Idea Connection list, Dave Masten and FREDNET, International Cansat, SLI, What If?, and more

@TeamPrometheus - Tommrow we start on 2 new landers for Frednet! I'll post when we go Live on livestream. http://bit.ly/8wEv2s

David Masten Intro - FREDNET forum:

The particular tasks I've volunteered for are to do a trade study on liquid propulsion systems for the lander and bus, and then trade on the idea of a single stage or two stage approach. After that, I think I need to get with the lander folks and ask for some changes, and start in on the TLI stage design and engine designs.

Idea Connection has a list of Open Innovation Success Stories that includes several NASA Centennial Challenges:

Xoie - Reusable Rocket (Masten and the Lunar Lander Challenge)
Otis (LaserMotive and the Beam Power Challenge)
NASA uses Open Innovation Contest to develop Moonraker (Paul's Robotics and the Regolith Excavation Challenge)
Open Innovation: Astronaut Glove (Peter Homer and the Astronaut Gove Challenge)

Other prize competitions are also included in the list.

@GoZeroG - Compete for cash prizes in the What if? Student Competition. Register your 6th, 7th, or 8th grader at http://bit.ly/5W2sPH

The 8th Continent Project Business Plan Competition 2010 - Colorado Space Coalition

@NASA_Ames - Design your Space Settlement (6-12th graders, D/L March 31st) http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/ .:. 70s inspiration: http://is.gd/6cUHa

@tedprize - Can Oceans Survive the Human Appetite for Seafood? Sylvia Earle on "Talk of the Nation" http://bit.ly/6GQqtV

Alliances Takes us Back to School with the Newly Launched X PRIZE Lab at UW - neXt PRIZE

Rocket Boys volunteer remembered by co-workers - Al.com

Once Upon a Time, There Was a Rocket - NASA on the Student Launch Initiative

Mars Experiment Design Competition winners - Space for All:

... The competition invited Florida middle and high school students to design scientific experiments to send to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah in March 2010. ...

8th-11th April 2010, Madrid, Are you ready for it? - International Cansat Competition

Ciaraldi on Award-Winning Robot Team - Worcester Polytechnic Institute Computer Science

Moon Society Essay Contest, Prometheus Interview, Innocentive Challenges, Take Back Space, NASTAR Patch, More

@TeamFREDNET Our partners @teamprometheus hit the frontpage on @SpaceFellowship: ... Upcoming Tests, The N-Prize and the #GLXP http://is.gd/655jg

Apollo 13 - 40th Anniversary Essay Contest - Space for All

More 3D models added, with many more on the way - Google Earth blog mentions the "Model Your Town" competition in this post.

Take Back Space 2010 - Space Frontier Foundation - One of the items on their Capitol Hill agenda is "Increased funding for the Centennial Challenges space prize program".

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #6 - Luna C/I

Educate to Innovate: A Student’s View - OSTP Blog

Here are 4 new InnoCentive prize challenges:

@InnoCentiveCEO New InnoCentive $20K Challenge: Small-scale River Turbines for the Peruvian Jungle http://bit.ly/8XGux4

@InnoCentiveCEO New $20K InnoCentive Challenge: Make Water from Lake Victoria Safe to Drink! http://bit.ly/8O785t

@InnoCentiveCEO New $20K InnoCentive Challenge: Design of a Low Cost Rainwater Harvesting Storage Tank in a Wetland Region http://bit.ly/7aP2mI

@InnoCentiveCEO New $40K InnoCentive Challange: Sunlight/UV-light dose indicator http://bit.ly/6WYbcQ Supported by Rockefeller Foundation

The Progressive Automotive X PRIZE is at the North American International Auto Show announcing news about the plans for the competition this year. Here's some of the news:

@progautoxp RT @speedwaymedia: Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE Chooses Michigan for 2010 Competition Events http://bit.ly/6UeRLu

@progautoxp RT @MISpeedway: Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition to find a 100 mpg(e) vehicle will take place at MIS this summer! #piaxp

@ConradAwards The Conrad Foundation announces 25 finalist teams for the 2010 Spirit of Innovation Awards http://pitch.pe/40915

@NASAWatch ETC's The NASTAR Center Announces Winner of Student Patch Design Contest Outreach Effort #suborbital http://bit.ly/4GnF9X

Conrad Award Scholarships, Brain-Computer Interface Workshop, ISS Formation Flying, Lunar Sample Return, More

@TeamPrometheus SS2S recived the parts we made for the protoshot mark III! http://bit.ly/7tMsdk

@PeterDiamandis here at MIT X Prize event with my friend Bob Metcalf brainstorming BCI prizes

See many more tweets on the Brain-Computer Interfaces MIT X PRIZE Lab workshop at #bcixprize

@progautoxp If you will be @ #NAIAS next week stop by the #PIAXP booth. Learn more about the competition & meet qualified teams. Drive the cars too! #FB

@spacecom Scaled Composites’ Peter Siebold Wins Iven C.Kincheloe Award: Peter Siebold (Photo: Scaled Composites) Cal Poly gr... http://bit.ly/8RM13z

@NASA_Ames DARPA looks to use SPHERES (formation flying test on ISS) for crowdsource experiment http://is.gd/5RwXl

The previous tweet is on a Wired Danger Room article. From DARPA's RFI linked in the article:

DARPA seeks an open-innovation approach to the development of algorithms for the control of the Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) that operate inside the International Space Station. ... DARPA is interested in novel, out-of-the-box ideas for involving vast groups of people in SPHERES algorithm and software development, and potentially operations. Such concepts may involve, for instance, competitions, prize awards, massively-distributed collaborative development, viral campaigns, prediction markets, new ventures ...

An Excellent Scholarship Opportunity for Spirit of Innovation Awards Participants - Spirit of Innovation Awards blog

MAKE visits MicroRAX HQ - Make blog - Beam power team LaserMotive is part of the story here.

Secor Strategies Sponsors & Helps Coordinate NASA Astronuat Glove Contest - Secor Strategies blog

Notional Next Rocket... - Unreasonable Rocket

Google Lunar X PRIZE teams will want to keep an eye on this as the 3rd New Frontiers mission is selected:

New Frontiers Candidates Selected - Future Planetary Exploration blog - One of the candidates is a lunar sample return mission.
More on MoonRise New Frontiers Proposal - Future Planetary Exploration blog
Moon Mission In Running For Next Big Space Venture - Moon Daily

Space Prize Roundup - January 2, 2010

@SpaceFellowship: N-Prize Team 'Anahera Tere' Talk to the Space Fellowship http://su.pr/2NCKju

There will be an X PRIZE Lab workshop at MIT on January 7-8 on Brain-Computer Interfaces (link from @ad_astra2).

Latest Masten Update - Selenian Boondocks

2009 Greater Tehachapi economy - Tehachapi News - Wind farms, hotels, local shops and services, heavy industry - and yes, with nearby Mojave, Edwards, and Dryden - space.

Rising to First Place -- Eureka featured in winning Aviation Week photo contest entry - Up Ship!

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #5 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Singularity U Day 2: After Hours with Peter Diamandis - My Singularity

Briefs: Commercial spaceflight; Lindbergh Prize; - RLV News

Happy New Year! - The Space Elevator Blog

University Group collaborates on Lunar Lander Design - Team FREDNET at the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

@synergymoon: is pleased to announce 2 new Partnering Organisations for 2010: Invento Media Group [... http://bit.ly/7g1zeD

Prizes and the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference ( NSRC)

I just realized that the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) includes a student suborbital experiment contest with cash prizes for University of Colorado and some Space Grant Consortium students. Here's the flyer (PDF).

There are some student suborbital experiment proposal presentations (PDF) on the schedule for the conference. I assume these are competitors in the contest.

One of the talks on Friday from Nicole Jordan of the X PRIZE Foundation and Erika Wagner of the MIT XPRIZE Lab is Prizes as a Tool for Engaging Researchers and Students:

This paper will describe the ways that Incentive Prizes can be used to attract high quality payloads for suborbital research and education missions (REM).

Several Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge competitors are featured:

Improving Mission Flexibility with the Hippogriff Propulsion Module (PDF) - Bob Steinke of SpeedUp.

Science When Flight Rate and Turn Time Don't Matter (PDF) - Michael Mealing of Masten Space Systems

Armadillo Aerospace and Purdue University Student Experiment Program (PDF)

Here's an idea for another student competition: ZERORobotics: a Student Competition Aboard the International Space Station (PDF)

NASA Innocentive Pavilion, Rocketry Award, Google Map Maker Competition, GeoVation, Selenokhod Interview, PT Scientists Twitter, More

@InnocentiveCEO - New $30K NASA Competition on InnoCentive.com! Data Driven Forecasting of Solar Events. http://tinyurl.com/yejas7r

To expand on that tweet, here's the NASA Innovation Pavilion on Innocentive. Currently, the challenges there are:

Mechanism for a Compact Aerobic and Resistive Exercise Device - $20,000
Improved Barrier Layers ... Keeping Food Fresh in Space - $15,000
Data-Driven Forecasting of Solar Events - $30,000

Electronic Rocketeer December 2009 - National Association of Rocketry: This includes a description of a new prize, the NAR High Power Technology Award:

... a $500 award for the NAR member who has demonstrated the most outstanding innovation or accomplishment in a flight project (which flew during calendar year 2009) involving high power rocketry.

Also see the competition information on page 19 here: NAR This is Rocketry (2009) (PDF)

Here's a new twitter account I'll be adding to my Twitter list:

@PTScientists - New post at GLXP. Check us out at the 26C3! http://tiny.cc/8ZLRS

@csf_spaceflight - Centennial Challenges, Spaceport Infrastructure, and Suborbital Science to Receive Funds from NASA & FAA: http://is.gd/5xA0K

@ikluft - Scientific American article on #DARPA Network Challenge, focus on MIT + GTRI, other teams similar http://is.gd/5xHKF

@tedprize - Search for extraterrestrial life gains momentum around the world - http://bit.ly/8OoFzQ

Briefs: Team Selenokhod; 2009 space review; GAO on ISS - RLV News

Google Map Maker Global Competition - Google:

Add the most universities, schools, hospitals and medical clinics with high quality into Google Map Maker, and your efforts will win $50,000 for UNICEF's work empowering young people through technology in your homeland.

The winner also gets a VIP UNICEF tour, a trip to the Google Super Mappers conference, and their content added to Google Maps.

Links: GeoVation, Greenhouse gas world graph, Tiger Woods home - Google Earth Blog - This link collection includes:

GeoVation: GeoVation, the Ordnance Survey-supported community aiming to promote innovative uses of geography, launched its competition in October by asking people to think of how mapping could help address some of the world's big challenges. ...

From the NASA Aeronautics Design Challenges/Competitions page:

NASA Aeronautics 2009-2010 Student Competition Focuses on Rescue Rotorcraft
High school and college students are invited to explore how rotorcraft can be even more effective in rescue operations. ...

To meet rescue and firefighting requirements, the vehicles should be amphibious, carry 50 passengers, and gather/expel water. The University level involves a design; the high school level involves either a design or an analysis of capabilities.

Space Prize Acronym Roundup: NSS via SF, SFF, AAS, GLXP, LCPA, NASA, R&D Mag, PISCES, MAAV (IARC team), E.R.P.S. on MSS and NG-LLC, ISEC, C-MITES

This one isn't new, but I don't recall seeing it before: Astronaut Glove Challenge video

While we're at it, here's one from this year's glove challenge: 2009 Astronaut Glove Challenge
and here's one from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival: Hands in Space.

Taking space science to the streets - R&D Magazine Blogs

The Mission Overview - Major Tom Goes to Hawaii - The winning team from the 2009 PISCES Design Competition, from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, gives an overview of their design for a reusable cargo transportation system to the lunar surface.

SFF planning Capitol Hill campaign for February - RLV News - The agenda includes

Increased funding for the Centennial Challenges space prize program

NASA in need of a major overhaul - Houston Chronicle -

... What's needed is a transformation that encourages an entrepreneurial, rather than bureaucratic, culture. ... Google recently put some $30 million in award money on the table for teams able to land a robotic lunar rover on the moon as part of the X Prize Foundation's efforts to stimulate activity in spaceflight and exploration. Responding to the call have been nongovernment teams from Germany, Russia, China, Italy, Denmark, Romania, Canada and the U.S. This should stand as an indicator of where the NASA mission is headed. ... As NASA transitions to a new, younger workforce in the next decade, let us hope it begins rewriting its rules to inspire these individuals to achieve the sort of successes the X Prize winners are achieving ...

Heinlein Award Balloting - SF Site

LunaTrex name now defunct - The Herald Bulletin

The LCPA Extreme Science Program of the Latino College Preparatory Academy includes rocketry (including participation in the Team America Rocketry Challenge), robotics (including participation in the StRUT Competition involving recycling computers), Aeronautics, and many other science and technology fields.

AAS Imagine '09: Google Lunar X PRIZE by William Pomerantz - Slideshare

Here's a new International Aerial Robotics Competition team: MAAV (Michigan Autonomous Aerial Vehicles).

General Meeting #345 - Experimental Rocket Propulsion Society - From the meeting minutes:

Michael suggested we think about a Pogo Mark2 vehicle capable of performing a Conrad Square (up, hover, translate, hover, land). The recently completed Lunar Lander Challenge (won by former E.R.P.S. President Dave Masten’s company – Masten Space Systems) demonstrated just such capabilities. Unreasonable Rockets (a father and son team) got hardware in the air using peroxide. ...

More YouTube videos - The Space Elevator Blog

My presentation at the 2009 EuroSpaceward Conference - The Space Elevator Blog - The slide presentation on ISEC on mentions some proposed ISEC academic prizes starting in 2010. From the blog post:

... Our next major goal is to get these academic competitions up and running. We are very fortunate to have the two modern “fathers” of the Space Elevator, Yuri Artsutanov and Jerome Pearson agree to have our academic prizes named after them. We have a team of physicists and engineers ready to review the academic submissions. ...

Design an Experiment for the Space Station! – Deadline February 19, 2010 - Teaching with Contests blog describes the "Kids in Micro-g!" challenge:

The ten regional winners, one national winner and one national runner-up winner will have their experiments conducted by the astronauts on board the space station in the April-May 2010 timeframe.

Here are a couple lists of competitions that include space and many other fields:

Innovation Contests - Extended Business Solution - The links in this one aren't working for me, but search engines like Google's should allow you to quickly find the competitions you're interested in.

Links for Parents and Educators - Contests - C-MITES - Carnegie Mellon Institute for Talented Elementary and Secondary Students

Prize Tweet Collection and Some Speculation

@doug_comstock - NASA Year in Review 2009, 15 highlights include IPP's Spinoffs and Prize winning rockets! Vote for your favorite: http://tinyurl.com/NASA09

@ad_astra2 - Yay X PRIZE Lab students!] RT @MITNews: How to spur energy storage innovations (an X-prize maybe?): http://tinyurl.com/ydnc3ak

@fineri - http://twitpic.com/t9mj5 - Suborbital rocket design, many a long night spent on solidworks! good to start building.

@makerfaire - Maker Faire gets sustainability award nomination: We just found out that Maker Faire Bay Area has been nominated ... http://bit.ly/5aHfnE

@AirshipZ - NASA Green Aviation Workshop Report Published ~ Airship Z-Prize project included on page 18 http://ow.ly/LJnI

@lunaci - Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #4 is up! http://is.gd/5tfkc Merry GLXP-mas :)

@unrocket - Going out to far to watch rockets and for xmas bbq and to pick up blue ball.

@lksurley - X PRIZE and Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge mentioned in NASA Year in Review AND Discover lists X PRIZE in Top 100 Stories of 2009.

@soldthemoon - The Science Insider about Obama's decision also says landers and habs go to intl. partners - would reduce NASA interest in GLXP services.

That last one is fun to speculate about. Here's my take on it. The Augustine Committee final report suggested using commercial services such as derivatives of Google Lunar X PRIZE and Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge capabilities in the Flexible Path for some lunar lander components when commercial capabilities have matured enough to enable such components. I could see several scenarios related to the above tweet:

• NASA is seriously interested in lunar surface work, and is just bringing in international participation to allow more overall achievements in deep space and on the lunar surface. In this case lunar robotics derived from the Google Lunar X PRIZE would still be of great interest to NASA. Also, international partners could still encourage commercial participation in the international landers.
• NASA is not interested in lunar surface work, and just wants to check off a few boxes (Earth-Moon Lagrange Points, lunar orbit, lunar surface) on the Flexible Path on its way to more distant destinations. International partners are interested in the lunar surface. In this case lunar robotics derived from the Google Lunar X PRIZE wouldn't be of as much interest to NASA. However, commercial lunar robotics and commercial lunar lander components would be of interest to the international partners building the landers and habs. It's important to remember that the Google Lunar X PRIZE is an international competition.
• NASA is not interested in lunar surface work, and neither are the international partners - or at least not enough to develop astronaut lunar landers. In this case, there is no opportunity for commercial participation in the astronaut lunar lander since it wouldn't be built. However, there still could be enough interest in the lunar surface in NASA and/or in international partner agencies to result in space agency interest in commercial lunar surface robotics, since this would presumably be considerably cheaper than astronaut landers. The work from these robots could result in later increased interest in astronauts on the Moon from the space agencies.
• NASA is interested in sharing costs with international partners, and is seriously interested in the lunar surface, but the partners aren't interested in the lunar lander role. In this case, we are back to the Augustine Committee Flexible Path recommendation with NASA lunar landers involving commercial components.

Full Week Space Prize Roundup

Here's the latest space prize roundup, covering about a week of activity.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #3 - Luna C/I

NASA Centennial Challenges gets funding boost - RLV News

Fate of the Blue Ball.... - Unreasonable Rocket

An Unreasonable flight of the Blue Ball - RLV News

@spacecom: ATV Operations Team Wins Prestigious Gold Medal Prize: ESA's ATV team wins the Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Meda... http://bit.ly/4J0t5P

@NLSI - The talks from the Lunar Exploration and Analysis Group (LEAG) last month are up at http://bit.ly/5YrQiH

Here's an example: Robotic Prospecting, Exploration and Science (PDF) - Whitaker W.

@arielwaldman: Make: The definitive guide to open source hardware projects in 2009: http://is.gd/5kCqq

@NASA_Ames - [News] Students Hone Engineering Skills in Robotics Competition http://bit.ly/6Z4kAU

Check out the "Prizes" tag from Jeff Foust's NewSpace Journal.

@flighthyperbola: UK to have outreach competition for new space agency's logo but the space budget is same as British National Space Centre's

@teslamotors - Win a road test of the 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport, then have your review published in High Gear Media: http://bit.ly/7vPDqe

Money Talks: Cash Prizes Spur Innovation - TriplePundit

Enloe Students compete in NASA Rocket Competition - Wake County Public School System

From the desert to space - COSMIC LOG

@conradawards - Deadline for entries for 2010 Spirit of Innovation Awards is 12/15--ENTER TODAY! http://www.conradawards.org/ #teacher #science #invention

Gallery: Sizing Up the Private Race to Space - Popular Science - Lots of companies and other organizations that won prizes, competed in prize competitions, or offered prizes are featured.

Embry-Riddle offers Scholarships in Science and Technology (PDF) - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - This points out some competitions that students there are encouraged to participate in.

Space Access '010 - Initial Conference Information

Initial 2010 Space Access '010 Conference Info, 12/03/09. - Space Access Society:

The conference will be held from Thursday, April 8 (afternoon) to Saturday April 10 (evening) in Phoenix. See the link for more details. In the past this has been a good conference for updates on the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, N-Prize, and Beam Power competition, among others. The focus is on low-cost suborbital and orbital access to space, with an emphasis on commercial space, entrepreneurs, and small dedicated groups. Government agencies that deal with space are also represented, but most frequently through their interactions with commercial space access efforts. See the link for more details.

Here's a summary of Space Access '09 (with links to summaries for many earlier years).

Prize Roundup: Red Balloons, Patches, Elevator Conference, Google Earth Town Models, Mars Pathfinder Innovation, More

Eurospaceward Space Elevator / Lunar Industrialization Conference

@SEGames I'm here at the 2009 EuroSpaceward conference. Among other topics, we'll get an update on the US and Japanese Space Elevator Games.

@SEGames Jordin Kare (from LaserMotive) and Martin Lades (from KC Space Pirates) are here and will also speak.

@SEGames I'm live-blogging the conference at http://www.spaceelevatorblog.com/

There's a lot more from SEGames twitter - the tweet from a couple minutes ago says Jordin Kare is speaking now. I don't have a hash tag for the conference, but SEGames, Eurospaceward, Ben Shelef, and some of the teams are at my Space Elevator Games Twitter List.

EuroSpaceward Conference - and the future of Space Elevator Development - The Space Elevator Blog

In Luxembourg… - The Space Elevator Blog:

... I’ve been chosen to judge a coloring contest - “How do you Imagine Life on the Moon?” - an event held as part of the EuroSpaceward conference. ...

Conference - Day 1 - and we’re underway - The Space Elevator Blog

As with the SEGames twitter, I've just selected a few of many posts. Check out The Space Elevator Blog for more.

DARPA Network Challenge (Red Balloons) - today!

@ikluft about 2000 people registered for #DARPA #NetworkChallenge - don't forget to have fun! http://stratofox.org/redballoon

@ikluft I made a Twitter list of #DARPA #NetworkChallenge participants that I know of (41 so far) http://is.gd/5cUvW

Update on DARPA Network Challenge: @ikluft Congratulations to MIT Red Balloon Challenge Team for winning. We had 5 right 2 wrong #DARPA #NetworkChallenge

@ikluft updated Stratofox's #NetworkChallenge page: added "How we did" section, credits http://stratofox.org/redballoon #DARPA

N-Prize

@TeamPrometheus 2 Tiny Satellites just arrived at the Rocket Ranch! Photo's tomorrow! http://bit.ly/8lo1ij

More Prizes and Competitions

Model Your Town - Google Earth Blog:

Google has just announced their first-ever "Model Your Town" Competition.

The goal is to get smaller cities to work on building their town in 3D. While every town will likely see their models in Google Earth, the winning town will win $10,000 for its schools, a Google-sponsored party, a video profile of the winning team and some other goodies. ...

See the Google Earth Blog link for a video with some examples of town models in Google Earth.

SGAC together with the UN-SPIDER have designated a winner of the “Disaster Management in the Caribbean” poster competition - Space Generation Advisory Council

NASA Student Launch - Space for All

NASA Moon Work Design Contest - Space for All

@collectSPACE Picking a patch for the program: NASA's employee contest to design a patch for the end of the space shuttle program... http://bit.ly/7iaiO4

Mission to Mars and Red Planet make John Scalzi’s list of worst SF films of decade - Marooned: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror books on Mars - From the Scalzi piece:

The year 2000 saw two competing Mars flicks, which struggled fiercely for the title of Most Likely to Set Back Manned Exploration of Mars by 50 Years. ...

Sci-Fri: NASA and Microsoft launch Martian website, use crowdsourcing to map Red Planet - Marooned: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror books on Mars - The Be a Martian! site includes the 2009 Pathfinder Innovation Challenge. Here are the contest rules (PDF). I couldn't figure out specifically what the various categories of contestants were meant to do from the rules, but the Participation Guide (PDF) explains it. Here's the summary:

... The Inspiration League invites Entrants 14 years and older to develop an episode for "The Martians" video series. Join the Scholarship League if you're over 14 and would like to build a compelling and exciting interactive web application for students and the rest of the world to learn about rocks on Earth and Mars. Entrants over age 18 in the Global Cooperation League will develop fun web games that crowd-source the task of finding and labeling interesting objects in an enormous set of images acquired by the Mars rovers. The Intelligence League challenges Entrants over age 18 to accomplish the same task with autonomous applications that can rapidly detect and label these interesting objects.

Stratofox and the DARPA Network Challenge

This Saturday, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is holding the DARPA Network Challenge. DARPA describes this $40,000 challenge as

a competition that will explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems.

The rules are on the site, but the basic idea is that DARPA will deploy 10 big numbered red weather balloons with official DARPA representatives on site at various locations across the U.S., and the winner will be the one to identify the locations of these balloons. DARPA expects the winner to need to form large, geographically dispersed but communicating teams to be able to find the balloons. There's also the possibility, if "reality TV" is any indication, that some competitors will try to publish misleading information about the balloon locations. Competitors can only submit a limited number of locations, which may make it difficult to simply trust locations that are made public without some sort of confirmation. Other complications and innovative approaches may be revealed on the day of the challenge.

You could see how certain aerospace technology, such as Google Earth or other geographical information systems technology, GPS, satellite telecommuncations, and remote sensing via satellite or airplane (or balloon?) might play a role in this challenge, but the predominant technology may be social media - especially if your team can get thousands upon thousands of people looking with you. The DARPA Network Challenge Wiki covers some possible strategies. Does the space community have the social organization and enthusiasm to get thousands of participants looking for balloons as they go about their regular Saturday activities?

One of the teams registered for the Challenge is Stratofox, a highly skilled amateur "aerospace tracking & recovery team". I've seen a couple Stratofox presentations at Space Access. The team has expertise in finding balloons, but under different circumstances - tracking and recovering high-altitude balloons. They often work with small rocket entrepreneurs and researchers. They certainly play a role supporting the type of innovative work that space prize competitions seek to encourage. Here's a detailed post from Stratofox on what they're doing with the DARPA Network Challenge and how to help them (especially if you see and confirm one of the balloons): DARPA Network Challenge 2009. There are also some twitter posts about it at @ikluft.

Here are some additional general information sources for the Challenge:

@DARPA_News (twitter)
Balloon hunt goes viral - Cosmic Log
Looking for Balloons and Insights to Online Behavior - New York Times: This one notes that we can expect more DARPA challenges in the future:

Dr. Lee said the agency would continue to pursue a number of large and small challenge-style contests to foster what he described as new ways to tap into pools of talented individuals and creative groups.

A Look Back at the Regolith Excavation Challenge

Much More Than We Anticipated, Less Than We Deserved - Big Freewheeling Digger - This is a great summary of what this team encountered at the 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge, including close calls, triumphs, and controveries. Looking ahead:

What next? In the short term, the team has been invited by NASA to participate in a in-situ resource utilization exercise this February. Fortunately, it is in Hawaii so the team can take some much needed rest after their work is complete. In the long term, I have been hoping to enter the NASA power beaming challenge with an approach unlike any fielded so far. ...

Space Frontier Ideas, Student Prizes, Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Action, Earth Prizes

NASA Centennial Challenges

@SpaceFrontier: The Space Frontier Foundation's 2009 submission to NASA for six new prizes to Centennial Challenges. http://bit.ly/6NYtKi

Some of the ideas include the "Explore Space!" student science fair competition where the prize is student access to a suborbital rocket, suborbital point-to-point travel, and a follow-on to the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

The SunBreak on Jordin Kare and LaserMotive - LaserMotive

N-Prize

@TeamPrometheus: Working on the Ground Station! http://bit.ly/5e2XlW

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@synergymoon: Stand tests like this and our first Synergy Moon Flight Test of a Common Propulsion Module are coming up in... http://bit.ly/8owAVX

@whitelabelspace: Steve Allen is back, and just in time!: I'm happy to report that our illustrious team leader Steve Allen has go.. http://bit.ly/8pMFD6

From the linked White Label Space article:

... Steve got back in time to help us put the finishing touches on our most important publication to date! It's a document we are calling the Mission Concept Summary, and it explains the main details of our technical approach to the Google Lunar X PRIZE. We will publish it in the next 24 hours, so stay tuned to this web space!

... New partners are coming on and we also have some top-ranking contributors that we can't talk about yet ...

@arcaspace: After ARCA’s launch attempt of Helen rocket, we received several questions. We listed a short FAQ and their... http://bit.ly/5rdDT1

Moon race 2.0? Count Russia in - RT

2009 Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group: An Official Report - Lunar Networks

Off to find the art side of the Moon - Times Higher Education

Google Lunar X Prize Roundup #2 - Lunar C/I

Student Prizes

@spacehack: New project added to Spacehack: Spirit of Innovation Awards: Aerospace Exploration: http://is.gd/56As1 #students #international

@ConradAwards: Next live Web chat tomorrow 12/1 Laura Schoppe Protecting your Research Project for Commercialization, 3-4 PST http://www.conradawards.org

@Pomerantz: Know some smart HS or College students? RT @bnjacobs: You still have time to register for the Great Moonbuggy race! http://bit.ly/6oBMAn

GIS, Earth Environment and Science

@VerySpatial: We have the Gone Trekking iPhone app to give away http://bit.ly/6gEzKR. Tweet us your favorite trek by Dec 2 for chance to win.

@gisuser: ESRI Canada's Green Roof Wins 2009 Design Exchange Award http://su.pr/4AgAQn

Barrasso co-sponsors bill to create technology contest - Senators copy NASA model for climate change - Trib.com

Google Lunar X PRIZE fans may like these:

@EarthPic: Earth Science Picture of the Day: Crescent Moon and Poseidon Temple http://bit.ly/7SYnip

@EarthPic: Earth Science Picture of the Day: Harvest Moon above the Valley of the Moon http://bit.ly/83KNRI

SBIRS and STTRS; Masten Job; Sample of Google Lunar X PRIZE Updates

@SoldTheMoon NASA awarded Astrobotic two SBIR/STTR contracts today, to study excavation robots and lunar gravity simulations. http://tinyurl.com/ylybmem

Here's the list of SBIR awards from NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program 2009 Phase 1 Proposals Selected for Negotiation of Contracts

There are a lot that sound interesting; I'll just pick a few with a prize spin (either the organization is involved with prizes, the subject matter is related to some prominent space prizes, or both):

Astrobotic Technology, Inc.: Lightweight Robotic Excavation
Grainflow Dynamics, Inc.: Low-Gravity Mimicking Simulants and Evaluation of Simulant Flow
Los Gatos Research: Novel Instrumentation for Lunar Regolith Oxygen Production Facilities
Micro-Space, Inc.: Automatic Solar and Celestial Navigation on the Moon and Mars
Paragon Space Development Corporation: Contaminant Robust System for Oxygen Production from Lunar Regolith
Pioneer Astronautics: Lunar Organic Waste Reformer
Plasma Processes, Inc.: Mass Production of Mature Lunar Regolith Simulant
Ventions, LLC: Regeneratively-Cooled, Turbopump-Fed, LOX/Methane Lunar Ascent Engines

On the STTR side, we have NASA 2009 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Phase 1 Award Selections

Here are some STTR examples:

Astrobotic Technology, Inc.: Scalable Gravity Offload System
Orion Propulsion, Inc.: Carbon Nano-Composite Ablative Rocket Nozzles
ProtoInnovations, LLC (CMU): Reliable Autonomous Surface Mobility (RASM) in Support of Human Exploration

@synergymoon First preparations for Orbital SkyDive..... :) Neb http://bit.ly/07U9pvp

@selenokhod I uploaded a YouTube video -- Selenokhod at Memorial Museum of Cosmonatics, Russian TV cnannel NTV http://bit.ly/07CpWC6

@TeamFREDNET Tomorrow we'll have an internal demo of our Lego Mindstorm setup (http://bit.ly/8d4qEy). Public demo to follow soon.

@colinake I'll miss the people at GTRI, but I'm excited to say I'm taking a full-time gig with @MastenSpace 2 weeks from today! Pumped, I say!

@ConradAwards Next live Web chat 12/1 Laura Schoppe on Protecting your Research Project for Commercialization, 3-4 PST http://www.conradawards.org/