50 Million Dollar "American Space Prize"

[Regulator75]

This competition is going to be much much harder to accomplish than the previous X-Prize. My Spidey senses are sensing a grand failure.

2 full orbits

Some of the rules:

The spacecraft must reach a minimum altitude of 400 kilometers (approximately 250 miles);

The spacecraft must reach a minimum velocity sufficient to complete two (2) full orbits at altitude before returning to Earth;

The spacecraft must dock or demonstrate its ability to dock with a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space habitat, and be capable of remaining on station at least six (6) months;

The spacecraft must complete its two (2) missions safely and successfully, with all five (5) crew members aboard for the second qualifying flight, before the competition’s deadline of Jan. 10, 2010.

[Displaced Flames fan]

After watching 60 minutes Sunday night I think you're wrong! The company that won the X-prize has much bigger goals than two measely orbits!

[photon]

Much much much harder.. 25-30 times harder at least.

SS1 went 0.6 miles/second to reach its goal.. this will have to be going 5 miles/second!

$50 million as a prize doesn't seem enough to make someone try. Rutan spent way more than $10 million on SS1, and this project makes SS1 looks like child's play. The technology is out there sure, but it's the cost of implementing it.

Throw in that 80% of the dry mass has to be reusable, and this becomes a huge economic challenge.

EDIT: Of course the payoff is huge though, so it's really not about the $50 million. If someone can get it to work for cheap and reliable..

[Muta]

I think this is great. Its fostering potential to innovate, specifically regarding space technology. It definently adds an interesting element to space travel, and might be able to get more people interested in the field of such technology.

There should be more competitions like this, specifically on-land. Imagine the innovation if this X-Prize was used to establish a competition for teams to produce the cleanest car on Earth which goes the furthest distance on a single unit of energy.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally posted by photon@Nov 10 2004, 01:48 AM
$50 million as a prize doesn't seem enough to make someone try. Rutan spent way more than $10 million on SS1, and this project makes SS1 looks like child's play. The technology is out there sure, but it's the cost of implementing it.

That's the whole point of this. It's to make people think differently than at present. The cost to space is too great, and with this 50mil prize, they are basically saying that teams have to have innovative thinking and low costs in order for this to be productive. SS1 was a success in a way, but it probably could have been done with a smaller amount of money.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Don't forget, Rutan just signed a big fat deal with Virgin Atlantic. He's got plenty of working capital.

[Hot_Sauce]

These competitions are awesome. Creativity, iginuity and technological advancement are rarely enough to bring these efforts to fruition. Profit is the best incentive to advancement. Show them the money!