As I posted a couple weeks ago, the Space Show had a program on the Space Elevator Games. The interview was with Ben Shelef. Well, I finally got a chance to listen to the program. The interview covered all sorts of topics on the Space Elevator Games and Space Elevators in general. I'll just post a few brief items, in my words, from the show; the interviews are quite detailed, so you'll need to listen if you want more.
Ben considers the tether to possibly be even more important than power beaming for the space elevator concept. However, the beam power event might be funner for most audience members to watch, and it seems to excite more independent teams. The tether teams tend to be from industry or university engineering labs.
The games will be held at a location that's just 10 minutes from the Salt Lake City airport, so it will be easy for travellers to get there.
I'll post my version of some of the questions, many from listeners, that I found especially interesting, and also summarize Ben's answers:
Q: Will the Space Elevator Games be webcammed?
A: Yes, and they plan to start the pictures a couple days before the games start.
Q: Have they given passes to the local politicians to go to the Space Elevator Games? There's a certain amount of aerospace awareness in Utah with ATK, Smallsat Conference, and universities. In other words, there's already an interest in aerospace.
A: Yes, the politicians have shown interest. Ben expects them to show up, and hopes to form relationships with them to support the concept.
Q: Why aren't the Space Elevator Games being held at the X PRIZE Cup this year? That would make it a lot easier for fans to see both events. Now, with both events physically far apart, and 1 week apart, it will be very difficult.
A: They tried to work this out this year. The Space Elevator cranes are getting taller because of the more difficult challenge height this year. The X PRIZE Cup will be held at an air base with aircraft flying around. There are height restrictions at the base, so they couldn't hold the games there.
Here at Space Prizes, I sympathise with the caller, because it will be much more difficult for me to see both events, too. I have a few thoughts for next year's games. It would be nice to have the Space Elevator Games in association with the X PRIZE Cup both the draw a bigger audience and press, and to make it easier for travellers. Together, if sustained for several years in the same area, they might even be enough to win a Congressional supporter or 2 in NM for increasing Centennial Challenges funding so the Lunar Lander Challenge and Space Elevator Games continue longer, or if the problems are deemed to be solved, new Challenges in these areas could be funded.
The Space Elevator Games wouldn't have to be held exactly at the same time or location as the X PRIZE Cup. For example, the Space Elevator Games could be held in Alamogordo (maybe not on the base ... maybe with the New Mexico Museum of Space History?), or in a nearby city (Las Cruces, El Paso, or even Albuquerque). The X PRIZE Cup is on Saturday-Sunday, and the Personal Spaceflight Symposium is on Wednesday-Thursday, so maybe the Space Elevator Games could be held independently on Friday (which is the X PRIZE Cup education/media day; I think it's more for local students than travellers), or perhaps Thursday-Friday. Another option would be the previous weekend; for travellers willing to go Wednesday-Sunday for the X PRIZE Cup and associated conference, adding the previous weekend might work.
There might be other considerations that make the above options less attractive. However, I still like the idea of combining the Space Elevator Games with other space events. It may be at the wrong time of the year, but it might make sense to have them before or after the 2008 Space Elevator Conference in Seattle. If Utah is a good home for the games, maybe choosing a time that can blend into the smallsat conference in Logan, Utah would work. I could also see the Space Elevator Games working well (except for the timing) with other Centennial Challenges.
Just some thoughts ... I'm sure there are a lot of other factors that go into these types of decisions. I'll either be there anyway, or else checking out those webcams!
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Unreasonable Rocket Getting to that Next Test
Unreasonable Rocket has been busy trying to get to a test with the competed rocket. Details are in the post I'll sleep when I'm dead.
Friday, September 07, 2007
NASA Marketing Contest
NASA Watch points to a contest to pick a better NASA slogan than "NASA explores for answers that power our future" and "Inspiration + Innovation + Discovery = Future". The prize in this fun contest (not a NASA-approved one; don't expect your slogan to be used) is a space DVD of your choice. I'm indifferent to the current NASA proposal, but I thought the detailed bullet points behind it need to be better backed up by NASA's current plans, which to me seem to reduce or eliminate many of the efforts that the slogan is supposed to be based on.
Anyway, my suggested slogan isn't very catchy, but here it is: "NASA: Proud Sponsor of the $50M/Year NASA Centennial Challenges!" (In case you don't get it, they might get $4M this year, which is less than 1/4,000th of NASA's budget, if they're lucky).
Update (Sept 8): The entries (and voting) have moved here.
I've decided on a more serious slogan. Iif you want some more serious ones, or funny ones, or ones that are just lame and in bad taste, you'll see it all on the actual contest sites.
Anyway, here it is:
"NASA: Science, Security, and Economy"
or perhaps:
"NASA: Exploration for Science, Security, and Economy"
or, to include all of NASA:
"NASA: Space and Aeronautics for Science, Security and Economy".
It's not inspirational they way "To Boldly Go" or other similar rousing phrases are. However, I'm not trying to come up with an inspiration phrase. I picked this to link NASA to these 3 goals
that are straight out of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. The VSE Goals section says "The fundamental goal of this vision is to advance U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests through a robust space exploration program".
I'd like to link NASA to these 3 goals in the minds of the public, and perhaps more importantly, to the NASA employees and contractors, from top to bottom. The public, and NASA workers, should wonder what they're doing if their assignment isn't directly related to at least 1 (and preferably 2 or 3) of these goals in an obvious way. It goes without saying that "Economy" applies in the broad, national sense; benefiting the economic interests of a particular state or corporation is fine, but by itself totally insufficient to check off that box.
Although there are 3 components to this slogan, I hope the "food pyramid" shape wouldn't be used to graphically support it ...
Anyway, my suggested slogan isn't very catchy, but here it is: "NASA: Proud Sponsor of the $50M/Year NASA Centennial Challenges!" (In case you don't get it, they might get $4M this year, which is less than 1/4,000th of NASA's budget, if they're lucky).
Update (Sept 8): The entries (and voting) have moved here.
I've decided on a more serious slogan. Iif you want some more serious ones, or funny ones, or ones that are just lame and in bad taste, you'll see it all on the actual contest sites.
Anyway, here it is:
"NASA: Science, Security, and Economy"
or perhaps:
"NASA: Exploration for Science, Security, and Economy"
or, to include all of NASA:
"NASA: Space and Aeronautics for Science, Security and Economy".
It's not inspirational they way "To Boldly Go" or other similar rousing phrases are. However, I'm not trying to come up with an inspiration phrase. I picked this to link NASA to these 3 goals
that are straight out of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. The VSE Goals section says "The fundamental goal of this vision is to advance U.S. scientific, security, and economic interests through a robust space exploration program".
I'd like to link NASA to these 3 goals in the minds of the public, and perhaps more importantly, to the NASA employees and contractors, from top to bottom. The public, and NASA workers, should wonder what they're doing if their assignment isn't directly related to at least 1 (and preferably 2 or 3) of these goals in an obvious way. It goes without saying that "Economy" applies in the broad, national sense; benefiting the economic interests of a particular state or corporation is fine, but by itself totally insufficient to check off that box.
Although there are 3 components to this slogan, I hope the "food pyramid" shape wouldn't be used to graphically support it ...
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Launching Eggs at TARC Wins Over Graduation
This one's a bit old (from May 30), but I like the title. A TARC (Team America Rocketry Challenge) team had to choose between TARC and High School Graduation. TARC won, and they won a "Best School Spirit" award.
More Unmanned Vehicle Student Prizes
Since the previous post on several annual unmanned vehicle student prize competitions, I've put up a section of links on the right hand side for "Unmanned Vehicle Student Prizes". If you're following closely, you'll notice a link "AUV-Europe" (or Autonomous Underwater Vehicle - Europe, if you got the initials from the preceding link) that I didn't mention in the earlier post. I just didn't have time that day for all of them, and this was run by a different organization.
Like the U.S. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition, the AUV-Europe competition is for what amount to robotic submarines. I can imagine future versions of these things working in one of the expected oceans under the ice of an outer planet moon, maybe linked to the surface with a tether for communications. The actual title of the competition is SAUC-E, or Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe. "Planning for SAUC-E 2008 is underway", according to the site. Here are some links that give more information about the challenge:
U.K. MOD Defense News - This article describes the July 2007 challenge for 5,000 pounds. It has several photos, and describes the tasks the 6 teams had to achieve with their underwater vehicles: passing through a gate, making an underwater map, and finding targets. There is no remote control of the vehicle.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology gives an overview of this year's winners.
News Release from University of Southampton - This describes the experience, work, and sponsorship that went into the winning entry this year.
Here's the web site for this year's winning team.
Cambridge UAV (CUAV) gives a report on their 2nd place entry this year, and gears up for next year. You can see a lot more about the team and the vehicle on other pages of the CUAV site.
A member of l'Universite de Nice team gives a personal view, with numerous photos, of what it's like working on a challenge like this, actually going to it (the food, the huge submarine pool, etc), and the suspense at the day of the challenge.
Here's a paper about one of the competitor vehicles, named Nessie.
Like the U.S. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition, the AUV-Europe competition is for what amount to robotic submarines. I can imagine future versions of these things working in one of the expected oceans under the ice of an outer planet moon, maybe linked to the surface with a tether for communications. The actual title of the competition is SAUC-E, or Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge - Europe. "Planning for SAUC-E 2008 is underway", according to the site. Here are some links that give more information about the challenge:
U.K. MOD Defense News - This article describes the July 2007 challenge for 5,000 pounds. It has several photos, and describes the tasks the 6 teams had to achieve with their underwater vehicles: passing through a gate, making an underwater map, and finding targets. There is no remote control of the vehicle.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology gives an overview of this year's winners.
News Release from University of Southampton - This describes the experience, work, and sponsorship that went into the winning entry this year.
Here's the web site for this year's winning team.
Cambridge UAV (CUAV) gives a report on their 2nd place entry this year, and gears up for next year. You can see a lot more about the team and the vehicle on other pages of the CUAV site.
A member of l'Universite de Nice team gives a personal view, with numerous photos, of what it's like working on a challenge like this, actually going to it (the food, the huge submarine pool, etc), and the suspense at the day of the challenge.
Here's a paper about one of the competitor vehicles, named Nessie.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
X PRIZE Cup and Lunar Lander Challenge Team Updates
From the X PRIZE Foundation news scroller, El Paso Inc. has an article about sponsorship opportunities during the X PRIZE Cup student activities. These activities include several competitions with prizes. Sponsorship will help with transportation expenses to get thousands of students to and from the X PRIZE Cup education day.
Meanwhile, RLV News noted a couple of posts from Lunar Lander Challenge teams Unreasonable Rocket and Armadillo Aerospace.
First, Unreasonable Rocket demonstrates with pictures how to tell that you're addicted to rockets. "If you this looks like you, you have a rocket problem, seek help."
Then, Armadillo gives more details on the Texel Crash, which was followed with several 180 second Pixel flights. As usual, they're generous with the photos and videos. Here's an interesting quote: "Pixel had more rocket powered flight time that weekend than Space Ship One had in all of its flights combined. We have also spent more on operational consumables (helium, lox, alcohol, truck rental) than the vehicle itself cost, which is probably a first for any rocket vehicle."
After the Texel crash, they've been working more on new configurations. This work is described in detail, and further documented in photos and a video.
Meanwhile, RLV News noted a couple of posts from Lunar Lander Challenge teams Unreasonable Rocket and Armadillo Aerospace.
First, Unreasonable Rocket demonstrates with pictures how to tell that you're addicted to rockets. "If you this looks like you, you have a rocket problem, seek help."
Then, Armadillo gives more details on the Texel Crash, which was followed with several 180 second Pixel flights. As usual, they're generous with the photos and videos. Here's an interesting quote: "Pixel had more rocket powered flight time that weekend than Space Ship One had in all of its flights combined. We have also spent more on operational consumables (helium, lox, alcohol, truck rental) than the vehicle itself cost, which is probably a first for any rocket vehicle."
After the Texel crash, they've been working more on new configurations. This work is described in detail, and further documented in photos and a video.
Q-Music Suborbital Spaceflight Prize
Spaceports posts on a contest with a Belgian radio station, where the prize is a suborbital ride. I don't think they're the first to have such a contest (they claim that, according to the Spaceports post), but that doesn't take anything away from the idea. The more the merrier ... and there are few enough that each one is worth noting. Now the vehicle developers just need to get those rockets built, working, and rock-solid reliable.
Posts from 2 Space Elevator Games Teams
The Kansas City Space Pirates have made several recent blog posts:
Heliobeaming announcement - introduces the concept of heliobeaming, or "the technique of using mirrors to direct and concentrate sunlight onto a moving device to provide that device power". A more detailed writeup is anticipated.
Double Fudge Sunday - describes a mistake, now corrected, in finances and engineering, and describes an ad deal that can be made with other teams.
In the Money - shows progress with fundraising with the "ship graphics" I described in an earlier post.
Meanwhile, LaserMotive posts about the car mileage that's needed to work in a spread-out volunteer team environment in Baby You Can Drive My Car.
Heliobeaming announcement - introduces the concept of heliobeaming, or "the technique of using mirrors to direct and concentrate sunlight onto a moving device to provide that device power". A more detailed writeup is anticipated.
Double Fudge Sunday - describes a mistake, now corrected, in finances and engineering, and describes an ad deal that can be made with other teams.
In the Money - shows progress with fundraising with the "ship graphics" I described in an earlier post.
Meanwhile, LaserMotive posts about the car mileage that's needed to work in a spread-out volunteer team environment in Baby You Can Drive My Car.
MOD Grand Challenge Teams Announced
Cnet News blog has an article about the U.K. Ministry of Defense's Grand Challenge to make robotic soldier assistants. This was a bit over a month ago. The MOD Grand Challenge Teams page lists (and links) 6 teams that got contracts to help with their entries, 8 teams that will be self-funded, and 2 associate teams that don't address all of the challenge's goals and therefore presumably can't win, but that are still of interest (eg: they may help other teams). Entries ranged from Unmanned Arial Vehicles, to ground vehicles, to systems with blimps. Different teams have different specialties, such as transportability/light weight, ability to find IEDs, low visibility, multiple ground/air components, and multiple sensors at different EM frequencies.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
New Space Prize to be Announced by X PRIZE Foundation
RLV News has found out much more about the nature of the new prize that will be announced at the Wired NextFest. Check out the teaser video from the X PRIZE Foundation to learn more. Space.com also has an article about it, and the Wired blog has an article titled "Largest Space Prize Ever to Be Announced at Wired's NextFest September 13th" by Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides.
I thought for several reasons that the announcement would be for the opening of the Automotive X PRIZE. However, I also thought it could be for a space prize, since the X PRIZE Foundation is the "Official Space Sponsor" of the Wired NextFest, and it would make sense, after all, for the official space sponsor to announce a space prize. Happily, my first guess was wrong, and we seem to have 2 major prizes (automotive and space) on the way!
I also imagined one particular organization (you all know its name) as a likely sponsor of the new space prize. I won't even say which one I suspect it is, since it would just be speculation. I don't know anyone in the X PRIZE Foundation or this organization - but I wrote a paper on one of this organization's activities in grad school before I even got interested in space prizes. Since then many of my speculations in that paper have come true, so I'll indulge in one more speculation. If I'm right, that part of the announcement will be almost as interesting as the details of the new prize itself.
Hmmmm ... the largest space prize ever ... does that include Bigelow's America's Space Prize?
I thought for several reasons that the announcement would be for the opening of the Automotive X PRIZE. However, I also thought it could be for a space prize, since the X PRIZE Foundation is the "Official Space Sponsor" of the Wired NextFest, and it would make sense, after all, for the official space sponsor to announce a space prize. Happily, my first guess was wrong, and we seem to have 2 major prizes (automotive and space) on the way!
I also imagined one particular organization (you all know its name) as a likely sponsor of the new space prize. I won't even say which one I suspect it is, since it would just be speculation. I don't know anyone in the X PRIZE Foundation or this organization - but I wrote a paper on one of this organization's activities in grad school before I even got interested in space prizes. Since then many of my speculations in that paper have come true, so I'll indulge in one more speculation. If I'm right, that part of the announcement will be almost as interesting as the details of the new prize itself.
Hmmmm ... the largest space prize ever ... does that include Bigelow's America's Space Prize?
Monday, September 03, 2007
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Student Competitions
The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International has (and has had for many years) a number of student competitions. There are so many competitions, so many years of competitions, so many teams, and so many details for each team (sponsors, designs, papers, etc) that I can only give the briefest of overviews here.
AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition - Apparently this competition has been held since 1991. The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems has defined a communications protocol for unmanned vehicles, and offers $750 for any team that can demonstrate basic proficiency with this message set. The JAUS has specifications that can be used in the Aerial Robotics Competition, and also in a couple of the other competitions.
The main competition has $80,000 in prizes, and involves an airborne robot that can fly 3km to find a town, identify a building and any openings, and get pictures of a target inside the building. The pictures have to get back to the beginning location. As you can see, the competitions have a military flavor. The competition is held at Ft. Benning.
There are links to the registered teams at the competition site. Many, but not all, of the designs are helicopter-based.
2008 UAS Competition - This is an Unmanned Aerial System competition with a similar-sounding mission to the above one. However, this scenario is in support of the U.S. Marine Corps. There will be a pre-defined mission, route, and objective to photograph, but as circumstances change, new objectives or routes may need to be taken. A quick mission is important. "At least $20,000 in prizes have been awarded the past two years".
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition - This competition is for a rugged unmanned ground vehicle that can carry a 20 pound payload. It has to be able to navigate an obstacle course. It brings to mind the DARPA Grand Challenges. There are numerous monetary awards for this competition.
International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition - This is brought by the AUVSI and ONR (Office of Naval Research). It's for unmanned submarines (AUVs). The challenge involves control (depth, speed, direction), accousting and visual sensing, and dropping or getting an object. There's a wealth of information about this year's teams (each has a website and paper) here.
International Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition - This is also brought by the AUVSI and ONR. It's for unmanned boats. They need to be able to navigate, avoid obstacles, and find GPS-based objectives marked by a buoy.
These are all for Earth-based applications, but they seem relevant to me to many space applications, too. I picture satellites, Europa submarines, Mars or Lunar rovers, planetary air vehicles, human-assisting robots floating in a space station, and so on when I read these competitions and think about the space "angle". In fact, I would not be surprised if there are great opportunities with these competitions for space organizations to participate or interact with this unmanned vehicle community.
AUVSI International Aerial Robotics Competition - Apparently this competition has been held since 1991. The Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems has defined a communications protocol for unmanned vehicles, and offers $750 for any team that can demonstrate basic proficiency with this message set. The JAUS has specifications that can be used in the Aerial Robotics Competition, and also in a couple of the other competitions.
The main competition has $80,000 in prizes, and involves an airborne robot that can fly 3km to find a town, identify a building and any openings, and get pictures of a target inside the building. The pictures have to get back to the beginning location. As you can see, the competitions have a military flavor. The competition is held at Ft. Benning.
There are links to the registered teams at the competition site. Many, but not all, of the designs are helicopter-based.
2008 UAS Competition - This is an Unmanned Aerial System competition with a similar-sounding mission to the above one. However, this scenario is in support of the U.S. Marine Corps. There will be a pre-defined mission, route, and objective to photograph, but as circumstances change, new objectives or routes may need to be taken. A quick mission is important. "At least $20,000 in prizes have been awarded the past two years".
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition - This competition is for a rugged unmanned ground vehicle that can carry a 20 pound payload. It has to be able to navigate an obstacle course. It brings to mind the DARPA Grand Challenges. There are numerous monetary awards for this competition.
International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition - This is brought by the AUVSI and ONR (Office of Naval Research). It's for unmanned submarines (AUVs). The challenge involves control (depth, speed, direction), accousting and visual sensing, and dropping or getting an object. There's a wealth of information about this year's teams (each has a website and paper) here.
International Autonomous Surface Vehicle Competition - This is also brought by the AUVSI and ONR. It's for unmanned boats. They need to be able to navigate, avoid obstacles, and find GPS-based objectives marked by a buoy.
These are all for Earth-based applications, but they seem relevant to me to many space applications, too. I picture satellites, Europa submarines, Mars or Lunar rovers, planetary air vehicles, human-assisting robots floating in a space station, and so on when I read these competitions and think about the space "angle". In fact, I would not be surprised if there are great opportunities with these competitions for space organizations to participate or interact with this unmanned vehicle community.
CanSat 2007 Results for WUSTL Team, and CanSat 2008 Prep for all Teams
I guess the new school year is starting. That means that CanSat competition challengers have to start getting busy to get ready for the 2008 CanSat Competition. In fact, the CanSat web site that I linked is already updated for 2008, even though the launch event isn't until June 13-15 2008. Applications are due soon - October 21, 2007.
The prizes are:
First place - $2500
Second Place - $1500
Third Place - $1000
Fourth Place - $750
Fifth Place - $500
Here's an article posted not too long ago (Aug 9 - maybe the school paper wasn't being published during the competition during break?) about the Washington University in St. Louis team doing well in the 2007 competition. The team was organized in an Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering class, and used a
""spring-loaded wing" concept, by which the CanSat descends as an unpowered helicopter (autorotation similar to how a maple seed falls to the ground)"
instead of a parachute. You can see more about the team's work at their CanSat Project site, as well as their Preliminary Design Review slides and Pre-Flight Progress Report.
The prizes are:
First place - $2500
Second Place - $1500
Third Place - $1000
Fourth Place - $750
Fifth Place - $500
Here's an article posted not too long ago (Aug 9 - maybe the school paper wasn't being published during the competition during break?) about the Washington University in St. Louis team doing well in the 2007 competition. The team was organized in an Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering class, and used a
""spring-loaded wing" concept, by which the CanSat descends as an unpowered helicopter (autorotation similar to how a maple seed falls to the ground)"
instead of a parachute. You can see more about the team's work at their CanSat Project site, as well as their Preliminary Design Review slides and Pre-Flight Progress Report.
Space Elevator Games Updates
The Space Elevator blog has a number of recent posts related to the upcoming Space Elevator Games:
Planning for the 2008 Space Elevator Games? - links a couple of videos on a demo space elevator ribbon climber, apparently at a camp
Yet another LaserMotive Team Member is Introduced - This LaserMotive post describes about an engineer on their team with a lot of deadlines approaching. An earlier LaserMotive post mentions a NASA Space Elevator Games press release, as well as the Space Elevator Blog.
Venues for the 2007 Space Elevator Games - shows some pictures of the competition site, and shows how to see more in Google Earth.
Seven more weeks ... - counts down with some anticipation to the challenge date.
By the way, one of the Space Elevator Games challenges is the Beam Power competition. It would seem that would be an important technology for Solar Power Satellites, too. Maybe the DoD could add another Beam Power challenge to the Space Elevator Games to push along their SPS interest (as well as other, more short term, interests in beamed power)?
Planning for the 2008 Space Elevator Games? - links a couple of videos on a demo space elevator ribbon climber, apparently at a camp
Yet another LaserMotive Team Member is Introduced - This LaserMotive post describes about an engineer on their team with a lot of deadlines approaching. An earlier LaserMotive post mentions a NASA Space Elevator Games press release, as well as the Space Elevator Blog.
Venues for the 2007 Space Elevator Games - shows some pictures of the competition site, and shows how to see more in Google Earth.
Seven more weeks ... - counts down with some anticipation to the challenge date.
By the way, one of the Space Elevator Games challenges is the Beam Power competition. It would seem that would be an important technology for Solar Power Satellites, too. Maybe the DoD could add another Beam Power challenge to the Space Elevator Games to push along their SPS interest (as well as other, more short term, interests in beamed power)?
Wearable Power Prize Information Forum and More
From the Department of Defense Research & Engineering web site, I noticed a page about an Information Forum for the Wearable Power Prize. The Forum is on Friday, Sept 21, in D.C. (see the link above for the full details). As with most such prize competitions, they're not looking for just the traditional big defense contractors - they want to see these, plus other businesses, inventors, academic representatives, and so on.
Registration for the competition is from October 8 to November 30.
I've already seen news about one potential competitor. In this press release, fuel cell vendor Neah Power Systems announces its intention to compete.
Ideas-to-Action posts on the Wearable Power Prize, and how businesses could use a similar model to encourage the innovations they need in other ways than traditional in-house R&D projects.
War is Boring offers a summary of the prize, as well as a brief discussion of similar efforts.
Registration for the competition is from October 8 to November 30.
I've already seen news about one potential competitor. In this press release, fuel cell vendor Neah Power Systems announces its intention to compete.
Ideas-to-Action posts on the Wearable Power Prize, and how businesses could use a similar model to encourage the innovations they need in other ways than traditional in-house R&D projects.
War is Boring offers a summary of the prize, as well as a brief discussion of similar efforts.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
WIRED NextFest and X PRIZE Foundation
(Update: Lots of folks are going to this post today. I suspect most are interested in the latest news on the space prize announced at the WIRED NextFest. To get the latest I have, click on the "Google Lunar X PRIZE" tag below, and you'll get all posts related to it (including this one, but it'll be at the back of the queue).
WIRED is having a big day at Space Prizes. This one comes from an article linked from the X PRIZE Foundation web site's news ticker.
The 2007 Wired NextFest is described as "WIRED's vision of a new World's Fair".
More details: "WIRED NextFest is a four-day festival of innovative products and technologies that are transforming our world. This year's NextFest in Los Angeles features more than 160 interactive exhibits from leading scientists and researchers around the world. Experience the future of communication, design, entertainment, exploration, health, play, robots, transportation, security, and green living. Visitors of all ages are welcome."
Sponsors of NextFest include NASA, Northrop Grumman, the X PRIZE Foundation, and many other well-known organizations.
A lot of the exhibitors will be interest to people that like space and/or innovation prizes. In the "Future of Exploration" exhibit category, there's an entry on the Astronaut Glove Centennial Challenge. There are numerous NASA exhibits, and in some cases you can get a preview using the link supplied, but in others you get to the generic NASA home page. You'll just have to try to get the the real NextFest in those cases. There are NASA exhibits on LCROSS, SOFIA, Mars rovers, robots, and more. SpaceX has an exhibit on the Dragon, and Northrop Grumman has one on the James Webb telescope.
There are other exhibitor categories that span the high-tech world: communication, education, design, entertainment, play, green tech, health, transportation, robotics, and security. The security exhibit also has space-related exhibits, including one on NPOESS.
If you follow the Human Powered Vehicle prizes the exhibit on the 24-hour HPV record may bbe of interest.
Getting back to the original reason for this post, though ... a media alert was issued with the following information:
"Special Guests Include Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Astronaut Barbara Morgan and the Endeavor Space Shuttle Crew".
"The Opening Ceremony will be followed by an X PRIZE Foundation announcement of its largest prize yet. Joining with an internationally-recognized partner, this “New X PRIZE” will motivate and inspire new generations, much like the previous ANSARI X PRIZE. For more information, please visit http://www.xprize.org/."
"X PRIZE Announcement 10:30am – 11:00am South Halls, J&K"
Update (Sep 2): I don't have any inside information on what the announcement will be, or who/what the internationally-recognized partner is. I will note that the Automotive X PRIZE draft rules have been out for a while, so it may have something to do with that. This post at Cosmic Log on the Lunar Lander Challenge has an August 31 update at the bottom on an X PRIZE Foundation briefing on the Automotive X PRIZE planned in a few days, so there is certainly a lot of activity with that prize. It would be interesting, since originally they were targetting $25M for that one, but recently most articles have been using a $10M figure as an estimate. The NextFest announcement said "the largest prize yet", so could they now have more than $10M (the prize amounts for the Ansari X PRIZE and Archon Genomics X PRIZE) for Automotive? It's all speculation on my part. It certainly would be cool, though, if we see a new space X PRIZE, whether bigger or smaller than the others, rolled out!
WIRED is having a big day at Space Prizes. This one comes from an article linked from the X PRIZE Foundation web site's news ticker.
The 2007 Wired NextFest is described as "WIRED's vision of a new World's Fair".
More details: "WIRED NextFest is a four-day festival of innovative products and technologies that are transforming our world. This year's NextFest in Los Angeles features more than 160 interactive exhibits from leading scientists and researchers around the world. Experience the future of communication, design, entertainment, exploration, health, play, robots, transportation, security, and green living. Visitors of all ages are welcome."
Sponsors of NextFest include NASA, Northrop Grumman, the X PRIZE Foundation, and many other well-known organizations.
A lot of the exhibitors will be interest to people that like space and/or innovation prizes. In the "Future of Exploration" exhibit category, there's an entry on the Astronaut Glove Centennial Challenge. There are numerous NASA exhibits, and in some cases you can get a preview using the link supplied, but in others you get to the generic NASA home page. You'll just have to try to get the the real NextFest in those cases. There are NASA exhibits on LCROSS, SOFIA, Mars rovers, robots, and more. SpaceX has an exhibit on the Dragon, and Northrop Grumman has one on the James Webb telescope.
There are other exhibitor categories that span the high-tech world: communication, education, design, entertainment, play, green tech, health, transportation, robotics, and security. The security exhibit also has space-related exhibits, including one on NPOESS.
If you follow the Human Powered Vehicle prizes the exhibit on the 24-hour HPV record may bbe of interest.
Getting back to the original reason for this post, though ... a media alert was issued with the following information:
"Special Guests Include Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Astronaut Barbara Morgan and the Endeavor Space Shuttle Crew".
"The Opening Ceremony will be followed by an X PRIZE Foundation announcement of its largest prize yet. Joining with an internationally-recognized partner, this “New X PRIZE” will motivate and inspire new generations, much like the previous ANSARI X PRIZE. For more information, please visit http://www.xprize.org/."
"X PRIZE Announcement 10:30am – 11:00am South Halls, J&K"
Update (Sep 2): I don't have any inside information on what the announcement will be, or who/what the internationally-recognized partner is. I will note that the Automotive X PRIZE draft rules have been out for a while, so it may have something to do with that. This post at Cosmic Log on the Lunar Lander Challenge has an August 31 update at the bottom on an X PRIZE Foundation briefing on the Automotive X PRIZE planned in a few days, so there is certainly a lot of activity with that prize. It would be interesting, since originally they were targetting $25M for that one, but recently most articles have been using a $10M figure as an estimate. The NextFest announcement said "the largest prize yet", so could they now have more than $10M (the prize amounts for the Ansari X PRIZE and Archon Genomics X PRIZE) for Automotive? It's all speculation on my part. It certainly would be cool, though, if we see a new space X PRIZE, whether bigger or smaller than the others, rolled out!
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