. But if you break it down into small chunks, and create mini-contests around all of these problems, then you can lower the barrier to participating, so individuals or small teams can do it.”

Another part of the “secret sauce” at TopCoder, Lakhani says, is in the way the company integrates the chunks into finished systems. Not surprisingly for a company that takes competition so seriously, this part is largely outsourced as well, through software assembly contests. The company even handles the quality-assurance phase of software development, through application testing contests and so-called “bug races” (literal races to fix small software flaws, with the winners getting $25 to $100).

Genomics Prices

This is relevant to the Archon Genomics X PRIZE: GENOME PRICES SLASHED - Cosmic Log

Update: ... and for the space purists it features a whole section with investor Esther Dyson.

X PRIZE Anniversaries

The Launch Pad and neXt PRIZE note this date is an important one from an anniversary point of view for space and the X PRIZE Foundation.

X PRIZE Foundation Newsletter

A few days ago an X PRIZE Foundation Lunar News email update went out. I thought this was the XPF-wide newsletter that I think comes out every month or so, but on second look it's an XPF space newsletter.

The XPF-wide newsletter arrived Friday. It has link and picture-filled news items on the renewable aviation fuels prize investigation, the XPF and BT partnership, the Launch Pad space blog, cities interested in being on the Automotive X PRIZE race route, an interview of Genomics X PRIZE Senior Director Marc Hodosh, and XPF board member Diane Murphy joining SpaceX.

I recommend subscribing to both newsletters.

Genomics X PRIZE and Personal Genome Services

Marc Hodosh on KTLA - X PRIZE Foundation - This video features Marc discussing the Archon Genomics X PRIZE and 23andMe, a "personal genome service". Apparently this is helping to get the personal genomics legal regime defined ...

Genomics and Automotive X PRIZEs

From the X PRIZE Foundation News Scroller:

X marks the spot in oil crisis - NY Daily News - The article describes the good timing of the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE as airlines and auto manufacturers take big painful measures to survive high fuel costs.

Turning personalized medicine into reality - SignOnSanDiego.com - The BIO International Convention is happening in San Diego, and that's a good time to feature the Archon Genomics X PRIZE, which the article does along with other progress in genomics. Marc Hodosh represented the Genomics prize yesterday at the CA Pavilion.

Can a Car Save You $1,300 a Year? Cars That Get 100 MPGe Can, and They're Being Built Right Now - insurancenewsnet.com - So, how would you use $1,300/year if you could save that much on gas?

Zero Science

Map reading secrets may yield $10m, innovations - Nashua Telegraph.com (link from X PRIZE Foundation news ticker) - covers Genomics X PRIZE Team ZS Genetics, which works with the Hubbard Center for Genome Studies at the University of New Hampshire. It explains the "reads" that ZS's system does during genome sequencing. It sounds like going for the prize is right for ZS Genetics because it aligns well with what they need to do to make their product, and it works well for UNH, too, because winning the prize would be good press and "cool", which is important if you want to attract good students and researchers.

Popular Mechanics DNA Day X PRIZE Article

Inside the Forgotten X Prize—the One That Can Save Your Life - From the title, it seems like Popular Mechanics doesn't think the Archon X PRIZE gets enough attention. This article lets you know some of the potential benefits of the prize for the general public, and features some pictures and descriptions of one of the teams' sequencers, the Polonator.

ZS Genetics goes for Genomics Prize

From the X PRIZE Foundation news ticker, here's a press release about ZS Genetics going after the Archon Genomics X PRIZE.

I should mention that, although it's not about the prize, Cosmic Log has an article about National DNA Day that covers similar terrain. As I've mentioned in an earlier post, the Archon prize is celebrating with the St. Louis Science Center.

Genomics Prize Progress

TMC Net has an article has gathered a news article that shows some of the progress by teams working to win the Archon Genomics X PRIZE. It seems like quite a competition:

In February 2008, Illumina claimed to sequence a human genome in four weeks for $100,000, only to be outdone five weeks later by its competitor, Applied Biosystems (ABI), who announced the sequencing of a whole human genome for less than $60,000. ABI also mentioned that their next-generation DNA sequencer is capable of generating up to nine gigabases per run, which is the highest throughput reported to date. Also in February 2008, Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) presented a revolutionary technology that within 5-years could produce a three-minute raw sequence, and a complete, high-quality sequence in 15 minutes - all for under $1,000. PacBio plans to introduce a sequencing machine in 2010, but an instrument capable of performing the $1,000 whole genome sequencing will not be available until 2013.

Combine this with advances in computing to store and analyze the genomics data that you can pretty much count on, and you have the potential for a profound change on the horizon.

Genomics X PRIZE Videos

As with some of the other prizes the X PRIZE Foundation is managing, Peter Diamandis's blog has videos on the how and why of the Genomics X PRIZE.

I mentioned this in the context of the XPF email newsletter I got yesterday, but this is better because I can link to it. They have a news post about the DNA Day celebration with the St. Louis Science Center and the Genomics X PRIZE.

X PRIZE Foundation April Newsletter

The April XPF email newsletter is out. It has the last month's updates. These include:

• the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE rollout
• news of the XPF's Genomics X PRIZE and the St. Louis Science Center joining forces at the Center for a DNA Day event on April 25
• a reminder about the Google Lunar X PRIZE Summit at the International Space University, including an education competition for ISU students involving designing a GLXP type of mission
• outreach at the National Science Teacher's Association Conference, where the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award was presented
• news of a WIRED Magazine article feature XPF Board member Ray Kurzweil
• and an Google Lunar X PRIZE Lunar Legacy of a Peace Sanctuary design that probably could be seen from orbit.

Sign up for the regular XPF email update on their site, because you aren't getting any of the links or pictures, and few of the details, from my summary.

PacBio Eyeing the Genomics X PRIZE?

The X PRIZE Foundation links to an article in The Ledger that describes the race, in the business world as well as the Genomics X PRIZE, to be able to sequence a human genome for $1,000. Although it reviews several companies, a lot of the article focuses on PacBio, which isn't registered as one of the Genomics X PRIZE competitors. However, the article says:

Pacific BioSciences, which was founded in 2004, says it can make the leap. “If we ever make this work, there would be no other technology applicable in the sequencing field,” said Hugh C. Martin, the chief executive.

Mr. Martin, who previously ran ONI Systems, a telecommunications equipment company, is nothing if not self-assured. “When we’re ready,” he said, “we’re just going to win the X Prize.”

X PRIZE Foundation YouTube Channel Updates

According to the X PRIZE Foundation YouTube Channel, several videos have been uploaded to the channel recently.

• Added yesterday, here's a video directed at the Google Lunar X PRIZE teams where Peter Diamandis describes the BlastOff Story.
• Here's one where the X PRIZE Foundation gives an overview of the Foundation's vision. It gives a quick look at all of the current X PRIZEs (Lunar, Genomics, and although it doesn't have the "X PRIZE" title, Lunar Lander Challenge), hints about future ones (Automotive, Medical, Education, Energy, Global Entrepreneurship), and a look at the one that was won (Ansari).
• This one describes the Genomics X PRIZE, and the reasons for having it, in detail. This one very quickly hints at X PRIZEs related to Water and Nanotechnology, but that's a second in the 5 minute video mainly on the Genomics prize.

I'm not sure how old the videos are, but the YouTube site says the last 2 were uploaded to that site 3 weeks and 3 days ago, respectively.

There are other recently loaded ones that I happen to already have mentioned in earlier posts.

Geneticists in a Candy Shop

Nature Genetics asks numerous geneticists

What would you do if it became possible to sequence the equivalent of a full human genome for only $1,000?

There are as many diverse and useful-sounding answers as geneticists answering the question. Actually, most of them couldn't contain themselves, and gave several different projects they'd like to see happen.