Space Prizes

Prize Roundup: Tricorder X PRIZE, Centennial Challenge Mystery, DigitalGlobe Image Contest, Ebb and Flow, More

2012-01-18T22:39:00.002-05:00

Here's an interesting tweet that ends with some mystery: @NASAPrize: 2012 bring it on, Sample Return is set for June Night Rover rules out for public comment soon NSL rules in work and prepping new challenges

YouTube SpaceLab contest selects finalists - Space for All

Plans set for 'Tricorder' contest - Cosmic Log
Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE

The Top Image of 2011 – Announced - The DigitalGlobe blog
Satellite shot of rolling river takes the prize - Cosmic Log - DigitalGlobe's Top Image Contest of 2011 gallery includes a satellite photo of Kennedy Space Center, Merritt Island, Florida with Space Shuttle Atlantis near the VAB:

Gingrich talks up prizes in Florida - Space Politics

Montana Students Pick Winning Names for Moon Craft - NASA on the new names for the GRAIL satellites

The Crafoord Prize in Mathematics 2012 and The Crafoord Prize in Astronomy 2012 - The Crafoord Prize (link via @jeff_foust)

EXPLORAVISION 2012 - Teaching with Contests
Google launches 2012 Global Science Fair… - Teaching with Contests

Prize Roundup - FIRST Robotics, LaserMotive FAQ, Panthera Plane Paint, NSS RAH Award, More

2012-01-08T16:05:00.001-05:00

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN MEMORIAL AWARD — 2012 - National Space Society

Paint Me – Win 1,000 Euros - CAFE Foundation Blog on a competition run by Pipistrel
Contest for livery design of the first Panthera - Pipistrel

FIRST Robotics Competition Kicks Off - NASAHackSpace

Have questions about laser power beaming? Let us know for our new FAQs page! - LaserMotive

Fifty-seven student teams in NASA's rocketry initiatives - Space for All

To the moon with a hop - Lehigh University

XCOR Flight Prize is a First - Mojave Desert News

InnoCentive and Booz Allen Hamilton Form Strategic Alliance - BusinessWire

12/31/2011: Tethered Excitement - SpeedUp

Drawings & Pictures Updated - Sample Return Challenge
Challenge Registrations, Proposals, and Reporting - Sample Return Challenge

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

2011-12-18T09:12:00.001-05:00

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

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

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

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

Space Foundation Student Art Contest - National Space Symposium

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

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

Side Panel Overhaul

2011-12-10T09:49:00.000-05:00

This is just an administrative post letting you know I've just done an overhaul of the side panel links for the Space Prizes blog. I probably changed more than half of the links. Some are new additions, some old ones are removed, and dozens were just updated because the prize or team sites are still there, but have been reorganized.

Sample Return and University Rover Rules, NEA Search, SunSat Art, Space Generation Prizes, Nanosat Launch Seminar, More

2011-12-02T23:47:00.002-05:00

Proposal Information Updated - Sample Return Robot Challenge

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URC 2012 Rules are Live! - University Rover Challenge

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NASA Human Exploration Community Workshop on the Global Exploration Workshop (PPT) - FISO - This includes "NEA Next" and "Moon Next" scenarios. The "NEA Next" scenario covers the need to add to our list of reachable potential asteroid destinations. Earth-based detection of these is mentioned:

A prize based approach may also provide incentives to include more public participation.

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SGAC Announces the Barcelona Zero-G Aerobatics Challenge Winners - Space Generation Advisory Council

SGAC-EIC Space Entrepreneurship Paper Competition - Space Generation Advisory Council

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Rocket firm presentations at Team Phoenicia Nanosat Launcher Seminar - RLV News

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A lot is happening with the Google Lunar X PRIZE. For example:

Moon Express announces alliance with Autodesk - RLV News

Did Moon Express just take the lead in the POINT of the Google Lunar X PRIZE? - Evadot

Astrobotic Wins NASA Contract for Robot Teams to Explore Martian and Lunar Caves - Astrobotic

On NASA’s Lunar Heritage Guidelines - Will Pomerantz on his personal site, InstaPom

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Two NASA Goddard Engineers Receive Prestigious Awards - SpaceRef

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International SunSat Design Competition - National Space Society blog

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Space Lab student competition on YouTube attracts 5500 teams - ESA

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Here are a couple of interesting non-space prizes:

NASA Tournament Lab/Patent Office Challenge - NASAHackSpace

DSTA launches TechX Challenge 2013 - Singapore's Defence Science & Technology Agency starts the 2nd robotic TechX challenge; the first was held in 2008. The winning team gets S$1 million, which a currency converter tells me is a nice prize.

Space Prize Roundup: Nanosat Use, Move an Asteroid, SAVE Award, Nanosat Launch Seminar/Deals/Options, Much More

2011-11-22T22:50:00.000-05:00

SGAC Announces the Winner of the 2011 Move an Asteroid Competition ("Smart Cloud" for Asteroid Mitigation) - Planetary Defense - I didn't catch this the first time around; it's from September.

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NASA DEVELOP Teams Compete in Virtual Poster Session for Comments and Cash Prizes - Spaceports

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The 2nd Mission Idea Contest for Micro/Nano-satellite Utilization Contest - This is organized by UNISEC and the University of Tokyo. The finalists can present at Japan's 4th Nano-satellite symposium. A number of news items appeared for the contest in the last few days, such as details about a student prize.

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Team America Rocketry Challenge 2012 - Teaching with Contests notes that the registration deadline for TARC is November 30.

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And the SAVE Award Goes to… - The White House Office of Management and Budget presents the winner, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

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XCOR and SwRI offer space flight prize for NSRC 2012 participants - RLV News

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Briefs: Space travel insurance; Cash vs space trip - RLV News

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I don't think I've mentioned the Google Science Fair. The prizes include scholarships, science and technology trips, and more from Google, CERN, National Geographic, Scientific American, and LEGO.

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Paralyzed by options - Unreasonable Rocket - Some of the options are related to the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge

A Snapshot: The Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Seminar - Team Phoenicia - More pictures have also been released in later Team Phoenicia posts. You may recognized some of the participants. Expect presentations and video from the seminar to be posted later, too.

Third Engine Sold! - Team Phoenicia

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NASA Makes Science Communication Competition Interplanetary - SpaceRef:

NASA, Cheltenham Festivals (UK) and the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS) are pleased to announce a partnership to operate a FameLab competition for the first time. The competition will be held in the fields of astrobiology and planetary sciences, and is open to all scientists working in these diverse areas of research.

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Google, NASA work together on space exploration - SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle)

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3D printing on the Moon + a Challenge concept - RLV News - Clark suggests a Centennial Challenge based on 3D printing and lunar ISRU. Now that the MoonROx Challenge has expired with no winner, it does seem like there is a hole in NASA's Centennial Challenge portfolio in the ISRU area.

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Photo Release -- Scaled Composites' Burt Rutan Hailed for Lifetime of Achievement - press release at GlobeNewswire

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Fisher Space Pen joins Spirit of Innovation Challenge - Conrad Foundation:

The Innovative Teacher Award will include a cash prize and a custom-designed bronze trophy by Erik Lindbergh that resembles the rocket built by his famous grandfather and aviator Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. The Conrad Foundation will select one teacher per year who demonstrated excellence in guiding his or her team through the Spirit of Innovation Challenge competition.

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SpaceX Dragon - PopSci - The Dragon is the Grand Award winner in the Aviation and Space category. Some others in the top ten with strong space prize connections (other than the PopSci award itself) include the Pipistrel Taurus G4 from the 2011 NASA/Google Green Flight Challenge and the Carnegie Mellon Astrobotic Red Rover from the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition.

Space and Earth's Environment: Night Rover Storing Solar Power, Ocean Robot Challenge, CleanTech Open, Google Earth Models

2011-11-20T22:38:00.007-05:00

The Cleantech Open Global Forum included NASA's Night Rover Challenge. Astronaut Ed Lu was on the schedule after Sam Ortega of NASA's Centennial Challenges. From the post-NASA part of Ed's bio:

He later ran Advanced Projects at Google, where his teams developed imaging systems for Street View, Google Earth/Maps, and energy projects including Google PowerMeter. He is now Chief of Innovative Applications for Liquid Robotics, which makes autonomous wave/solar powered ocean-going robots.

Liquid Robotics technology includes the Wave Glider, an ocean-faring robot that uses solar panels to power sensors and wave motion for propulsion. They just launched 4 Wave Gliders on an ocean tour that is intended to break the unmanned ocean distance record while gathering scientific data using several sensors and satellite communications. They are working with Virgin Oceanic and Ocean in Google Earth. The PacX Challenge Prize is a competition for scientists to suggest the best science use for the data gathered during the tour. The winner gets access to data, input on the tour route, and input on the sensors deployed. Ed's quote for the prize compares the ocean-exploring robots to robotic spacecraft.

Follow robotic wave gliders on a record setting Pacific crossing in Google Earth - Google Lat/Long Blog
Tracking wave-powered robotic gliders across the Pacific - Google Earth Blog

Speaking of Google Earth ...

The 2012 Model Your Town competition is up and running - Google Earth Blog - Competitors can use Google SketchUp or Google Building Maker to create geolocated models of their town to win $25,000 for their local schools.

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

2011-11-11T09:14:00.003-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA prepares for moon tourism - USA Today

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Rules have been updated - Sample Return Robot Challenge - WPI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011-10-23T15:41:00.002-05:00

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.

FAA Trouble, YouTube Space Lab, Oil Spill Challenge, Why Do You Explore? Contest, Carmack Prize, More

2011-10-11T23:18:00.001-05:00

Today, the Google Home Page features the YouTube Space Lab, so about a billion people should know about it by now. Just in case that isn't enough, I'll try to push it over the edge with this mention. The winning space experiment video will be performed on the International Space Station.

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House appropriators tell FAA to focus more on air than space - Space Politics - The affordable space access prize proposed by the FAA is one of the casualties.

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Illinois Team Wins Oil Spill Cleanup X CHALLENGE
Pictures: X PRIZE Contest Seeks Improved Oil Spill Cleanup - National Geographic

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NASA Funded Astronomer Wins Nobel Prize - NASA Watch

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Rocketry Winners Come to Washington - OSTP Blog - White House

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NASA Adds Some Numbers to Green Flight Challenge
AVweb Readers Weigh In on Electric Aircraft, Green Flight Challenge
Green Flight Challenge Winners
Green Flight Challenge – Days Three and Five
Green Flight Challenge – Day Two - CAFE Foundation Blog

The CAFE Foundation PhotoStream has pictures from the event.

NASA Contest Heralds Dawn of the Electric Plane - OSTP Blog - White House - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

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X PRIZE Foundation Announces Three-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Sponsorship with Shell for Prizes Promoting Exploration of Space, Oceans and Land - X PRIZE Foundation press release - This includes the Why Do You Explore? video contest, with a grand prize of a $10,000 National Geographic Expedition, and 3 other prizes of Airship Ventures flights.

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Amateur Rocketeers Chase $10,000 Launch Prize Offered by John Carmack - Space.com

Another Centennial Challenges Update: Night Rover Allied Org, Green Flight Challenge Next Week, Radical Benefit, LaserMotive Week, More

2011-09-23T06:33:00.003-05:00

NASA has picked the Cleantech Open as the Allied Organization to run the $1.5M Night Rover Centennial Challenge to collect solar energy and store it long enough to do productive work during the lunar night.

NASA and The Cleantech Open Partner in Robotics Challenge - NASA

Here's their Night Rover Challenge website. You will see there that Joshua Neubert, who was the Executive Director of the Conrad Foundation, is on the management team.

Challenge.gov also has a Night Rover Challenge page.

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Get ready for the NASA Green Flight Challenge run by the CAFE Foundation, and the subsequent Google Green Flight Challenge Expo at NASA Ames:

NASA is Painting the Skies Green Over Santa Rosa - NASA - It will be held at the Sonoma County Airport there.

NASA competition could lead to air taxis anyone can afford - Al.com

NASA, CAFE Foundation Host Google Green Flight Challenge Expo - NASA

Here's the Green Flight Challenge fact sheet. (PDF)

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It isn't strictly a Centennial Challenge, but I think of it as a product of the Regolith Excavation Challenge:

NASA 2012 Lunabotics Competition Open For Registration - NASA - The Lunabotics Mining Competition will be held May 21-26 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

NASA's Digital Learning Network will hold a webcast about the Lunabotics competition on September 27, 4:00 ET.

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The X PRIZE Foundation, which ran the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, will hold a Radical Benefit for Humanity on October 20.

Briefs: Speed Up update; Will Watson interview; Space regulation discussion panel - RLV News - SpeedUp was one of the Lunar Lander Challenge competitors. SpeedUp is now Ready for Tether Testing.

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The first winner of the Beam Power Centennial Challenge, LaserMotive, is in the news a lot lately:

Space Angels Network Invests in Wireless Power Beaming Company: LaserMotive, Inc. (PDF) - Space Angels Network

Lasermotive is in NASA power beaming project - RLV News

Could laser propulsion open up space? - Next Big Future has an interview with LaserMotive's Jordin Kare.

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It would be nice to get some discussion going at this NASASpaceflight.com forum post on the 2nd Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar.

Sample Return Registration, TARC Tour, Green Flight Challenge and Expo, Much More

2011-09-18T22:04:00.009-05:00

Wow, there's a lot going on in the space prize world! A lot of the topics deserve their own post, but with my growing family I can only manage a quick link list. Here's the latest roundup of space prize updates:

Sample Return Robot Challenge

Challenge Rules Posted & Registration Open - Sample Return Robot Challenge (WPI)
@WPI_Robotics: Picture of the pre-cached sample for the Centennial Challenge! #WPI #omgrobotswpirobotics.smugmug.com/services/graph… or visit challenge.wpi.edu for info

Team America Rocketry Challenge

Winning TARC Team Visits Washington, Praises Raytheon for Support - Raytheon
TARC Winners in DC - This is a Flickr photo set of the visit.

Green Flight Challenge

Matters of Note for the Green Flight Expo - The CAFE Foundation Blog describes Matternet, "an outgrowth of Singularity University" that plans to enable transportation of supplies to remote locations.
List of Exhibitors - The Green Flight Expo will be at NASA Ames on October 3 after the competition. The actual competition starts in 1 week.
See the Google Green Flight Challenge Exposition hosted by NASA

Other

New Competition Brings Robots to Market - OSTP Blog
2nd Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar Draft Agenda Updated 9/16/2011 - Team Phoenicia
N-prize: the world's smallest space programme - SpaceRef - Part of this is a call for global representation in the challenge, particularly in Asia. The new N-prize teams map shows why. There is a gap, but on the bright side that's a lot of teams!
Fall 2011 Cassini Scientist for a Day essay contest - Teaching with Contests
CTSI Chooses LaserMotive as One of Top Ten Defense Energy Tech Companies - LaserMotive
Conrad Foundation on Capitol Hill - NASA Watch
"What's Next?" In Space Exploration Video Contest - NASA Watch - The contest is from the Coalition for Space Exploration.
Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts show Right Stuff in National Rocket Competition - Space for All
Student contest to name the GRAIL lunar probes and to direct their cameras - Space for All
Canadian Satellite Design Challenge - Space for All
Int. Art Contest - The Space Foundation - Space for All
Student NewSpace Business Plan Competition - RLV News
Unreasonable update - RLV News - Paul's post includes a picture of a new tank, and here's another one of it: twitpic.com/6j0jng

Space Prize Roundup: Green Flight Approaches, MoonBots 2.0, Sample Return Rules, More

2011-09-05T21:45:00.000-05:00

The Green Flight Challenge is getting close:

Embry Riddle Begins GFC Test Flights - CAFE Foundation Blog

Latest Details - Sample Return Robot Challenge at WPI gives an update on the final rules, team agreement, and registration.

The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO Group Announce Global Student Team Winners of MoonBots 2.0 Challenge - Google Lunar X PRIZE

Creating a Collaborative Nano-Bio Manufacturing Institute - Challenge.gov - This is for the Air Force Research Lab.

Competition Provides Solution for Stopping Uncooperative Vehicles - OSTP Blog

08/26/2011: Update - SpeedUp

The NASA Tech Briefs "Create the Future" Design Contest winners should be announced this month.

UK contest for student space settlement design - Space for All

The Hubble Roadshow - update and contest - Space for All

NASA Centennial Challenge Updates: Sample Return, Nanosat, Green Flight, Tether, More

2011-08-20T23:18:00.005-05:00

A lot has been happening related to NASA Centennial Challenges in the last few weeks, so here's an update that focuses mainly on them.

Some teams are anxious to learn more about the rules and team agreement for the Sample Return Robot Challenge:

Update on Challenge

Status Update - Sample Return Robot Challenge

As you can see, starting a major prize competition can be quite a challenge in itself.

Team Phoenicia to hold 2nd Nanosat launcher seminar - RLV News - From the Team Phoenicia post:

This will be upgraded to a two day event based on the feedback that we have received. Food and drink will be provided. There will be speakers in the vein of last time, but additionally all potential teams that wish to present will be able to do so on a first come, first serve basis until the slots are filled. Potential suppliers for the teams will also be given time to present as well.

Tech Could Beam Power to Drones - Lasers could power drones in flight and remove the need for gas deliveries to army bases. - Discovery News covers LaserMotive, the winner of the most recent Beam Power Centennial Challenge.

Also check out the recent tweets from @LaserMotive at the Unmanned Systems North America 2011 conference. The conference had some other prize events, including a student competition pavilion, a photo contest, awards, and the following X PRIZE hint:

@AUVSI: Diamandis: will announce $10M purse James Cook X Prize next month for AUV that can circumnavigate the globe collecting certain data.

Move Over DARPA: X Prize is Here - National Defense Magazine - This covers the Peter Diamandis talk at the conference. It includes a bit more information about potential prizes, including the James Cook X Challenge for a long-range autonomous underwater vehicle with a sensor suite and an Autonomous Auto X PRIZE that would pick up where the DARPA Challenges left off.

Getting back to the Centennial Challenges, here's some news about the Green Flight Challenge:

Google to Sponsor Green Flight Challenge - CAFE Foundation Blog:

CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) will conduct the event from September 25 through October 2, 2011 at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport. ... All competing aircraft will be shown to the public at the Google Green Flight Challenge Exposition hosted by NASA at Moffett Field–NASA Ames Research Center, from 9 AM to 4 PM on October 3, 2011. ... In addition to the main prizes for highest scores, the competition includes a bio-fuel prize and plans for a special Lindbergh Prize for Quietest aircraft, to be presented by Erik Lindbergh, grandson of the renowned winner of aviation’s Orteig Prize, Charles Lindbergh.

In addition to the Centennial Challenge news, the CAFE Foundation also has an announcement from Oshkosh 2011: PC-Aero Wins Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Vision Award

The Tether Strength Competition was held at the Space Elevator Conference a few days ago:

Space Elevator: Going Down? - Seattle Weekly
The 2011 Strong Tether Competition - The Space Elevator Blog

Many competitors in past Centennial Challenges continue their contributions. The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is a great example of this:

Thoughts on small sat and cube sat market size. - Unreasonable Rocket

Team Prometheus on Carmack 100kft Micro Prize - Team Prometheus:

Team Prometheus officially entered the Carmak Micro Challenge today. Our launch date is set for March 10th 2012. That's the date for our Space Shot. Going to be crazy here for a while!

Masten Space Systems Wins NASA Suborbital Flight Contract
Masten Space Systems Announces Management Additions - Masten Space Systems

'Sticky Boom' made for space dockings - Boulder County Business Report on the 2011 Heinlein NewSpace Business Plan Competition win by Altius Space Machines
Biz Plan Pitch Video - Altius Space Machines

2011 Tether Challenge

2011-08-12T07:52:00.000-05:00

I'm still here, although I haven't posted in weeks. I now have a daughter, and that means less frequent posting, especially while I have lots of visitors on extended trips to meet her.

I will quickly note that today one of the NASA Centennial Challenge competitions will be held. You can find background information, a video stream link, twitter update information, and more here:

2011 Space Elevator Games - Strong Tether Competition - is Friday - The Space Elevator Blog

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

2011-07-14T06:04:00.003-05:00

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

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

Competition Shines Light on Dark Matter - OSTP Blog

Team Agreement – For Review - Sample Return Robot Challenge

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

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

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

Entries wanted for the 2012 European CanSat competition - ESA

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011 X-Hab Challenge Winners, and 2012 X-Hab

2011-07-05T21:45:00.006-05:00

Here are a couple of articles about NASA's 2011 X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge student competition:

University Of Wisconsin Students Win Space Habitat Competition - NASA

UW-Madison undergrads win NASA habitat design competition - University of Wisconsin

You can find more information about the 2012 challenge here:

eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge - National Space Grant Foundation:

The Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) project will offer multiple X-Hab awards of $5K - $45K each to design and produce functional products of interest to the HDU project as proposed by university teams according to their interests and expertise. The prototypes produced by the university teams will be integrated onto an existing NASA built operational habitat prototype. ... The Foundation anticipates that approximately 6-8 awards will be made under this solicitation. ...

eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) 2012 Academic Innovation Challenge Solicitation (PDF) - The 2011 competition theme was inflatable habitats, but the 2012 one is much more open-ended, which can be either a good or bad thing in a prize competition depending on your point of view. The suggested topic list, covering a "Deep Space Habitat Systems" theme, includes "top-down" topics like a habitat demonstration module or a habitat structure that can be tested in underwater analog test sites like NEEMO. It also includes habitat subsystems such as sensors, recycling systems, geological sample management systems, telemedicine, a virtual reality environment, and many others.

Prize Roundup: Heinlein Prize, International Rocketry Challenge, CanSat winners, SEDS Conference, More

2011-06-25T12:44:00.001-05:00

Heinlein Prize Honors Elon Musk of SpaceX - Heinlein Prize Trust

06/16/2011: Swing Test - SpeedUp

NASA And DARPA Offer Students Chance To Support Future Missions - NASA - This is for the Zero Robotics competition using floating SPHERES platforms on the International Space Station

The CanSat Competition has posted their 2011 Competition Winners and 2011 Cansat Photos. Also, the 2012 mission has already been identified: Mission: Planetary Atmospheric Entry Vehicle.

Raytheon has a number of posts about the International Rocketry Challenge at the International Paris Air Show. You can see all of them at their 2011 Paris Air Show - Team America Rocketry Challenge tag. The most recent post is Raytheon-Sponsored Texas High School Team Wins International Rocket Fly-Off at Paris Air Show.

Northrop Grumman Announces Student Winners of Fourth Annual Engineering Scholars Program for Woodland Hills Facility - SpaceRef

SEDS Space Vision 2011 - RLV News - The early Speakers list for the conference includes a number of people with prize connections: Bill Nye (Executive Director of the Planetary Society, which has held a number of space competitions like the Apophis Mission Design Competition and numerous contests with themes like space art and mission names), Robert Richards (a Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor), Will Pomerantz (formerly of the X PRIZE Foundation), Jon Goff (who was part of the winning Masten Space Systems Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge team), and Ben Brockert (also from the Masten NG-LLC team, and now a member of another prize-winning NG-LLC team, Armadillo Aerospace).

Team Phoenicia sells first engine - RLV News

Briefs: Masten intern jobs; Langley lifting body event; Bruce Cordell interview - RLV News

White Label Space starts testing engines - RLV News

The next 2 links are from @ChallengeGov:

Now this is a cool ride! - The White House Blog discusses the Experimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V).

The latest International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge opened on May 31.

A TEA Party organization called TEA Party in Space has a platform that includes the following plank:

NASA shall use competitions and prizes whenever feasible to stimulate the private sector, including individual American inventors, to achieve innovative and affordable solutions to technological challenges.

Prize Roundup: Counting Craters, Earth Day Videos, Rockets, Asteroids, Sample Return Rules

2011-06-19T07:22:00.001-05:00

NASA Requires Source Code from Robot Challenge Entrants - Robotic Trends on the Sample Return Robot Challenge

Draft Rules Feedback - WPI responds to some of the concerns from their comments sections and articles like the Robotic Trends one.

Earth at the Movies - NASA Earth Observatory on the 2011 NASA Earth Day Video Contest with the theme The Home Frontier (link via NASA Watch)

Caltech Space Challenge: Mission to an Asteroid - California Institute of Technology - Two groups of students will participate in a workshop and compete to design a mission to an asteroid or comet. Here is more information about the workshop.

The Second NTL Marathon Match Challenge - NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) - This competition will be to develop algorithms to automatically detect craters from remote sensing images. The winners of the previous challenge, the Planetary Data System Idea Challenge, were announced recently.

College rocket teams competing in Utah contest - RLV News

Materials wizard wins $500,000 prize - Cosmic Log

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

2011-06-12T06:45:00.001-05:00

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

LaserMotive to Present at NASA Day on the Hill - LaserMotive

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

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

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

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

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

7-Eleven announces sweepstakes with space prizes - RLV News

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

Sample Return Review, Unreasonable Perspective, Rover Challenge Results, EuSEC Teams, Armadillo Test

2011-06-06T21:10:00.002-05:00

NASA’s new robot challenge - The Space Review - Ben Brockert discusses the Sample Return Robot Challenge.

Armadillo SuperMod test at full-throttle - RLV News - Ben also shows what Armadillo Aerospace is doing. You can see more from Armadillo in other recent RLV News posts.

Unreasonable UAV aerial videography - RLV News - Continuing the coverage of former Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams, Unreasonable Rocket gives a view of a rocket launch that somehow reminded me of the trailer for the new X-Men movie.

Here are a few links for the 2011 University Rover Challenge:

The Results Are In!
2011 University Rover Challenge Concludes in Utah
Photos -> URC 2011

EuSEC announces competitors - The Space Elevator Blog

We-Are-Space video contest extended to June 14th - Space for All

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

2011-05-28T06:18:00.015-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Update May 29:

Laurentian students win NASA Lunabotics - CBC News

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

Prize Roundup: Nanosat Launcher Comment, Make Tech Winner, CAFE and EAA Flight Challenges, More

2011-05-22T13:36:00.002-05:00

Student Experiment Microgravity Kit Wins NASA-Make Tech Contest - NASA press release:

Sponsored by Teachers in Space, a project of the Space Frontier Foundation in Nyack, N.Y, the first "Bring It Back" kits will fly aboard the Excelsior STEM mission scheduled to fly on a Masten Aerospace unmanned suborbital mission later this year.

Jeff Foust tweets about one of the ISDC 2011 talks:

@jeff_foust: London: NASA's planned $2M nanolaunch prize is a "little light"; estimates it would cost $20-30M to build a nanosat launcher. #ISDC

Also see Jeff's twitter account for tweets on the Google Lunar X PRIZE ISDC session.

3DHawaii expands with private label product and a great trip giveaway - Google Earth Blog

Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [45]: More First Small Holes - Team Phoenicia (see more pictures at their site)

Pipistrel’s Four-seat, Side-by-side Electric Airplane - CAFE Foundation blog:

This unique design has come about by grafting two Pipistrel Taurus aircraft together with a center section which is some 5 meters (16 feet) wide and includes a center pylon housing the electric engine and batteries designed to successfully carry this aircraft to the skies and hopefully to the completion of the 2011 CAFE/NASA challenge, the design bears some similarity to the twin Mustang fighter and even White Knight Two. ... The goal for the development of this aircraft is to enter and hopefully be successful in completing the 2011 CAFE/NASA green flight challenge which is held between July 11 and July 17, 2011 at the Santa Rosa airport in northern California and then also competing in the EAA AirVenture Electric Flight Challenge held at this year’s Oshkosh event just a few weeks later.

2011 Lunabotics (University Regolith Excavation) Competition

2011-05-19T21:16:00.003-05:00

NASA's Second Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition, a university student competition to excavate and collect simulated lunar regolith that is similar to the NASA Regolith Excavation Centennial Challenge, will be held at the Kennedy Space Center from May 26-28. I hope this Lunabotics overview will get you in the mood to support this competition.

NASA Invites Reporters To Second Annual Lunabotics Competition - NASA press release

Here's the Lunabotics Facebook page: ESMD Lunar Regolith Excavator Competition. You can see quite a bit about some of the teams on the Wall page, and there's also a lot of information about other aspects of the competition like last year's event, a Senior Design Course based on the challenge, and more. There's also a Lunabotics twitter account, but that hasn't been active lately. That might change as the competition approaches; it's worth a try to check it out then.

There's also a Lunabotics YouTube Channel with video from last year's event, and also some new content.

Now for the teams! There are quite a few teams, and many of them have been showing their progress on YouTube and other sites.

Temple University Lunabotics 2011:

Colorado School of Mines:

University of North Dakota Robotics:

Harvard Lunabotics 2011 (see quite a few more at their YouTube channel):

Oakton Community College 2011 Lunabotics:

LAR-E (Lunar All-terrain Regolith Excavator) from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott (also see the article Lunabotics & LAR-E: Mechanical Engineering Senior Robotics Design):

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona:

University of Louisville (It looks like this is for a capstone class with a Lunabotics theme, as I don't see the school in the Lunabotics teams list):

UNC Charlotte:

Chondrobot, BRAC University:

Universidad de Los Andes:

Alabama Lunabotics (Also see the Alabama Lunabotics twitter account):

University of Southern Indiana, Lunar Ash Borers:

Here are some other articles, team sites, and other links related to the competition:

McGill LunarEx - team site from McGill University

West Virginia University Lunabotics - This Facebook page has plenty of videos and photos from the team.
McBride-inspired WVU team to compete in Lunabotics Mining competition - WVU Today
Robot to work on the moon : novel creation by WVU students - Gizmo Watch

ISU Lunabotics - Ames, Iowa - Here's another team Facebook page. They expect to put recent pictures up soon.

UND NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition 2010-2011 - University of North Dakota team site, including photos.

Vizag team hopes to mine lunar surface - Deccan Chronicle

Lunabotics Mining Competition - Team site for The Robotics Association at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

NASA’s Lunabotics 2011 – Symbiosis Sponsors Indian team - Symbiosis Coaching

Engineers to take robot to NASA competition - Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech

NASAMICI is already looking ahead to the 2012 competition, and how Minority Serving Institutions can try to get a $5,000 grant for that event.

Team America Rocketry Challenge Today

2011-05-14T07:15:00.000-05:00

The TARC competition is today. For those who want to follow the event on twitter, you might want to try the hashtag #TARC11. At the moment it looks like some people are starting to show up a bit early.

Also, here is the twitter account for the organizers:

@RocketContest. The Plains, Va. The Aerospace Industries Association's Team America Rocketry Challenge is the world's largest rocket contest for middle & high school teams!

Prize Roundup: Tricorder, SeaPerch, Google Earth Puzzles, LASER2011, STEM Bar, Biz Competitions, More

2011-05-13T17:06:00.003-05:00

How good are you at Google Earth-based puzzles? - Google Earth Blog

New items from Japan - The Space Elevator Blog - One of the new items is about the LASER2011 student competition.

Updates - The Space Elevator Blog - One of the updates is on a new event to be held at the Space Elevator Conference called RoboQuest. It sounds like there will be a student robot competition and a FIRST Tech Challenge demonstration. The conference already features the Strong Tether Centennial Challenge and the Artsutanov and Pearson Prizes. The other update is about a video from an early Space Elevator Games team.

LaserMotive Featured in Photonics Online - LaserMotive

MoonBots 2.0 Challenges Teams to Conduct Google Lunar X PRIZE Missions with LEGO Robots - X PRIZE Foundation

The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Join Forces to Develop a Competition to Enhance Integrated Digital Health - MarketWire - The name of the competition, the Tricorder X PRIZE, should give you a good idea what sort of device is envisioned.

Student experiments to soar in NASA balloons - MSNBC

NewSpace Business Plan Competition - RLV News

Space Florida co-sponsors $100k biz plan competition - RLV News

Student-developed 'STEM Bar' to fly on STS-134 - NASA Watch

FAR weekend and progress.... - Unreasonable Rocket

Check out the submissions for the Connected Vehicle Technology Challenge, a competition based on ideas for ways to use "dedicated short range communications" for vehicles.

The Office of Naval Research is funding the Sponsoring Scholars in Science Awards for ideas that will inspire student interest in STEM topics of interest to the Navy. An example topic is "Designing Affordable Sensors for SeaPerch Remotely Operated Vehicle". SeaPerch is an educational underwater robot program that includes the 2011 SeaPerch Challenge, where students operate their vehicles in a simulated underwater oil spill. They also get to meet a NASA astronaut during the challenge. This year's event will be held on May 23-25.

Prize Roundup: Conrad Awards at Ames, LaserMotive at SPIE, FAA Prize Discussion, More

2011-05-07T07:01:00.002-05:00

Bright Young Minds Present Visions for the Future - NASA on the Conrad Foundation's Innovation Summit held at NASA Ames:

The team from Upper Clair High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. won the aerospace exploration category for their composting system for use in long-duration space flight. The “Perpetual Harvest Space Nutrition System” takes organic waste and creates compost that is then used to grow fresh foods while also serving as an air filter for human habitation.

The winner in the clean energy category, the West Philly EVX Team, was a prominent contender in the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE and other competitions.

SPIE 2011: Laser solution for long-endurance UAVs - Shepard

EuSEC moved to August, 2011 - The Space Elevator Blog

Here are some articles on the FAA AST budget request, which includes funding for a prize for a partially reusable cubesat launcher:

Nield Lays Out FAA Commercial Space Budget for Congress - Parabolic Arc
FAA Defends Requested 74 Percent Budget Increase for FY2012 - Space Policy Online
Raising the profile of FAA’s commercial space transportation work - Space Politics

'Incentiprizing': The New Path To Business Breakthroughs - The Huffington Post

@paulsrobotics: Pauls Robotics yfrog.com/h44a9kdj

@LaserMotive: Wow, we had a great business trip to CA this week! Can't go into details, but there's some exciting stuff coming up!

The 2011 Team America Rocketry Challenge is scheduled for next weekend - May 14.

Roundup: Jousting, Slinky, Student Launches, Nanosat Vids, Space Tech, CAFE on FB, More

2011-04-23T08:15:00.002-05:00

Sometimes a space prize is a space prize because of who is hosting the competition:

Competitive Jousting on the Shores of Lake Austin - TexasJoust.com - Richard Garriott is the host of Lysts on the Lake.

2011 Weightless Object Contest Winner - ZERO-G Facebook - The winner is the Slinky.

Nanosat Launcher Challenge Raw Video #12-15: Dr Andrew Petro on the Centennial Challenges - Team Phoenicia - You can find the earlier videos on the Nanosat Launcher Challenge meeting at their site, too.

Gallery: NASA Student Launch Projects - The Huntsville Times has a photo gallery for the student competition.

SpaceTech Engineering Design Challenge - SpaceHack shows a competition for college students that NASA's new Office of Space Technology wants to hold.

Space Angels Network LOS ANGELES Venture Forum, April 28, 2011 - Space Angels Network is holding this event for accredited investors at 1 Rocket Rd in Hawthorne, CA. You can probably guess where that is. The presenting company is Astrobotic Technology, Inc.

NASA Awards Contract for Lunar Gravity Simulation Device - Astrobotic

Our Sputnik Moment: US Entrepreneurs Needed for the "Space Race" - The Huffington Post features Naveen Jain from Moon Express.

LaserMotive to Present to 29th Annual Space Power Workshop - LaserMotive

FRC Championship at the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri - USFIRST.org - The event will be held April 27-30. NASA will live stream the event.

CAFE Foundation on Facebook - Their most recent update there links to their blog post Berblinger Flight Competition Winners for 2011. Their blog also notes that the 5th Annual CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium Launches New Age of Flight on April 29-30. That symposium includes some prize content:

As a special event, EAS V will debut the awesome array of experimental new electric aircraft that will compete 9 weeks later in the 2011 NASA Aeronautics Prize, the CAFE Green Flight Challenge (July 10-17 at Santa Rosa Airport).

James Cameron And Eric Schmidt On Why They "Visioneer" For X Prize - Fast Company

X PRIZE Visioneering and The Mother of All Business Plan Competitions - Tech Crunch

Prize Roundup: Student Launch Initiative, Weightless Objects, Visioneering, More

2011-04-17T11:09:00.015-05:00

Other than a burst of posts about Space Access '11 (see much more about that conference here), I haven't written much here at Space Prizes in the last few weeks. This is due to a combination of getting ready for a new addition to the family, lots of visitors, and other activities unrelated to blogging. I wouldn't be surprised if the posts here continue to happen at a slower rate than before. In the meantime, here's a roundup:

The Student Launch Initiative is taking place this weekend. The following tweet has a key hashtag and video link, but there's also lots more from SLI_1milehigh:

@SLI_1milehigh: 47 teams are competing today, including 17 middle/high schools and 30 college/univ ( #Watching_Rockets_Launch live at http://ustre.am/rrlz)

The deadline for the next tweet is now in the past, but there are still ways to get involved.

@gozerog: Last day to submit your entry into the 2011 Weightless Object Contest. Click here to enter http://bit.ly/fKSS6C

From the site:

Submit one photo of an object you would like to see weightless by April 15. ZERO-G will select the Top 5 entries and publish them on ZERO-G's Facebook page on April 18. Then it's up to ZERO-G fans to select the winning object. The winner will be announced on April 22 and the winning object will fly on an upcoming ZERO-G flight.

The next one is from April 15, so it's well under way now:

@peterdiamandis: Kicking off a three day X PRIZE board meeting. We have 100 CEOs and philanthropists gathering for a Visioneering brainstorm of future prizes

You can see more about this at the twitter hashtag #visioneering

@nss: New review of Ansari's biography by Cliff McMurray: http://www.nss.org/books. Use Amazon links to benefit NSS.

National Space Society Announces Space Pioneer Award for Business Entrepreneur to Be Awarded to SpaceX - National Space Society

@morpheuslander: @VAXHeadroom We are partnered with Armadillo Aerospace, one of the NGLLC winners. Having me at JSC allows rapid testing and iteration.

LaserMotive to Exhibit at SPIE - LaserMotive

Join our mailing list - Sample Return Robot Challenge

NASA Releases Status On Open Government Initiatives - SpaceRef - You can see the status of the initiatives at the NASA Open Gov Status Dashboard. Many of the items on the dashboard concern the NASA Centennial Challenges.

2011 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards - NASA Watch

NASA Make Challenge Webcast - NASA Watch

I've posted a number of times on Google Earth prizes, on ocean prizes, and on Virgin Galactic's work to take the Ansari X PRIZE win to the next level. This next link isn't about prizes, but it does mix up those other 3 interests of mine in a new way, so I'll let this post take a quick step outside of the prize world for a second to link to a post about Virgin Oceanic:

Diving deep with Richard Branson - Google Earth Blog

Saturday Testing... - Unreasonable Rocket

Armadillo working on Mod vehicle
Briefs: Iridium Next on Falcons; Catch a Ride with Rocket City Space Pioneers
Briefs: PWR joins Rocket City Space Pioneers; Morpheus update
Briefs: Moon Express; Colorado rockets; Southern space gloves - all from RLV News

Space Access '11: Unreasonable Rocket - Paul Breed

2011-04-10T10:59:00.001-05:00

Paul described the last year as an "unreasonably lazy" one. He didn't build any new vehicles, but he did take technology steps towards his goals. These steps involve three projects: small printed motor experiments, a 100 gram GPS IMU for a Nanosatellite launcher, and composite tanks technology. Paul compared the GPS IMU to the heavier Northop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge version, which he showed in his hands. These 3 steps are all intended to be combined into a microlauncher.

Paul showed his first 3D printed motor attempt, and explained the process for making it. Then he showed his second attempt. This presentation was full of hardware components, so he was showing the real metal. For his third attempt, he used discrete metal laser sintering. This is a more expensive technique - on the order of jumping from $350 to $5,000. He showed the results. He was able to get some firings out of this attempt. His goal is to have it run for 10 minutes without touching it, then to wait 2 weeks, and finally to get another 10 minute run without touching it. He got the first part of that sequence, but not the repeat. He is trying again this upcoming weekend for the second attempt. Finally, Paul showed is fourth printed motor, which was made using a different company. This one is aluminum compared to stainless steel for the others.

The next discussion was on the small GPS-integrated IMU. He built a high power rocket to test the IMU. Paul showed the rocket. Some lower-cost products don't work well with rocket vibrations. None of the numerous GPSs that he tested (and he showed a bunch of GPS hardware) would keep lock during 6G acceleration. As a result, he is GPS-less. Now he is building one. He will be open about all of the hardware. He's not sure how open he will be able to be for the software. He showed the chips he's combining with his Netburner product.

The last discussion was on tank development. He partnered with Microcosm to develop peroxide compatible tanks. The first tank may be ready by May. Unreasonable can build with the tanks, and Microcosm can sell them.

In the future, he plans to combine these 3 projects into a vehicle. He's looking at the NASA Nanosatellite Launch Challenge.

There was some talk at the end about the need for a volunteer to take videos at the FAR, since he's busy with other work when he goes there.

Space Access '11: Armadillo Aerospace - Russ Blink and Ben Brockert

2011-04-09T15:59:00.001-05:00

Since the last conference, Armadillo has been flying the Mod vehicle and designing an aeroshell. They will need to fly the Mod for their CRuSR contract. They showed a video of a similar flight to what they'd need for CRuSR. They did more work with the Rocket Racing League. The RRL did 2 flights at a time. Armadillo left us in suspense about something brewing at the RRL. The RRL ran their engines 1,000 times. These runs were full flight profiles, not just starts and stops. Ben joked "You know you're doing a lot of rocket testing when it gets annoying."

Armadillo is working with NASA's Project M. They needed a prototype for a system to take Robonaut to the lunar surface. JSC folks worked with them to build a vehicle. The vehicle is at jSC now. They hope to fly around May. It was a good collaboration, with learning in both directions. They showed several videos of engine tests with new engines, some for their use, and some for NASA's use. They showed a scaled-down model of the tube rocket. This one can be held in a hand. The full scale one is 29 feet long.

They showed videos of a burst test.

The NASA work took a long time. Eventually they were able to start work on vehicle altitude and speed. That's what the tube rocket is for. It's not the final configuration. Crashing the tube rocket is like crashing a sports car (I assume they meant in terms of cost).

They showed a video of a parachute drop from an airplane. They also showed video of tube rocket Stig hovering. One test even had them pull on the hovering rocket to give a disturbing force to the rocket. They also showed a launch stand that Ben designed.

Stig is in New Mexico, waiting for some Spaceport America and White Sands Missile Range paperwork. The are working through a new type of operation at the spaceport. It's a learning process for everyone to get comfortable. They are planning on a 100,000 foot flight.

Space Access '11: SpeedUp - Bob Steinke

2011-04-09T15:46:00.000-05:00

Bob does his work at the Frontier Astronautics silo. Frontier Astronautics had a presentation right before this one, so you can find more information about them by checking other sites covering this conference. He's working on hybrid engine, the Laramie Rose Lunar Lander Challenge vehicle, and a new product.

The hybrid engine is intended to be a simple, highly reliable upper stage engine. He did static fires, design of a subscale motor, and some design work on full scale motor. Bob talked about a test where a hydrogen peroxide failure happened.

Next Bob discussed the Laramie Rose, which was for the Lunar Lander Challenge. That competition is over, but Bob still wants to fly the Laramie Rose. Lots of the hardware work is done. On March 27, he did a plugs-out static fire. He thinks the hardware could fly, but the software isn't ready. He expects to do tether testing this summer. He got an FAA/AST class 2 amateur flight authorization last week. The neighbor at Frontier has an airport which complicates the process. He's now familiar with the FAA process, so later rounds should go smoother. He's looking at doing a ~10 second hover.

He's working with Osa Fitch of Luna City Enterprises and Joe Lee of Open Source Launch Vehicle. Both are presenting at the conference. See other sites covering the conference for more details on them.

Bob gave a detailed presentation on a new product, a "Non-Pyro Valve Actuator".

Space Access '11: Masten Space Systems - Dave Masten

2011-04-09T13:09:00.000-05:00

In the past year, Masten Space has been building their team, focusing more on the business side, but still making substantial technology achievements. They have 4 new engineers, and 3 new business people.

On the technology side, they did the first VTVL relight, worked on the CRuSR conract, won a plume impingement SBIR where they can use Mars or lunar simulant to study landers and effects on regolith, worked on thei Scimitar engine, and flew Xaero which is capable of 30 km flight. On the business side, since they are working on contracts, they have a strong customer focus. They also got a Letter of Intent with Space Florida.

Dave gave some technical details on the Scimitar engine.

For CRuSR, they plan a 5 km flight in the 2nd quarter of 2011.

Their 2011 technology focus is on a rigid control system, getting Xaero to 30 km, put Scimitar on the vehicle, do Katana engine tests (Katana is a new engine), Xogdar build out, and customer projects.

They plan to continue developing their customer focus, increase sales and growth, make their back office smooth, and expand their investors.

Q: Why Florida?

A: There is an experienced work force that will be available with Shuttle retirement. Also, there are problems with places where they can fly. Mojave is just for research and development flights. Spaceport America in New Mexico has difficult scheduling problems with White Sands Missile Range. Florida is the most airspace-friendly. Also, Florida is giving business incentives.

Q: What's the timeline for the 30 km flight, and is there a backup plan in case of a crash?

A: Ideally they would have the flight by September for the end of the fiscal year. If there was a crash, they could rebuild with spare parts.

Space Access '11: NASA Ames Space Portal - Bruce Pittman

2011-04-09T12:55:00.000-05:00

This talk covered a wide variety of topics; I'll concentrate on those related to prizes.

The Space Portal is interested in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. NASA awarded ILDDs for lunar data purchases. The total value is $30.1M; and some of the money can be earned through work on Earth towards the lunar data demonstrations.

They are also developing a Lunar Orphan Flight Test (LOFT) list of lunar science and engineering instruments that NASA developed but never flew. Their goal is to "loan" these instruments to people that can use them on the Moon. There would be no requirement to return the "loaned" equipment, of course. This is still an idea in development. They are also doing other work related to the Moon.

Bruce also discussed the Regolith Excavation Challenge sandpit. The sandbox now has internet controlled rovers, and is used for education.

Q: The ILDD data purchases have gone to Google Lunar X PRIZE teams, and a specific to the Moon. Are any other data purchases planned?

A: They are exploring the idea, perhaps for NEOs.

Space Access '11: Kansas City Space Pirates - Frank Smith

2011-04-09T10:01:00.000-05:00

KCSP have been involved with the NASA Power Beaming Challenge, FIRST, educational outreach, tether experiments, spacecraft design, and developing a new business.

Frank showed a video of the KCSP tether climber.

LaserMotive won some of the $2M Power Beaming Challenge, but $1.1M remains. However, only LaserMotive is able to compete this time in the climber challenge. Spaceward is looking into changing the challenge (Editor's note: I assume this is in the interest of having multiple competitors in the challenge ... but I'm not sure what LaserMotive thinks of the idea). One idea for competition is to beam power to a rover, with the rover able to drive round at least 50m, do a turn, and rove another 50m. The score would be based on the efficiency of beaming multiplied by the distance. This idea has not been approved. It's a preliminary proposal by The Spaceward Foundation.

KCSP are working on a tether experiment It involves a smallsat (under 1 kg), a gravity gradient boom, and unspooling a tether as much as possible.

They have a new business, "Ashes to Orbit". They put 1 ounce of ashes into a polar orbit, the ashes disperse into a cloud, they come back to Earth in 1-2 weeks, and spread over the Earth. They're designing the capsule, and the launch provider has not been announced yet.

Their name is based on the mascot of a university they've worked with.

Space Access '11: Altius Space Machines - Jon Goff

2011-04-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

This talk didn't involve space prizes, but I'm covering it because of Jon's past involvement with the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and possible interest in the Nanosatellite Launcher Challenge. I will probably cover some other presentations for similar reasons. It's likely that I'll cover Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander competitors in general.

This is the first time that Jon has pitched his company in front of a big audience.

Jon was part of the original Masten Space Systems team, he's the author of the Selenian Boondocks web site, and he's interested in propellant depots. Last July, he left Masten Space Systems, and started Altius Space Machines in Louisville, CO. Ian Garcia from MSS is also at ASM. His hunch is that many key space technologies can be profitably developed today. You can attack the problem of affordable space access from both sides and the middle. His plan is to bootstrap using contract engineering in the style of XCOR with longer-term goals in mind during the contracts.

The first ASM product is a rendezvous and docking technology. RLV markets are difficult. An RLV needs about 50 flights per year to be worth doing. Robust operations require 2-3 vehicles per vehicle builder. A robust industry requires 2-3 builders. All of that implies hundreds of flights per year are needed for a robust RLV industry. Rendezvous and docking events are a bottleneck at those levels of flights. To help solve that problem, ASM is working on a "tractor beam": an electrostatic sticky boom.

The boom is capable of rendezvous with a non-cooperative target. Electrostatically adhering to surfaces works better in a vacuum. They filed a provisional patent with SRI for the sticky boom. It can grab objects of any material, size, and shape. A long boom allows distant capture to reduce collision risk. It simplifies rendezvous. It also lowers the risk of plume impingement. Jon gave an analogy to ropes and a dock when bringing in a boat, or fighter plane refueling with a boom. The boat and plane don't crash into the dock or refueling tanker.

There are many potential applications of the boom. It can be used for Mars Sample Return, despinning objects, grabbing NEO samples, grabbing lost EVA tools, space debris cleanup, and satellite servicing. Eventually depot rendezvous and docking could use the boom. More frequent deliveries could be made to and from the ISS.

The status is that they won their SBIR proposal, they made a proof of concept, and they presented at the D.C. technology day. They sent in a Zero-G flight proposal.

Jon did a demo of the boom, which was clearly popular with the audience.

Their roadmap includes Zero-G tests, suborbital/ISS/rideshare tests, and eventually actual missions using the boom. The business goals include technology demonstrations, satellite servicing, space science missions and developing a team.

Space Access '11: A Prize Snippet Roundup

2011-04-09T09:20:00.000-05:00

This post covers a number of talks during Space Access '11 where the main topic was not a space prize or a prize team, but where space prizes were discussed briefly. In these cases, I concentrated on the short prize discussions. You can get more information about the rest of such talks from other sites covering the conference. For example, see the posts at RLV News and the collection of links there.

Please note that I have a lot of trouble hearing in big rooms with echoes and buzzing machinery, so it's quite possible that I've mis-heard some items here and there.

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space - Sara Meschberger

There was an overview of the High Power Rocketry Prize and a new video competition, the We Are Space competition. This is being run with help from the Space Frontier Foundation and Spacevidcast.com. The first prize is $1,000.

There were some pictures of SEDS members now in industry. On the prize side, I didn't see names, but I think Ben Brockert and Will Pomerantz were included.

Q: Could SEDS run something like a FIRST cometition, but with a space focus?

A: They have some local chapter competitions like that. Send in your ideas.

NASA Technology Roadmaps and the Shape of Future NASA - James Reuther

Q: Paul Breed asked about the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge. When will the Allied Organization be selected, will the rules be made, etc? Inquiring minds want to know.

A: This was an "I'll get back to you on that one". However, I include the question because it shows that there is some interest ...

Microlaunchers - Charles Pooley

Microlaunchers is relocating to Las Vegas because of a better business environment that he experienced in California.

He was doing N Prize work. He's also interested in the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge. He thinks it will help to attract participants and sponsors. We're in the mainframe era of space. He wants to make launch costs go down by a factor of 1000. This would make space accessible. He's looking into missions to NEOs with tiny spacecraft. There would be small telescopes to the ground to get data from the craft.

He showed several generations of launchers. The first generation could be an entry in the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge. He presented a chart with comparisons of 4 generations of launchers. The 4th generation is 1/2 the size of the Falcon 1.

Garvey Space - John Garvey

He's working on a Nanosatellite launcher. NASA's Nanosatellite Launch Challenge might help. There are some potential issues with the rules for this challenge, though. They need some direction on IRAD funding. What about reuse of hardware? What if the hardware was developed on a government contract? This would impact Garvey Space since they do this type of work.

He wants to avoid getting into a competition with a government project. For example, he views the Lunar Lander Challenge and NASA MSFC work on lunar landers as being in competition, and doesn't want to be in that situation.

His estimate is that the launcher could be done in 2-4 years, for $10-20M. It might be less, or on the lower side, if less robustness is needed. There's really a wide range of possible costs, but it's not anything like as low as $1M or as high as $100M.

FAA - Mike Kelly

Q: Paul Breed asked for FAA direction on Nanosatellite launchers. He doesn't want a Delta IV sized pile of paperwork. At any rate he wants an example of filling out the forms, like he had before (I assume for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge licensing) and more direction from the FAA.

A: It doesn't make sense to have the same size of dilligence for something like CRUSR and a Delta IV launch. They had a CRUSR workshop on licensing. A payload review is required and could take 180 days. They need to streamline the licensing process to reflect the level of hazard.

Q: John Garvey had a question on the FAA Launch prize.

A: The 2012 budget proposal includes a prize for a semi-reusable orbital prize. Originally it was for $15M, but that amount was cut back. (Editor's note: I believe it was for $5M by the time the budget proposal was released. Also, I don't recall hearing the details about "orbital" and "semi-reusable" before, so that might be new information). They will see if it passes in the budget. They see it as a good match with the NASA prizes (Editor's note: I will guess that he is talking about NASA's Nanosatellite Launch Challenge). He would like to see a least 1 rocket stage being reused for the prize.

Space Conferences

2011-03-20T15:14:00.000-05:00

Here's some information about upcoming space conferences, including some comments about space prizes and other topics.

International Space Development Conference 2011 - May 18-22, Huntsville, Alabama - This conference includes workshops on ISS Payload Integration, Commercial Crew and Cargo, and Space Launch System Mission Development. As in past ISDCs, the NASA Space Settlement Contest winners will be honored. There will be a Google Lunar X PRIZE Plenary, and 4 teams have already signed up. The conference includes numerous speakers, exhibits, tours, and other activities.

ISSMars-DC Conference - April 6-7, George Washington University (DC) - ExploreMars, the group organizing the Mars Education Challenge and the ISRU Challenge, will investigate how the ISS can help lay the foundation for exploration. Numerous prominent speakers such as NASA Administrator Charles Bolden are on the schedule. Themes include use of the ISS as a Mars analog, an exploration technology development and demonstration platform, a market for commercial services that can later help exploration, and as a governance model for international exploration missions.

Civil Commercial Imagery Evaluation Workshop - March 29-31 - Boulder, Colorado - I noticed this conference about the time the 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, which prominently featured the services of several prize-related teams, was in session. While pleased with the advances that the 2011 NSRC demonstrated, I couldn't help thinking that they won't really have made it until these services are featured in more traditional conferences like this commercial remote sensing evaluation workshop. The agenda includes government evaluation of commercial satellite imagery, sensors, and aerial remote sensing. There is a gap between the commercial air photo and satellite remote sensing services, but can the commercial suborbital industry fill it?

Space Access '11 - April 7-9, Phoenix, Arizona - This conference can be counted on to feature prizes, prize teams, and other facets of entrepreneurial space access. Some teams with past, current, or likely future involvement with space prizes that are on the Space Access '11 schedule include Altius Space Machines, Armadillo Aerospace, KC Space Pirates, Masten Space Systems, Team Prometheus, SpeedUp, and Unreasonable Rocket. FAA AST is also there; their 2012 budget proposal includes funding for a space access prize.

Smallsat (25th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites) - August 8-11 - Logan, Utah - I can never quite convince myself which is more exciting, the progress being made in small space access systems, or the progress being made in small satellites. As usual, there will be a Student Scholarship Competition at the conference.

Reinventing Space 2011 - May 2-6, Los Angeles, California - This used to be called Responsive Space. Now the emphasis isn't just on Operationally Responsive Space, but on Low-Cost ORS. I guess I've always assumed that ORS is impossible without low cost. This conference includes student presentations by award winners.

Nanosat Mission Ideas, Wild Card Winner, FIRST, TARC Kit, More

2011-03-16T22:21:00.001-05:00

March Madness -- Moonbuggy-style - NASA Great Moonbuggy Race Blog

Estes releases new Team America parts assortment packs - Rocketry Planet

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #42 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Students Compete in Lego Robotics Challenge at JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Robotics ingenuity on the spot: FIRST competition draws student teams to WPI - Telegram.com

New chief executive officer for space company - Isleofman.com on Odyssey Moon

Conrad Foundation announces first ever Wild Card Invitation Winner - Conrad Foundation

EuSEC - Looking for a few good teams… - The Space Elevator Blog

There’s an app for that! - The Space Elevator Blog

Economist: Beam it up - The Space Elevator Reference

@LaserMotive: LaserMotive will be pitching to the Space Angels Network March 31st in LA and Palo Alto: http://bit.ly/dFEzv9

@ac_charania: 1st Nano-sat Constellation Mission Idea Contest, 1st place: Integrated Meteorological/Precise Positioning Mission http://bit.ly/hL4lMS

Here's the Nano-satellite Constellation Mission Idea Contest site where you can find out more about the winners and other finalists. In addition to prize money and publication, the finalists were invited to present at the 2nd Nano-Satellite Symposium in Tokyo. The rest of that symposium has been canceled because of effects of the recent earthquake, but per A.C. Charania's tweets, a second Nanosat Constellation Mission Idea Contest is planned for 2012.

Prize Roundup: Prize Report, Electric Aircraft, LLC Pad, GLXP Panel, FAA Prize, Nanosat Launch Partner, More

2011-03-09T21:32:00.002-05:00

The 2011 CAFE Foundation Electric Aircraft Symposium - CAFE Foundation - One of the presentations on the preliminary program is for

Larry Ford, Vice President, CAFE Foundation, DEBUT: The Amazing Aircraft of the 2011 CAFE Green Flight Challenge

The X PRIZE Foundation lists several open job opportunities, including one for the Senior Director, Google Lunar X PRIZE.

NASA OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Award - NASA Watch

Managing Innovation Prizes in Government - IBM Center for The Business of Government

Spurring Innovation via Contests and Prizes - Governing.com

Air Force Launches Open Innovation Pavilion - Open Government Initiative (The White House)

FAA Seeks Funding for New Space Prize - Space News

Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge partner needed - RLV News

The robots in Google's race to the moon - New Scientist

@LunarPioneer: LROC announces The Moon and Me K-12 Art Challenge #LPSC42 http://bit.ly/hPn3xa

@ISDC: We're featuring a panel with Google Lunar X Prize teams for our Saturday plenary...

@ikluft: Photo by @Rocket_Flyer of weeds growing in Lunar Lander Challenge launch/landing pad in #Mojave http://twitpic.com/47jh23

@sedsusa: The SEDS 2011 High-Powered Rocketry Competition is under way! Contact info and full rules and details can be found at http://bit.ly/gAMsb1

Also see SEDS 2011 High-Powered Rocketry Competition.

@TeamPrometheus: Here is the kickstart link! Wish us luck and pledge if you can! If we dont make our goal we get nothing and you... http://fb.me/WsSvcZNN

Prize Roundup: FAA Space Access Prize? Space Elevator, ISDC, NSRC Student Prize, More

2011-03-04T07:29:00.000-05:00

FAA 2012 budget proposal includes space access prize - Space Politics

Here are 3 updates that mix in some other topics with information about competitions with a Space Elevator theme:

An oldie but goodie… - The Space Elevator Blog

Call for Papers for the 2011 Space Elevator Conference - The Space Elevator Reference

Moving Forward In March - LaserMotive

Need your help: A GLXP Panel at International Space Development Conference (ISDC 2011) - Evadot

Allure From Afar: 1st Prize Student Essay at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, 2011 - SpaceRef

NASA recruiting sponsors for new high-tech competitions - Network World / Layer 8

The following RLV News set includes a number of Armadillo and Unreasonable Rocket updates:

Briefs: Paul Breed interview Pt.2; Stig at sunset; REL update
Briefs: Blue Origin article; Stig + team; CSF hails NSRC
Packing up Stig
Briefs: Unreasonable interview; Andrews Space gets Reusable Booster study contract
Armadillo nosecone/parachute deployment test video
NSRC 2011: Monday afternoon - Suborbital provider session
Armadillo video of the Tube Rocket preparations

Contest by Make Magazine, Teachers in Space, and NASA

2011-03-04T06:54:00.001-05:00

NASA Launches 2011 Nationwide Technology Space Competition for Education - NASA

Make Magazine Helps Develop Space Science Kits for Education - The Space Frontier Foundation

NASA MAKE Challenge - Make: Online

Make: Challenge Experiemental Science Kits for Space - Make Magazine blog:

Our first challenge is to develop inexpensive science kits that can be built in a classroom and sent on-board suborbital flights to conduct experiments. The experiments must fit within a Cubesat ... The winner of the NASA MAKE Challenge will be honored at this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire, and the winning kit project will be featured in MAKE magazine.

Prize Roundup: Lunbotics Contractor, FIRST Peek, Night Rover Allied Org, Rocket Challenge, More

2011-02-27T19:47:00.002-05:00

@nasawatch: Lunarobotics Mining Competition Awards Ceremony and Reception at KSC Visitor Complex http://srs.gs/15Kj

It looks like the scope of work for the Lunabotics contract also includes the opening ceremony and the competition itself.

@Team190: Check out the teaser video for this year's robot, the G-Rex http://vimeo.com/20350475! #omgrobots #WPI

Briefs: Night Rover Challenge needs management. WPI to run Sample Return Robot Challenge - RLV News

John Carmack and Paul Breed sponsor amateur rocket challenge prize - RLV News

@fineri: John Carmacks announcement of the 100kft micro prize on arocket has sparked abit of interest in the nz rocket community,positive interest :)

@fineri: @QuantumG go here for more pics mate: https://picasaweb.google.com/kiwi2space/6600N1500lbfLargeHybrid

Armadillo Aerospace tube rocket picts - RLV News

More Yuri's Night contests - Space for All

MIT $100K! ~ Business Plans Due 2/25 6p... - Maximizing Progress

@RCSpacePioneers: RCSP Team Leader, Tim Pickens, will speak at the Huntsville HAL5 meeting Mar. 3 about the #Google Lunar X PRIZE quest: http://bit.ly/gmTqjf

How are you going to fund your GLXP entry: The Nanosat Launcher Challenge Contracting - Team Phoenicia

Astrobotic Technology Inc. - D Minus Zero

@genomics_xprize: Pleased to announce that we're opening up the AGXP Validation Protocol for public comment. See details here: http://bit.ly/giGadT

Prize Roundup: Canadian Sat Challenge,UCF Conference, Prometheus Activity, EAA Electric Planes, More

2011-02-23T21:39:00.000-05:00

Seven Entries for EAA's Electric Flight Prize - EAA AirVenture 2011

USST, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team, was one of the prominent Space Elevator Games climber teams. They are also participating in another competition, the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.

Ladies and Gentleman, Start Your Rocket Engines - Peter Diamandis at The Huffington Post

Future of Space Tourism, Research Will Be Focus of Conference - University of Central Florida Newsroom

GPS progress.... - Unreasonable Rocket

Team Prometheus had a number of interesting tweets recently. Here are a couple of them:

@TeamPrometheus: John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace just agreed to donate $5000 to Team Prometheus to launch the Prometheus III... http://fb.me/V84sgdTG

@TeamPrometheus: I uploaded a YouTube video -- "Q" motor Static test http://youtu.be/Qt6nYh27BAQ?a

@tedprize: Check out this story from NPR on "Tuning In Space Noise For Sounds Of Life". Includes interview w/ Jill Tarter. http://n.pr/gguVPI

@evadot: Working on a proposed #GLXP panel for ISDC 2011. Would be nice if some teams could come. I know @rcspacepioneers and @ptscientists are.

@sedsusa: SEDS-USA is happy to announce the SEDS 2011 High-Powered Rocketry Competition! Full rules and details can be found at http://bit.ly/gAMsb1

@dmasten: A little Xaero flying action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=H8rOcDW4Pbk

@FLspacereport: Anousheh Ansari, private-sector astronaut, gives keynote address today at @EmbryRiddle for Engineering Week.

@National Engineers Week at Embry-Riddle Features Anousheh Ansari, Space Explorer and X Prize Creator - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University News Center - This news release gives more information about the keynote speech and some competitions at Engineers Week.

@wikkit: Need a good machine shop? Nosala Engineering has been used by Armadillo, Altius, XCOR, and Masten. http://nosala.com/ Wnosala@aol.com

Mars Society Prizes: University Rover Challenge and Convention Poster Contest

2011-02-23T07:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple prize items from the Mars Society:

2011 Mars Society Poster Contest - The winner will help publicize this year's International Mars Society Convention, which will be held in Dallas.

Meet the Competitors - The competitors in this year's University Rover Challenge have been selected, and are now listed on the URC 2011 Teams page. There are links to web sites for most of the teams there, so it's easy to learn more about them.

One of the University Rover Challenge competitors, the University of Michigan Mars Rover Team, has its own space prize, the 2011 Mars Rover High School Contest for Michigan high school teams. The first place prize is $600, there is a total of $1000 in prizes.

Prize Roundup: RICC Conference, GLXP Q&A, Geospatial Skills, Mojave, Masten Site, CMU Call, More

2011-02-19T10:29:00.000-05:00

Check out the Robotics Innovations Competition and Conference sponsored by Worcester Polytechnic Institute. WPI is also running the Sample Return Centennial Challenge.

After that, take a look at Mojave Air and Space Port 2011.

Ask me about the X PRIZE Foundation's space activities, including the Google Lunar X PRIZE. - This Q/A session by Will Pomerantz was yesterday, but you can still see lots of answers to questions here.

@ConradAwards: Woot woot! Check out our #finalist teams in @MTVGeek. Way to go! http://bit.ly/eyMF2O

@VerySpatial: Episode 291 - A discussion about the National Geospatial Technology Skills Competition with Amy Bullard http://t.co/JiDZdTY

@fineri: I posted a news update, http://www.kiwi2space.co.nz/Site/news/Thoughts.aspx

@ChallengeGov: Cities who increase post secondary degrees can win $1 million Talent Divided Prize. http://ceosforcities.org/talent/

Hamilton Project launches prize to identify new policies for creating jobs in the US. $25,000 award http://j.mp/fgdKr9 #challengegov

@mattcannella: Excited to see Masten Space System's Xaero on the pad. http://yfrog.com/h49nvfpj Thanks @colinake. Can't wait to see her fly!

Loving the new @MastenSpace website! Check it out at http://masten-space.com/

NASA checks payload fit & function on Masten's Xaero vehicle - RLV News

@AlanMLadwig: On your mark..get set... one of my fav student engagement events. #MoonbuggyRace at MSFC, Apr 1-2. http://bit.ly/hkGnVO

@YurisNight: Yuri's Night 2011 Video Contest featured in the National Post! http://fb.me/HJfdNVKb

@astrobotic: Do you go to CMU and want to contribute? http://bit.ly/e9MeaP

Astrobotic featured in new Wired article about the #glxp: http://bit.ly/hflwzi #astrobotic

Google Lunar X PRIZE Milestones and Changes

2011-02-17T10:19:00.004-05:00

Ending One Part of a Journey, Starting Another - The Launch Pad - Will Pomerantz discusses the introduction of the full set of Google Lunar X PRIZE teams, the final Google Lunar X PRIZE rules, and a new phase in his career.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Announces Official Roster of Teams Competing in the $30 Million Race to the Moon - X PRIZE Foundation

You can see the full roster of teams and their symbols at the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page. The newly official teams are at the bottom of the page. You will see some familiar names and some new ones. Here are their introductions from the Teams page:

Team Puli: February 18, 2011

The Puli will not only bark at the Moon!
Team Phoenicia: February 17, 2011

Welcome to the Team Phoenicia Blog

Spacemeta: February 17, 2011

Hello from SpaceMETA team

Plan B: February 17, 2011

Introduction to Team Plan B

Penn State Lunar Lion Team: February 17, 2011

Introduction to Penn State Lunar Lion Team

Angelicum: February 16, 2011

Angelicum Team Introduction
Indus: February 16, 2011

Team Indus Introduction
Mystical Moon: February 16, 2011

Mystical Moon

Here are some twitter accounts from the new teams.

@spacemeta
@pulispace
@teamspaceil - Although not announced today, this team was announced quite recently.
@teamindus

When I get a chance I'll try to get the twitter accounts on the Space Prizes Twitter List and associated "Space Prizes Tweets" sidebar, as well as on the Google Lunar X Prize Twitter List. I'll also try to update the "Google Lunar X PRIZE" sidebar with the teams' web sites.

Here are some additional comments and updates:

It's official: Team Puli Space has entered the GLXP competition - Team Puli Space

Penn State Lunar Lion joins Google Lunar X PRIZE competition - Penn State Live

Penn Staters Compete in Google Lunar Competition - StateCollege.com

Okay, Now We Can Comment: WE ARE OFFICIAL!!! - Team Phoenicia

A thought about the X PRIZE Foundation as Pomerantz exits - Evadot

The Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Scorecard already includes spots for the new teams.

Google Lunar X Prize contest sets official roster - CNET News

Google's Lunar X-Prize Gets Real - Popular Mechanics

JSETEC 2011 Vids, 2011 Tether Prizes, TARC, More

2011-02-13T12:36:00.000-05:00

Gearing up for JSETEC 2011 - The Space Elevator Blog - JSETEC stands for Japan Space Elevator Technical & Engineering Competition.

Announcing the 2011 Artsutanov and Pearson prizes - The Space Elevator Blog

World's Largest Rocket Contest for Students Launches into Qualifying Rounds - PR Newswire

Let's talk about the final frontier - Cosmic Log

@unrocket: At space up San Diego today.

@spacehack: Deadline to register for the Lunabotics Mining Competition is February 28th: http://spacehack.org/project/lunabotics (scroll to see video!)

Prize Roundup: GLXP Roundup, Space Access '11 Prize Teams, Prominent Prize4Life Speakers, More

2011-02-09T21:44:00.000-05:00

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #41 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Fly Me To The Moon - The Daily

Students Design Their Future - The Huffington Post

Saturday Testing... - Unreasonable Rocket

Space Access'11 update - RLV News - The early snapshot of speakers with prize connections includes Altius Space Machines, Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, Team Prometheus, SpeedUp, and Unreasonable Rocket.

@spacehack: The deadline for the University Rover Challenge is February 15th! http://spacehack.org/project/university-rover-challenge

@wikkit: It looks so much... missilier with the fins on. http://twitpic.com/3xqst8

@jetlab: Santa Monica High 'Catches Next Wave' to Nationals: In a very close competition, Santa Monica High School ... http://bit.ly/g8ysFn

@Prize4Life: A full list of speakers for our briefing on the role of incentive prizes in biomedical innovation: tomorrow at... http://fb.me/MCFo0xkT

@ChallengeGov: Dept. of Defense seeks vehicle body designs. Support their mission and save lives. $10,000 in prizes. http://go.usa.gov/Y7S

@RCSpacePioneers: University of Washington students work on rover electronics with the Rocket City Space Pioneers. http://twitpic.com/3y0itr

@AlanMLadwig: Interesting perspective on Sci Fair winners as champions. Disagree with last sentence. http://wapo.st/geA3B6

Prize Roundup: Sample Return Challenge Partner, Conrad Award Finalists, Prometheus Flight, Moonbuggy Teams, More

2011-02-09T07:28:00.000-05:00

There's been a lot of prize activity since my last post on Friday. I can't give a full roundup of it all, but here's a good sample:

@MOONBUGGYRACE: 84 teams from 7 countries and 4 continents set to race! We welcome so many new competitors! List: http://moonbuggy.msfc.nasa.gov/email.html

@ConradAwards: #FINALISTS ANNOUNCED: http://bit.ly/ibTzP8

You can find a lot more links about the Astrobotic Falcon 9 contract at the SoldTheMoon (David Gump) and Astrobotic twitter accounts. I'm just giving 2 samples:

@SoldTheMoon: SpaceX sells first its ticket for a moon launch - Technology & science - msnbc.com http://t.co/96yYv00 via @msnbc

@astrobotic: Here we are in the Pittsburgh Tribune: http://bit.ly/dSfFsN

@YurisNight: We just launched the Yuri's Night 2011 Video Contest on @Spacevidcast! Check it out at http://t.co/iskxSvv

@TeamPrometheus: I uploaded a YouTube video -- Prometheus II Maden flight http://youtu.be/0B87yZfMNxU?a

@NASAPrize: NASA And Worcester Polytechnic Institute Are Challenge Partners for the Sample Return Robot

Here's the NASA press release on the Sample Return Robot Challenge partnership: NASA And Worcester Polytechnic Institute Are Challenge Partners. The competition date is currently anticipated around Spring 2012. Also note that Larry Cooper is program executive for the Centennial Challenges.

From WPI: Welcome to the Sample Return Robot Challenge!

Prize Roundup: Flagsuit Contract, ALS Biomarker Prize Won, Stardust, CRuSR Workshop, More

2011-02-04T10:11:00.000-05:00

Flagsuit Handed Contract To Develop Improved Gloves For NASA Space Suits - Space Frontier Foundation

@Prize4Life: The $1M ALS Biomarker Prize has been won! Read the New York Times article for more information on the winner. http://fb.me/NYhTnHX4

RNAi Sequences Targeted to the Asian Citrus Psyllid Genome - InnoCentive posted this $100,000 challenge.

@astrobotic: Video of Red Whittaker's X PRIZE seminar is now up: http://youtu.be/0hrYfA_5bfk

@unrocket: Disassembled CAT pack from test motor, spent the rest of evening machining anti channel rings to force flow into center of cat pack.

We will be testing early Saturday.

@jeff_foust: Israeli team joins Google Lunar X PRIZE competition, thinks it can do mission for only $8M: http://bit.ly/gfSS7n

FOP-CRuSR, What We’ve Learned So Far (PDF) - This is the abstract for one of the presentations at the NASA Flight Opportunities Workshop, which in turn is part of the 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference. The abstract covers the Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems CRuSR development test flights:

The initial two payloads were the Suborbital Flight Environment Monitor (SFEM) and the Automated Detection Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) units developed by NASA and the FAA respectively.

Planetary Society sponsoring Stardust Contest - Space for All

Kids Micro-G experiments chosen for ISS - Space for All

@sedsusa: Illinois Space Society has won the 2010 Holiday Contest over their UB-SEDS competitors! Check out the photo entries at http://bit.ly/gyKzrQ

Twitter Roundup: ISS Contest, GLXP Landing Map Update, SpaceWiki, More

2011-01-29T23:34:00.001-05:00

@glxp: 7pm on a Friday and I'm still at work. But that's because we have something awesome to announce on Sunday. Stay tuned!

@ISS_NatLab: Check this video out -- Hamlin Student Wins NASA Space Contest http://t.co/LvKPXsb via @youtube

@jetlab: Arcadia High School Wins Regional Science Bowl: Arcadia High School beat out 22 other local high schools i... http://bit.ly/heJlsK

@evadot: Proposed Landing Sites for #GLXP "2.0" http://bit.ly/eFgMOe Same map but entirely in Javascript. Lots more functionality coming soon :-)

The next tweet happened on the 27th ...

@sedsusa: Only 5 days left in the contest for SEDS chapters hosted by SpaceWiki! $1000 in prizes! Let's generate some content: http://spacewiki.com/

@ConradAwards: Newsflash - Conrad Awards' Wild Card Invitation is on! http://bit.ly/fPmof1

@ChallengeGov: NASA challenges high school teams to propose experiments for a high altitude weather balloon http://go.usa.gov/YYr

@astrobotic: Red Rover & Bumblebee! http://flic.kr/p/9dzigF

@NextGiantLeap: NGL team member, Dr. Todd Mosher, To Chair National Academies Panel http://www.nextgiantleap.com/index.php?id=44

Prize Roundup: Photonics West, NanoSail-D Photos, OSTP Role, More

2011-01-29T23:03:00.000-05:00

Trade Show Math - LaserMotive

The LaserMotive twitter has a few tweets about the trade show, ending with

@LaserMotive: We made it! Tom and Dave have finished walking the floor at #pw11 Photonics West. Very exciting event. Now heading home.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #40 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Approaching the Tipping Point: Establishing the New Airship Industry - Airship Z-Prize

We Chat With 2009-2010 Spirit Of Innovation Award Winners Shannon and Mikayla Diesch! - MTV Geek News

Still got the right stuff: the next generation of rocket scientists - Ars Technica

NanoSail-D photo contest - NASA/SpaceWeather.com - Space for All

OSTP's role expanding under new law - Federal News Radio

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Teams Roundup

2011-01-29T08:35:00.003-05:00

Many of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams are still quite active. Here's another update on some of those teams. This is an impressive week of activity, considering that many of the RLV News posts cover more than one topic.

Armadillo Aerospace update - RLV News - This one features a post by Ben Brockert on the new tube rocket.

Armadillo Aerospace photos - RLV News

Getting ready for big hot flamey stuff at Armadillo - RLV News - This one was also updated to include some Masten pictures.

Briefs: A SS1 for the backyard; A historic Armadillo rocket - RLV News

Briefs: Masten engine test; Armadillo engine test - RLV News

Here's more about the Masten engine test mentioned above:

@ikluft: Preparing for @mastenspace static rocket engine firing test at #Mojave http://twitpic.com/3tc2yn

I got to watch today... successful @mastenspace rocket engine static test - 3 firings

From an earlier tweet I'm guessing that this next one happened a couple days after the ones above:

@dmasten: Yep, #thrust. Looked like a good run. We're testing engine extremes. http://twitpic.com/3ty726

Briefs: Speed Up update; Alaskan sounding rockets - RLV News

Mr. Bezos, "please don't be evil" - RLV News - This one covers a post at Unreasonable Rocket about patents and openness.

Some Armadillo Q and A - RLV News

@mastenspace: January 30 is the deadline for @mastenspace summer internships! Apply now! Exciting time in sRLV dev / flight testing! http://bit.ly/cAemQk

@spaceberger: After 2 weeks in Mojave, I'm heading home. Had a great time working w/ @mastenspace. Plenty still to do though! Bring it on!

Team Phoenicia continues its series of Zephyr Aurora updates:

@wikkit : James welding inside the tube rocket. http://twitpic.com/3tzj6n

So how bad do you think it would make me look if I was to webcast an engine test and the engine destroyed itself?

Dual-Fluid Single-Launch Propellant Depots - Selenian Boondocks

The 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference will be held in a few weeks - February 28 - March 2. Here is the preliminary program. The preliminary program includes a student competition session with a Masten Student Prizes Address by Colin Ake, presentations on the Student Suborbital Experiment and Student Essay, and awards. The program also includes an update session on flight provider program status, with Dave Masten representing Masten Space Systems and Neil Milburn representing Armadillo Aerospace. Blue Origin, XCOR Aerospace, and Virgin Galactic are also represented. The conference covers many other topics, too - check the preliminary program for more information.

With all of this activity from the teams long after the prizes, I wonder how much interest there would be in another variant on a lunar lander challenge?

Prize Roundup: JPL National Science Bowl, Beamed Energy Propulsion, Xoie Art, Glove Project, More

2011-01-22T08:05:00.005-05:00

Unreasonable update - RLV News

Move Over, Rover: Next Giant Leap Gets $1 Million Grant To Build Hopping Moon Landers - TechCrunch

National Science Bowl ® - Jet Propulsion Laboratory - JPL is hosting the Southern California regional competition on Saturday, January 22.

Beamed energy propulsion update - RLV News - Jordin Kare from LaserMotive is featured in the article.

@pomerantz: You say you want a revolution? Well, you know, we'd sure love to give a prize. Some updates to the prize groups at http://www.xprize.org/

If you check out the Exploration Prize Group, you'll see that one of the proposed prize concepts is

Beamed Power Propulsion
Nearly all launches to date have relied on chemical propulsion, carried on board the vehicle, and thereby sharply reducing payload mass fraction. Beamed power offers a radically alternative launch strategy. Payload launch costs to orbit will drop by a factor of 50 or more. The goal is to launch a 10 Kg payload to a 30Km altitude, deriving 100% of its energy from a ground-based beamed power system. The system must also be reusable and repeatable within 24 hours.

The full set of concepts, covering aviation, space and ocean exploration, includes

Also check out the prizes under development and in concept stage in the Energy and Environment, Education and Global Development, and Life Sciences prize groups. Some have quite a lot of appeal as space prizes, even though they fit in the other categories. For example, in the Life Sciences group,

The winner of the Space Life competition will be the first team that can create a single or multi-cellular edible organism that can grow under standard Martian surface conditions.

@flyingjenny: My latest creation: a needle felted Xoie by Masten Space Systems, Lunar Lander Challenge winner http://post.ly/1W6VN
See, here's the @Xprize X on Xoie: http://post.ly/1W6jz

From the winner of the Astronaut Glove Challenge:

@pkhomer: Heading home from HOU. Just kicked off a new glove project for @NASA.

@InnoCentiveCEO: Cool! Our new book is on Amazon for pre order even know won't be out for months! http://amzn.to/hn1o4k

@Prize4Life: Support Prize4Life! Contribute to Mark and Lionel’s fundraising effort for the Grand Traverse ski race! http://fb.me/O1oRkrXt

JSC Ideas, Phobos and Deimos Conference, University Rover Date, Hoppers, More

2011-01-21T08:51:00.003-05:00

A Look Inside JSC's New Ideas - NASA Watch
Cross Cutting Themes at JSC - NASA Watch - Click through to take a look at the slide presentations for both of these articles. You may see some imagery that evokes the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge here and there. For example, the "Promote Rapid Prototype Engineering" slide (slide 16 in the Cross Cutting Themes presentation) reminds me of Robonaut - Project M History and Driving Philosophy:

We had also been working with Armadillo Aerospace for a few years. ... We did “hardware store engineering” like a scaled propellant slosh test made of light globes, colored water, nuts and bolts, and lumber from the hardware store. That test allowed us to confirm fundamental slosh modes, anchor our simulation, develop a better full scale slosh test, and give engineers an intuitive feel for the physics. We didn’t sit and debate it, we didn’t analyze and re-analyze, we simply built and learned.

@wikkit: Cryogenic snow falls in Caddo Mills as Phil's 4k methane engine starts running. http://twitpic.com/3r9c98

Preparations for NASA Power Beaming Competition 2011 - LaserMotive

Power up: Laser beams can now deliver energy to machines through thin air - The Economist (link from @NASA_Green_Ames)

Still here - Vog Rockets has a brief note.

A student interested in the N Prize gets a lecture from a former Centennial Challenges manager:

@fineri: Had a lecture by Ken Davidian from the FAA/AST office today, very interesting, pity it was only an hour..

@ConradAwards: Technological innovation, entrepreneurship alive among U.S. HS students, more than 480 students in 2011 competition http://ow.ly/3HiGk

@NextGiantLeap: Planetary rovers: Space hopping | The Economist http://t.co/hgCwg0g via @theeconomist

@Eurospaceward: Registration for the University Rover Challenge June 2 - 4, 2011 extended to Feb 15, 2011, see https://sites.google.com/marssociety.org/urc/

The above Mars Society link (and the site in general) is having some trouble as of this posting, but you can get more details at this University Rover Challenge site.

Second International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos - SETI Institute - The conference will be held at NASA Ames on March 14-16. It includes the

Mars Institute “Asaph Hall Best Student Paper Award” ceremony during which the Mars Institute will present an award certificate and a USD$500 prize to the student who will have first-authored the most noteworthy research abstract or poster relating to the exploration of Phobos and/or Deimos, as judged by the Conveners of the conference.

Prize Roundup: LLC Teams, Balloon Contest, Karts and Wheels, SpaceWiki, More

2011-01-16T13:23:00.000-05:00

RLV News had lots of news this week on former Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams:

Successful static firing of Masten Space's Xaero rocket
Video of test firing of Masten's "Brutus"
Masten static test of Brutus engine
Masten Space update...
Unreasonable Rocket/Scorpius SLC to develop H2O2 composite tanks
Armadillo Aerospace's tube rocket

That's not all, either:

NASA contest for student teams to send experiments to Near Space - RLV News

Team Phoenicia on Autoline Detroit - Team Phoenicia

Florida composer submits song in NASA's Space Rock contest - Space for All

Get published in MAKE! Enter the Karts and Wheels contest. - Makezine - Are there any Moonbuggies out there?

Ted Southern - Gitana Rosa Gallery

The ISS X Prize - Space KSC

Interview with Neda G. Ansari - Evadot

LaserMotive: Looking Forward in 2011 - LaserMotive

@SPIEtweets: @LaserMotive will be at SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, will you? http://bit.ly/ifzQ3f #SPIE #DSS11

@sedsusa: Don't forget that there are only 18 days left to participate in the SpaceWiki contest to benefit your SEDS-USA chapter! http://bit.ly/guG0hc

Prize Roundup: Space Accesses, Debug Unreasonable Hardware, FIRST 2011, More

2011-01-09T17:53:00.000-05:00

Briefs: Space Access Paris; Space Access Phoenix; RRL update - RLV News - The Phoenix Space Access conference usually has numerous presentations about space prizes and by space prize teams. It will be interesting to see if the Nanosatellite Launch Centennial Challenge is represented this year.

Diesel frustration... - Unreasonable Rocket

Fly me to the moon: the Google Lunar X PRIZE, three years in - Ars Technica

Andrews Space Part of Team Selected by NASA to Provide Moon Mission Data - Space Fellowship

NASA JSC Solicitation: Open Innovation Support Services for Internal Collaboration Support Platform and Intermediary - Commercial Space Watch

NASA Kicks Off 2011 Nationwide First Robotics Competition - NASA

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

2011-01-05T20:41:00.003-05:00

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

European Space Elevator Challenge, Masten Spotlight, Video Contest, More

2010-12-31T06:34:00.000-05:00

I'm going to start a bit off-topic today. Part of yesterday's post involved propellant depots and satellite servicing. Here's some related news (via @spacevidcast):

NASA Awards Systems Engineering Contract For In-Space Servicing - NASA - The contract is for support of 2 Goddard Space Flight Center-led technology demonstrations at the ISS:

The first demonstration will use a customized payload task box, Dextre and specialized tools to robotically demonstrate refueling and repair tasks in orbit. Tasks will include locating, accessing and uncapping valves and transferring simulated liquid fuel. During the second demonstration, Dextre will test and evaluate a variety of tools, sensors and instruments to support autonomous rendezvous and capture capabilities for orbiting spacecraft systems.

And now back to the prizes and prize teams!

Suborbital Spotlight: Masten’s Xaero and Xogdor Vehicles - Parabolic Arc

Way out of the box presure system... - Unreasonable Rocket

PET third stage COTS tank - Unreasonable Rocket

The Leeward Space Foundation - The Space Elevator Blog

@SEGames: Europe will hold its first Space Elevator Challenge June 10-12, 2011. Details here: http://eusec.warr.de/

@JUXTOPIA_JURBAN: It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Space Act Agreement Between Juxtopia and NASA has been signed. Congratulations!!!!!!!!

@NASA: Students: Reminder - time is running out to submit videos in the OPTIMUS PRIME Video Contest about NASA Technology http://go.nasa.gov/fWfWfZ

Roundup of 2010 Roundups; 2011 Predictions

2010-12-30T07:30:00.001-05:00

It's the time of year for full-year roundups. Here are some featuring space prize teams in the mix:

13 Stories in 2010 that defined space exploration - Evadot
My 2010 Review - QuantumG's blog shows an evolving view of space possibilities.
A review of NewSpace developments in 2010 - RLV News

It's also the time of year for predictions about next year:

Predictions for 2011 - NASASpaceFlight.com - In the mix, Jon Goff follows up last year's accurate predictions with another set that features some predictions in the areas of prizes and prize teams. For example:

At least three new Centennial Challenges will be announced, with at least one of them regarding small payload return from ISS or propellant depots.

NASA has considered prizes in both areas (for an example from several years ago, see slide pages 18 and 20 here (PDF)), so that's certainly a possibility. Small, and hopefully frequent, ISS payload return could be a good (although potentially quite ambitious, depending on the rules) prize subject considering the expected increased activity and 2020+ lifetime for the ISS, potential commercial space growth in areas like space stations that may increase the market for things like small lab sample returns, and the need to go after affordable return capabilities to match affordable launch encouraged by efforts like the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge. Propellant depot and similar technology is also important for many areas like satellite servicing, in-space ISRU markets, and ambitious exploration missions. Of course there are many other great subjects for space prizes, so we'll have to wait to see what NASA comes up with before we see how accurate those predictions are!

Fed Prize Authority, GLXP News Galore, Goddard Film Fest Winners, More

2010-12-21T22:29:00.001-05:00

@ISS_NatLab: Congrats to Team ZeroBotX for their win at the Zero Robotics Competition! http://fb.me/P921Zhla

@ChallengeGov: BIG NEWS! Congress grants broad prize authority to all federal agencies http://go.usa.gov/rOm #challengegov #gov20

@astrobotic: Astrobotic has joined Twitter! Expect on-the-go updates about all our activities.

NASA awards $500k to 3 firms in lunar demo data project - RLV News

Google Lunar X PRIZE gets last minute entries before deadline - RLV News

Space Frontier to hold third TEDxMidTownNY event - RLV News - Note that Ted Southern is one of the Astronaut Glove Challenge winners.

Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [28] - Team Phoenicia

Winners Announced: 2010 Best of Goddard Film Festival - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Way out of the box... - Unreasonable Rocket

Lego Elevators, Pocket Airports, SGAC and Heinlein Trust, LPI T's, Spheres, More

2010-12-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

LASER 2010 - The Space Elevator Blog covers the Lego bricks Activity and Space Elevator Race competitions.

Faster and Greener - Pocket Airports (PDF) - The CAFE Foundation - Here's an bit from the abstract:

The potential aeronautical, environmental and societal benefits of on-demand, distributed, Green air travel are examined along with the urgencies and opportunities that pertain. A proposal is presented to rapidly bring about these benefits by extending NASA’s Centennial Challenge for Aeronautics, the Green Flight Challenge (GFC), into a sequence of two additional flight competitions, GFC II and III.

LaserMotive Wins NW Startup Demo - LaserMotive has more details on a win I briefly mentioned in my last post.

List of significant parts.... - Unreasonable Rocket

Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [25]
Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [24]
Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [23] - All from Team Phoenicia

And now for some tweets:

@ISS_Research: 12/16 watch ISS student zero robotics challenge: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/zero.html #NASA #ISS #education

@SGAC: SGAC Partners with the Heinlein Prize Trust to Support the 2011 Future Project Contest http://ow.ly/3qpNQ

@JUXTOPIA_JURBAN: 1st African American Owned Commercial Space Company Launched during Juxtopia Urban Learning Technology Conference @ Morgan State University

Phezu Space, LLC will design and build commercial space on-orbit service vehicles.

@dmasten: Launch vehicle erector trailer works. http://twitpic.com/3g8nmb

@MyMoonLPI: NEW! #MyMoonLPI contest: submit a MyMoon tshirt design: http://bit.ly/eax5oc?

@ConradAwards: In the Spirit of Innovation... - http://eepurl.com/bZgWP

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

2010-12-11T06:45:00.001-05:00

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

Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [21] - Team Phoenicia

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

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

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

Internacional Cansat Competition 2011 - coming soon ...

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

NASA SBIRs, TARC Survey, Moonbuggy Is On, ZeroG Photos, More

2010-12-08T23:47:00.000-05:00

@wikkit: Congrats to new space! Altius, Firestar, Masten, MicroSpace, Microcosm, Ventions, and XCOR, Nasa SBIR phase 1 negotiation http://is.gd/iplGs

Here are some examples that caught my eye:

An ElectroAdhesive "Stick Boom" for Mars Sample Return Orbiting Sample Capture - Altius Space Machines, Inc.
Petal Brake Hypersonic Entry System - Andrews Space, Inc.
Cryogenic Composite Tank Fabrication for Reusable Launch Vehicles - XCOR Aerospace
Terrestrial Plume Impingement Testbed - Masten Space Systems, Inc.- Google Lunar X PRIZE team needs are described in the "Potential Non-NASA Commercial Applications" section.

@FLspacereport: Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) survey seeks your input for program improvement. http://bit.ly/euLL9B

@MOONBUGGYRACE: Registration is still open for 18th NASA Great Moonbuggy Race April 1-2, 2011! Sign up now! http://bit.ly/gRl97z

@SLI_1MILEHIGH: We're getting ready to fly! Student rocketeers nationwide set for 2010-11 NASA Student Launch Projects! http://bit.ly/gy06Bs

@ConradAwards: Get Your Genius On! http://ow.ly/3lRXB

@NASActo: 6th-12th graders: Submit your designs for a human colony in outer space by 3/15/11 for a chance to win $3k! http://bit.ly/dLlXlo #NASA

@GoZeroG: Top 10 Announcement for the 2010 Weightless Photo Competitio... http://conta.cc/hsLJj0 via #constantcontact

@unrocket: Ed LeBouthillier's pictures from FAR yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neutronium/sets/72157625409987503/ The tiny motor is ours.

@MoonbaseX: Yahoo! News has just featured MoonbaseX's "Fly Me to the Moon" SMS campaign! If you're in the UK, find out how to join... http://ow.ly/3mc24

Eurospaceward Conference, NanoSat Launch Biz, SSP Competition, RWIW Date, Moonraker@Mall

2010-12-05T12:12:00.001-05:00

The Space Elevator Blog is covering the 2010 Eurospaceward Conference. I'll just give a few links with a lot of prize content; see the blog for more on the conference:

2010 EuroSpaceward Conference - Saturday morning (1) - This mentions the possibility of a European Strong Tether Challenge.
2010 EuroSpaceward Conference - Saturday morning (2) - One of the talks is by a Kansas City Space Pirates member.
2010 EuroSpaceward Conference - Sunday morning - This includes discussions of a number of international space elevator competitions.

I may update this list above as more details emerge.

Pricing a NanoSat launcher - RLV News - The linked post also refers to this older piece on NanoSat Launcher markets inspired by the NanoSat Launch Vehicle Challenge Seminar: Micro-Cargo Delivery & The Last Mile Problem - The Space Busine$$ Blog

Space Solar Power desgn competition - Space for All

@RWIWChallenge: Exciting News!!! The Advanced Registration Deadline has been extended to January 15, 2011!

@paulsrobotics: Come to the Solomon Pond Mall and check out #battlebots Brutality and Moonraker along with other #WPI robots! http://yfrog.com/2h74340880j

Prize Roundup: Free Trips, Launch or Fizzle?, Zephyr Aurora, LEGO ISS Challenge?, NASA Crowdsourcing

2010-12-05T09:36:00.001-05:00

Win a Free Trip to Space - Discovery News

Space Tourism: Will it go far or fizzle out? - NewSpace Magazine - This is an overview that features several companies involved with space prizes in one way or another.

NASA Launches Innovative Approach to Solve Old Challenges - NASA Ames shows how NASA is using crowdsourcing and InnoCentive internally to solve 3 challenges:

"NASA InternSpace" ... NASA Ames is considering developing a customized social networking and new media communications platform for use by NASA interns, mentors, and managers. ...
"Low Impact Robotic Sensor Platform for Land Survey" ... This challenge is seeking brainstorms and "eureka moments" for alternative sensor platforms. ...
"Measuring Gas Concentrations in Microliter Samples" ... Suggestions are being sought for a new small device (<10 cm3) capable of measuring key gas concentrations in small volumes (10-500 microliters) of gaseous samples.

Team Phoenicia has some new photos:

I'm curious what the LEGO ® Challenge (coming soon) featured on the NASA International Space Station National Laboratory page sidebar is about. Any more hints?

Space Snowflakes, Health/Biology Prizes, Many Masten Assignments, More

2010-12-02T16:21:00.006-05:00

@NASAGoddard: RT @NASAblueshift: We're having a snowflake contest! Details: http://bit.ly/gWhJI9

@TheRealBuzz: Check out photo of Danny DeVito and me at his house for the XPrize party that he and Rhea hosted 2 wks ago http://tinyurl.com/38y32u4

@ PeterDiamandis: In DC, full day of mtgs w/ OSTP, FDA, DARPA, VA on AI Physician, Bionics + Genomics X PRIZEs. Excited about moving these XPs forward!

@dmasten: Today is trying to drink from a firehose. Reviewed a briefing, sketch for FAA, code for gear and transponder, range safety documents...

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #38 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

But Different

2010-11-30T20:25:00.003-05:00

You've probably seen the classic video:

Well, the sequel, from QuantumG, has a prize theme:

I'm ok with the prize, as long as it stipulates that the winner has to fly a really big rocket. Now that I think about it, why don't we have a prize for building a really, really big rocket instead?

All that payload nonsense? I don't care.

Prize Roundup: Pongsats, Masten Updates, ISEC Honorable Mention, NW Startup, More

2010-11-24T12:19:00.000-05:00

Here are some updates from the last week or so:

Pongsat contest for Sacramento students - Space for All

LaserMotive To Present at NW Startup DEMO - LaserMotive

ISEC awards its second “Honorable Mention” for the 2010 Artsutanov Prize - The Space Elevator Blog

Some thoughts on an orbital launcher - Unreasonable Rocket

We Snuck in Business Week! - Team Phoenicia

Popular Science’s Best of What’s New for 2010: Xombie - Masten Space Systems

Masten Space Systems and Space Florida Sign Letter of Intent - Masten Space Systems

There's a discussion on the letter of intent with a few more details at the NASASpaceflight.com Masten Space Systems Update page. There's also a promise of more Masten updates:

We'll have a couple updates on the vehicle currently undergoing integration testing and some staffing updates (we're growing!) soon...

Competitions Galore: And the Winner Is... - The Huffington Post

@TeamPrometheus: Motor casings got sent to wrong address! Delay until we can get some more sent from U.S. Rockets. Not Jerry's... http://fb.me/OkSMeEPT

Students: Real World Design, Thatcher Environmental Research, Spirit of Innovation, Space Sports Competitions

2010-11-24T10:01:00.000-05:00

Spirit of Innovation Awards - Check out the aerospace exploration, cyber security, and clean energy competition launch message from the Conrad Foundation, with information on a deadline extension, Webinar sessions, and more.

The Oregon Space Grant Consortium Educational Resources Blog's Competitions section has updates on a number of student competitions. Here are some example competitions mentioned recently there:

2011 Thacher Environmental Research Contest -

From the massive Gulf oil spill to the continued decline of Arctic sea ice, satellites and other observing instruments have proved crucial this year in monitoring the many environmental changes -- both natural and human-induced -- occurring on global, regional and local scales.

The 2011 Thacher Environmental Research Contest, sponsored by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, challenges high school students (grades 9-12) to conduct innovative research on our changing planet using the latest geospatial tools and data ...

Eligible geospatial tools and data include satellite remote sensing, aerial photography, geographic information systems (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS).

Teaching From Space: Spaced Out Sports Design Challenge - NASA Stennis Space Center:

“Spaced Out Sports” is a national student design challenge geared toward grades 5-8. The purpose is for students to apply Newton’s Laws of Motion by designing or redesigning a game for International Space Station (ISS) astronauts to play in space. ... The top three (3) teams' games will be played on the ISS and recorded for a future broadcast.

Real World Design Challenge - Here's information on the 2010-2011 Challenge (PDF):

The challenge is to design the exterior geometry and internal structure of an airliner wing using aeroelastic tailoring methods to minimize the objective function by varying specified design variables without violating constraints.

Prize Roundup: SOIA Announcements, Sparkfun, Etsy Vote, Zooniverse Award, Nanosats, Rice Business Plan Competition, more

2010-11-15T22:14:00.006-05:00

Texas Astronomical Society General Meeting - The University of Texas at Dallas - Comet Calendar:

This month our speaker will be Neil Milburn, VP of Program Management, Armadillo Aerospace

There's more information at the Texas Astronomical Society of Dallas.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #37 - Luna C/I

Video of Laser-Powered Quadrocopter Endurance Flight - LaserMotive

Here's information about the 2011 Rice University Business Plan Competition. This year's event includes many prizes including the following space-specific ones:

$50,000 NASA “Game Changer” Commercial Space Innovation Prize
$20,000 NASA Earth/Space Life Science Innovation Prize
$20,000 NASA Earth/Science Engineering Innovation Prize
$15,000 Heinlein Prize Trust Space Commercialization Prize

@unrocket: Ready to test...drive out dislodged stuff in oxidizer tank (unused 2 yrs) substance unknown there fore. Unsafe no test today 8hr drive!!!

@ FLspacereport: Florida non-profit group offering suborbital flight to prize winner. http://bit.ly/dmF8Qo

@MichaelBelfiore: Nanosats: has the time come? http://bit.ly/dsRdIc

@Etsy: 3, 2, 1, BLAST OFF! Voting is now open for your fave semi-finalist from @NASA + @ETSY's Space Craft Contest! http://www.etsy.com/nasa

@TeamPrometheus: Sparkfun just agreed to sponsor Team Prometheus! http://fb.me/M2oIvy0C

@NASA_Lunar: Congrats to the Zooniverse (home of @moonzoo) for winning the Physics.org President's Prize People's Choice award! http://bit.ly/aS4dL7

@ConradAwards: SOIA Important Announcements - http://eepurl.com/bAeKD

Prize Roundup: Unreasonable Prize Plans, Government Prize Forum, Kiwi2Space Engine Test, More

2010-11-11T10:16:00.006-05:00

Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar Presentations - Team Phoenicia - I'm updating the links on the right in the "NanoSat Launch Sites and Teams" section to point to this.

Ways to save the world... and more Rockets - Unreasonable Rocket comments on the Nanosatellite Launcher Challenge Seminar, Unreasonable plans for that challenge, Unreasonable weekend plans, and Lawrenceville Plasma Physics. Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge team SpeedUp's President Bob Steinke is on the LPP team.

This was tweeted yesterday:

@NASAPrize: At Potomac Forum on Govt use of prizes and challenges at Williar Hotel in DC, talking about NASA's prize challenges

Here's more information on yesterday's forum:

Implementing OMB Guidance on the Use of Challenges and Prizes to Promote Innovative, Accountable and Open Government - Potomacforum.org

Updated information for EuSEC - Europe’s first Space Elevator Challenge - The Space Elevator Blog

Check out the new look:

@dmasten: Getting close to flight test. http://twitpic.com/35y1ws

More progress. http://twitpic.com/3608vk

More About That Second Contract - Jon Goff at Altius Space Systems

@fineri: Pictures of the engine test here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kiwi2space/RATTWorksL600PolyurethaneFuelTest#

Polyurethane hybrid fuel test carried out tonight, video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unuiuBln3yU

Prize Roundup: Robo-Ops Challenge, Sagan Essay, NSS Podcast, Armadillo Burst Guess

2010-11-09T21:15:00.002-05:00

@nss: Check out this podcast just released by incoming NSS Public Affairs VP Lynne Zielinski on student competitions: http://bit.ly/co7wrB

@NASA_Ames: @NASAKepler + @SETIInstitute have posted all Sagan Essay finalists. What's your fav? Winner announced 11/9! http://bit.ly/dncERX

@wikkit: (1/2) Tomorrow we burst the first 48" tank. Guess burst pressure, win Armadillo shirt sz XL and patch. Guesses to wikkit@gmail.com, in PSIG.

(2/2) Sheet is Al 5059-H136, 0.25", spun to 24" internal radius by AMS, TIG welded together. Burst at ambient temp. Hint: http://is.gd/gSIz2

NASA/NIA to Sponsor Student Planetary Rover Challenge - SpaceRef:

NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace or NIA in Hampton, Va., have launched a new planetary rover engineering competition called Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge.

Prize Roundup: Nanosat Seminar, Earth Science Contest, Challenge.gov at Google, more

2010-11-08T21:15:00.002-05:00

@EarthPic: Earth Science in Action Classroom Contest Winners announced. Congrats and thanks to all who entered! http://bit.ly/c13I3m

@ConradAwards: Students...Want to learn more about the Spirit of Innovation Awards? http://ow.ly/36o8u

@ChallengeGov: Excited for this morning's #ChallengeGov event at @Google DC. Thanks to @WebManagerU & @AdCouncil for co-sponsoring!

If you check the ChallengeGov twitter link above, you'll see several pages of tweets about the event. NASA's Jeff Davis represents the space field.

iGEM 2010 ~ Synthetic Biology Design Challenge! - Maximizing Progress

KCSP Closure party - The Space Elevator Blog participates in the Kansas City Space Pirates send-off:

So, what does KCSP have in store for the future? I’m going to leave that for a blog update on their part. Suffice it to say that they have new challenges they are taking on, but they are staying close and true to their robotic roots.

Nanosat launcher seminar update - RLV News

Briefs: Astrobotic update; Lunar city design contest - RLV News

Prize Roundup: Nanosat Launcher Seminar, Starting a Startup, Micro-G Challenge, More

2010-11-06T08:01:00.005-05:00

@LunaCI: Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #36: http://bit.ly/cJFux6 The GLXP loses a leader, but his dream lives on...

Here's more about the Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar, which is scheduled to take place today:

@rocketrepreneur: After a nice full 12hr day at the Altius office, I made the drive out to DIA, on my way to the Nanosat LV Seminar tomorrow.

@NASAPrize: Going to Nano-Sat Launch Challenge seminar at Tech Shop in Menlo Park, CA on Saturday. See http://techshop.ws/Upcoming_Events.html

Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Seminar: Final Update - Team Phoenicia

If you can't go, don't forget this from an earlier Team Phoenicia post:

We will be posting the Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar presentations on youtube to the Team Phoenicia channel.

@ISS_Research: 1/3 NASA’s seeks proposal submissions from 5th-8th graders for 2011 Kids in Micro-g challenge, due 12/8.

2/3 The crew will perform winning experiments onboard ISS: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/nlab/experimentchallenge.html

3/3 To learn more about entering the 2011 challenge, contact the ISS Payloads Office at jsc-iss-payloads-helpline@mail.nasa.gov.

Five Control Loops - Jon Goff at Altius Space Systems shows what it's like to juggle multiple jobs in the processing of starting a new space business.

@ikluft: 1 yr ago: 1st place in Lunar Lander #XPrize awarded to @MastenSpace on Capitol Hill. My pics: http://is.gd/gJO4I #newspace

Prize Roundup: Nanosat Launch Seminar, Centennial Winners Keep Going, ZeroG Pictures, More

2010-11-03T20:49:00.001-05:00

As the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge Seminar this weekend approaches, the news continues:

Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar: Gathering Questions - Team Phoenicia:

The FAA-AST has asked Team Phoenicia to gather questions that the community would like answered for their part of the challenge.

Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar: Agenda Change (11/1/10) - Team Phoenicia

Getting closer - Vog Rockets

@TeamPrometheus - Getting ready to go to the conference for the NASA Centennial Challenge Nanosat contest! Go! Team Prometheus!

Several past Centennial Challenge winners are keeping themselves in the spotlight. LaserMotive is getting a lot of press and staying active:

@LaserMotive: Regardless of how our pitch is received, I overcame my mental glitches and delivered a good presentation today.

Copter sets a laser-powered record - Cosmic Log

Laser-Powered Helicopter Breaks Records, Is Pretty Cute - Discover

Nov 2nd Update: Joining “The Vault” - Altius Space Machines

NASA’s Quest to Send a Robot to the Moon - The New York Times features Armadillo Aerospace in part of this article.

@paulsrobotics: Moonraker will be dropping the first puck this Friday @ Worcester Sharks! Buy tix through me to support FRC190. Check out the #omgrobots

Of course there's plenty of prize news from other sources, too:

@GoZeroG: 2010 Weightless Photo Competition http://conta.cc/aBapiz via #constantcontact

@sedsusa: The SEDS-USA Video Contest is finished. Thanks to everyone who submitted! Comment on your favorites - http://bit.ly/c6nNxe

CPM TV Pre-Launch Test Phase Begins - Synergy Moon on Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

@arielwaldman: Science Hack Day SF is looking for prizes and/or sponsors! Anyone able to help? http://sf.sciencehackday.com/

Roundup: LaserMotive Record, GLXP Updates, Planetary Defense, Boston Moon Ball, More

2010-10-29T07:22:00.003-05:00

Team Phoenicia has posted a number of pictures in recent days:

Competition waxes in the South End -MySouthEnd.com describes the lunar design awards ceremony of SHIFTboston's Moon Ball.

Here's more on LaserMotive:

What’s up with LaserMotive… - The Space Elevator Blog gets us up to date on LaserMotive activities, including the laser powered helicopter demonstration at the Future of Flight Aviation Center. It also describes a special earlier demonstration of that capability.

Laser-powered 'quadrocopter' sets new record - KVAL.com, Eugene, Oregon covers the recent helicopter demonstration, including a video and picture.

LaserMotive Beams Power to “Quadrocopter” UAV, Breaks World Record for Electric Aircraft - XConomy Seattle - This one doesn't include a video, but it makes up for it with more details in the text.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #34 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

New Google Lunar X PRIZE Team: Moon Express! - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration includes some discussion and speculation about the newly announced team. Be sure to check the comments, too!

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #35 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

@SGAG: SGAC Supports the 2011 Planetary Defense Conference Student Competition – Enter Today! http://ow.ly/31gWa

Brain X Prize may spark big solutions - MSNBC

Prize Roundup: Space Prize Jobs, LaserMotive Demo, Moon_Ex, SpaceX Awards, More

2010-10-28T06:28:00.008-05:00

EuroSpaceward announces EuSEC - the first European Space Elevator Challenge! - The Space Elevator Blog

LaserMotive Plans Laser-Powered Free Flier Endurance Demo - LaserMotive - On twitter, @lasermotive has been posting a lot of updates and pictures of the demo.

Here are a couple space prize job opportunities:

@NASA_Technology: schingler we are hiring! @nasa_technology position to lead prizes at NASA #opengov #gov20 http://go.usa.gov/ams

@glxp: SpaceWorks Engineering has commercial space job opps:http://bit.ly/9J9znd (mentions "participation in competitive space prizes")

2011 University Rover Challenge sponsored by TASC - Space for All

@SpcPlcyOnline: Student Essay Competition Reminder: Win Over $700! http://tinyurl.com/284v7hx

@spacecom: NASA Deputy Garver Receives WIA Award: Deputy NASA Administrator Lori GarverNASA PRESS RELEASEFour current NASA le... http://bit.ly/cE02dB

@digitalart: Vote for Desire in the Artexpo Artist Challenge: http://tinyurl.com/28n3jwe

@yachachiq: The Economist-InnoCentive Disruptive Innovation Challenge: http://bit.ly/baUvGu

@PeterDiamandis: Attending TEDMED. Focused on discussing AI Physician, Tricorder + Archon X Prize. Lots of SU family here.

@Lori_Garver: Judging the NASA HQ Halloween Costume Contest this morning. Can’t wait to see the creativity of NASA in action!

@SpaceXer: This week Elon Musk named 1 of Top 40 Business Leaders Under 40 by Fortune & 1 of the 49 Most Influential Men in 2010 by askmen.com

More awards! Falcon9 makes C4ISR Journal “Big 25” 4 reducing costs of launching com&recon spacecraft - http://bit.ly/aBuVIp

@Moon_Ex: Our official media release is out: @Moon_Ex enters $30M @GLXP competition http://bit.ly/9GzcH1 @XPRIZE

Prize Roundup: Mars Rover, Mars Prizes, Space Pirates, Nanosat Challenge Seats

2010-10-22T05:47:00.014-05:00

@TheMarsSociety: #Poland's Magma rover for #Mars Society's University Rover Challenge 2010. http://plixi.com/p/52138136

"Colonizing Mars" in the Journal of Cosmology - RLV News - The issue includes the article The Mars Prize and Private Missions to the Red Planet.

@Spaceport_NM Another successful #ispcs concluded, and my runway dedication is in a few hours... :D

The Kansas City Space Pirates throw in the towel… - The Space Elevator Blog - In addition to honoring this prominent Space Elevator Games team, this post gives some hints about the future:

I have had several conversations with Ben Shelef about the future of the Climber / Power-Beaming competition and, while it is much too early for me to spill any of the beans, I can safely say that some significant changes in the structure of the Games appear to be in the cards.

Team Phoenicia has a few new posts:

New Sponsor: Dragon Valves
New Sponsor: Micro/sys
Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar Reservations Now Open

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

2010-10-20T21:03:00.030-05:00

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

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

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

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

Weekend Update - Unreasonable Rocket

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

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

Richards & Moon Express - RLV News

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

White House Science Fair, Mythbusters, Conrad Awards, and TARC

2010-10-18T20:46:00.022-05:00

Obama Takes Science Push to ‘Mythbusters’ - New York Times Dot Earth blog

@conradawards: Team AM Rocks awards winners are meeting President Obama at The White House today. Congratulations Mikayla and Shannon! http://ow.ly/2V8jg

@lori_garver: On my way to the White House Science Fair, where President Obama is hosting student STEM competition winners.

President Obama to Host White House Science Fair - The White House:

Today, President Obama will host the White House Science Fair celebrating the winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions. ... DARPA will use prize-based competitions and social networks to encourage teams of students to design and manufacture go-carts, mobile robots, and small unmanned vehicles. ... Change the Equation, with a membership of over 100 CEOs including leading media companies, will launch a viral video contest where its companies will vie to create the best video for students on the rewarding jobs they can get if they excel in math and science. ...

Winners from STEM competitions that will be part of the events include FIRST robotics, the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award, the Team America Rocketry Challenge, and many other science and technology competitions.

Background on the White House Science Fair - The White House - In addition to Obama, senior administration officials to attend the science fair include Lori Garver, John Holdren, and many others. The Planetary Society's Bill Nye and Norm Augustine are on the list of attendees. Student exhibits include TARC, FIRST competitions, and many others.

Robots, Solar Cars and Rockets at the White House Science Fair - White House blog

Pennsylvania Student Rocketeers Exhibit at White House Science Fair - PR Newswire

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup: SBIR Selections, Moon Express, Lunar Demo Data

2010-10-18T19:53:00.015-05:00

@nasa_technology: NASA Selects 215 Small Business Research And Technology Projects. Read more at: http://sbir.nasa.gov

National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program - 2009 Phase 2 - Proposals Selected for Negotiation of Contracts - TOPIC LIST

Here's a selectee with connections to the prize world:

Lightweight Robotic Excavation - Astrobotic Technology, Inc.

There are many more that are of interest. For example:

Regeneratively-Cooled, Turbopump-Fed, Small-Scale Cryogenic Rocket Engines - Ventions, LLC

In other Google Lunar X PRIZE news:

@glxp: There is something new on http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams. Wonder who will spot it first...?

If you check the glxp tweet history, you'll see that someone did spot it: Moon Express. From the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page:

Leader Name: Bob Richards
Craft Name: MoonEx-1
Nationality: USA
Homepage: www.moonexpress.com

Note that Moon Express is one of the teams selected for Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data (ILDD): NASA announces grants in lunar demo data purchase program - RLV News

NanoSat Seminar, LaserMotive Pitch, Mobile Treasure Hunt, CRuSR's blog, much more

2010-10-15T06:12:00.037-05:00

Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference 2011 - CRuSR's blog - Ok, I admit it, I already posted about the conference; this is just an excuse to point out the CRuSR blog. Or is it just an excuse to keep promoting the conference?

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #33 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration covers the many events from October 5th to October 12th.

Rocket City Space Pioneers at GLXP Summit - RLV News presents one item that was probably released a bit too recently to have made it into Roundup #33.

More hardware - Vog Rockets

Nanosat Launch Seminar - Vog Rockets:

I’ll be giving a short presentation about Vog and our plans and possibly seeking individuals wanting to join the team.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Launch Pad - Team Phoenicia describes their Google Lunar X PRIZE goal, and how the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Nanosat Launch Challenge, and the Team Phoenicia/TechShop Nanosat Launcher Seminar on November 6 in Menlo Park, CA all fit together. They give a lot of details about how it all happened, but I think we all have a few more questions!

See their earlier post It's Wonderful for more details on the Nanosat Launcher Seminar. A commenter there asks if the seminar can be recorded ... not a bad idea for potential teams and spectators that can't make it to Menlo Park.

New Sponsor: ASCO Valve - Team Phoenicia

Guests: Josh Neubert, Hung-Jen Wu. Aired on October 10th, 2010 - The Space Show - The topic was the Conrad Foundation Spirit of Innovation Awards Program.

2010 Reach for the Stars Rocket Contest - Space for All

Space treasure hunt sponsored by NASA & Gowalla - Space for All

Briefs: Grand Challenges at NASA; GLXP scorecard - RLV News

Composite Compatability tests. - Unreasonable Rocket

LaserMotive Is 2nd Place Winner at NWEN First Look Forum! - LaserMotive gives more details about their NWEN First Look Forum pitch than I included in my last post.

Prize Twitter Roundup: Space Craft and Art, NASA Tournament Lab, Better Gloves, ZeroG, NSRC, New GLXP Teams?

2010-10-13T21:20:00.026-05:00

Don't be fooled by the first tweet below; it's from yesterday:

@lasermotive: Tom will be presenting at the First Look Forum this afternoon: http://bit.ly/aA5ygt

LaserMotive not only made the first cut to the final 5, but was chosen as Runner-Up (2nd place) at the First Look Forum. #NWEN

@peterdiamandis: Just landed after an awesome ZeroG flight. Everyone did great! Cameron loved the experience. We raised a bit over $200K to support X PRIZE.

I edited this next tweet to include the whole message rather than let Twitter's character limit cut it off with a link to the rest of the message near the end:

@teamprometheus: Working on new propellant for NSE-6 we will be doing some test rockoon launches this month! NSE-5.1 will be the first rockoon launch. We need to gather data for our flight controller programing. Working on a special coating to get the rocket to fire at 100kft.

Finished Rotor http://fb.me/HgS9mWmB

@nasa_technology: NASA Establishes Tournament Lab For Software Developers http://bit.ly/dhAISE

From the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) site:

NASA and Harvard University have established the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL), which will enable software developers to compete with each other to create the best computer code for NASA systems.

The NTL provides an online virtual facility for NASA researchers with a computational or complex data processing challenge to "order" a solution, just like they would order laboratory tests or supplies.

@nasa_technology: Lending a hand http://t.co/eBoLN7Q MIT research look into why spacesuit gloves hurt astros’ hands. w/ @NASA glove challenge winner @pkhomer

From the MIT News article Lending a hand: MIT researchers may be closer to understanding why spacesuit gloves hurt astronauts’ hands.:

“The study points to a different cause [of delamination] and a different way to deal with it,” said Peter Homer, founder of spacesuit-design company Flagsuit LLC, who is working with NASA and commercial companies to develop gloves for the next-generation spacesuit. “We need to look more closely at what is going on with the MCP joint,” he said, noting that the sizing and fit of the gloves around the MCP joint should be considered more closely in future designs.

Here's a note about the Space Craft Contest for making original art with a NASA theme:

@lori_garver: Crafty? NASA and Etsy team up: http://bit.ly/a7t0ka Rules and how to enter: http://www.etsy.com/nasa/enter.php

@Newspacenews: National Geographic documentary on Virgin Galactic debuts next week. http://bit.ly/8Ztych #space #newspace

Here's some information about possible new Google Lunar X PRIZE teams:

@pomerantz: RT @Rocketeer_UK: UK Lunar X-Prize team: Call for Interest http://tinyurl.com/2fs5c65

@csete @mrdoornbos Puli is not yet fully registered, but we do have a fully registered "Mystery" / unannounced Team - so 23 is right.

Finally, I have a couple more twitter accounts to follow, including 1 for the team Will mentioned:

@PuliSpace: Twitter Bio: Puli Space Technologies is a Hungary based team aiming to land a self-made rover on the Moon. Follow us and get to know how the Puli rockets into space.

@NSRC2011: Hi there-- I'm the Twitter page for the Next Gen Suborbital Researchers Conference to be held 28 Feb to 2 March next year in Orlando!

Colorado School of Mines at the Regolith Excavation and Lunabotics Competitions

2010-10-12T21:18:00.014-05:00

Briefs: SBSP economics; ISRU conference papers - RLV News - The Eleventh Space Resources Roundtable and Planetary & Terrestrial Mining Sciences Symposium site includes presentations from the June 2010 symposium and pictures from an ISRU demonstration session. Some of the presentations and demonstrations feature prizes in one way or another. For example:

Lunar and Planetary Excavation Systems: Lessons Learned at the Colorado School of Mines - (PDF, zipped) - P.J. van Susante, C.B. Dreyer - This describes lessons learned in the Regolith Excavation Challenge and the 2010 Lunabotics competition.

2010 Lunabotics Mining Competition (PDF, zipped) - R. Mueller, G. Murphy - This includes an overview of the 2010 Lunabotics competition, a look ahead to the 2011 competition, and the perspective of Colorado School of Mines team.

The following links are for pictures from the ISRU demonstrations:

Colorado School of Mines Excavators. - From left to right: Backhoe, Lunabotics Bucket Ladder, and NASA Regolith Centennial Challenge Bucket Ladder (Chris Dreyer and CSM students).

Colorado School of Mines NASA Regolith Centennial Challenge Bucket Ladder Excavator - (Mark Gefreh and CSM students)

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

2010-10-08T04:41:00.026-05:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First test part in the bag - Unreasonable Rocket

Altius Space Machines new blog and first contract - RLV News

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

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

Use contests effectively! - Advice Unlimited

CanSat 2011 Guide, Google Lunar X PRIZE Summit, More

2010-10-05T04:02:00.020-05:00

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

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

Cansat Competition Guide 2011

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

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

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

Tanks the other hard part - Unreasonable Rocket

Supporting Commercial Space at NASA - LaserMotive

Here are a few non-space prize updates:

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

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

Grand Forks lands international UAS competition - Grand Forks Herald

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

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

Nanosat Launch Challenge and Vog, Unreasonable, and Phoenicia, AirshipZ, WP OpEd, TrueRC

2010-10-01T06:20:00.014-05:00

@pomerantz: An OpEd in the Washington Post suggests Mark Zuckerberg should have used his $ to start an X PRIZE: http://bit.ly/cBeOLt

@teamprometheus: TrueRC Canada Just agreed to sponsor us with help for the long range transmitter we need for the nearspace... http://fb.me/HISiC0aY

I've mentioned this potential prize from @AirshipZ before, but it's good to check back:

@hobbyspacer: Sci-Tech: Z-Prize for green airship winner: There is also a new airship prize competition in development: The Air... http://bit.ly/bnMdzH

From Team Phoenicia:

Team Phoenicia and TechShop are proud to announce that on November 6th, 2010 at TechShop - Menlo Park at 1 PM will host the Nanosatellite Launcher Challenge Seminar.

The agenda is firming up, but organizations that will be presenting are NASA Centennial Challenge Office, the To Be Announced allied organization running the challenge, FAA, California Space Authority, New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Team Phoenicia and some of the SF Bay Area teams. ...

Check out the packed draft agenda at the top post for more details (the posts are in reverse chronological order):

It's Wonderful.
The whole thing.
Making the Purty (a video explanation) (a second interlude)
A Brief Interlude - This one points to an article "Building Lunar Landers" by the Menlo Park Patch.
You see, it's all very clear to me now.
I understand how you feel.
...yet [we] have the knowledge to make the trip work.

One of the presenters is Vog Rockets:

Pressure tank - Vog Rockets

A few ideas and loose ends - Unreasonable Rocket has some ideas about the Nano-satellite Launch Challenge, and ends with a request for access to a vacuum oven.

Prize Roundup: Altius Milestone, Student Astronomy, Prometheus Sponsors, Virtual Worlds, Asteroid Competition Hints, More

2010-09-30T05:38:00.015-05:00

@RobinSnelson: Vote to give this idea 50K: Rebuild an astronomy observatory for student and community education. #pepsirefresh http://pep.si/bXRWIT

@rocketrepreneur: NASA Authorization Bill passes, Altius signs its first contract, and I had a good time meeting with LM and ULA friends today. Good day.

@TeamPrometheus: Has added DIY Drones to the sponsor list! Thanks, Chris. http://fb.me/G3yQ3xDK

Has added Big Red Bee to the sponsor list! Thanks, Greg. http://fb.me/F5q6hbv4

Has added Featherweight Altimeters to the list of sponsors! Thanks, Adrian. http://fb.me/GNGGlr5K

@unrocket: Machine to round then brake cylinder hone. http://plixi.com/p/47588504

Low melting temp metal to fixture odd shape parts in the mill. Cleaning up weld scale on sealing surface. http://plixi.com/p/47568220

Green Flight Challenge: Elektra One Progress - CAFE Foundation Blog

If you can't get to other worlds using spacecraft yet, try the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge.

British Entreprenuer Julian Ranger Backs Astrobotic in Google Lunar X Prize - Parabolic Arc

Follow this link to see some more hints about the Planetary Society's planned HUMAN MISSION TO AN ASTEROID COMPETITION.

WSJ tech prizes now and in future - RLV News

Prize Roundup: SEDS Videos, Waste Limitation, Mars Education, North Dakota Sats, More

2010-09-26T14:04:00.025-05:00

@nss: Student video contest: http://seds.org/more/projects/video-ad-contest/. NSS will help judge & provide prizes.

From the SEDS site:

SEDS-USA is now accepting entries for the SEDS Video Ad contest. We challenge you, your friends, or your club to develop an awesome ad for SEDS-USA that shows the world what our organization is all about!

NASA's Waste Limitation Management and Recycling Design Challenge - NASA NES Teacher's Corner

Mars Education Challenge: Challenging Today's Students to become Tomorrow's Martians - Explore Mars:

The goal of this program will be to challenge science educators around the United States to develop ingenious ways to fit Mars science and exploration into the classroom.

@paulsrobotics: WPI_Robotics #WPI Moonraker, 2k9 FRC Robot, & some RBE class bots at the #makerfaire in NYC this weekend! Stop by & say hi! #omgrobots

@unrocket: Off to FAR to work on the site

Sitting in voyager cafe proteus taxis by must be mojave

101F at FAR mojave did not get the summers over memo

From NASA Centennial Challenges:

For those interested in competing in the three new challenges - the new Allied Organizations will be posting competition rules and plans for team registration sometime after they are selected in October. The actual competitions will probably not begin before 2011.

NASA Selects High Schools To Compete In New Challenge; Winning Software Designs Will Program Satellites on the International Space Station - NASA

ND Satellite Research Contest - University of North Dakota Department of Space Studies:

Through funding provided by Space Grant, Pablo de Leon and UND students will build an actual size satellite that will hang from the ceiling of the Heritage Center. ... Choose one of the satellites. Determine its relevance to North Dakota. ... The one who establishes the best ND connection to the satellite selected will win a prize of $250!

Here we have our quandary: [you] are going to get there first... - Team Phoenicia

@teamprometheus: Thanks to the people that donated to the team we received the new flight control unit for the rocket today! It's... http://fb.me/ILWPL1I2

@conradawards: Check out our new website---http://www.conradawards.org

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #29
Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #30 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Space Prize Roundup: Optimus Prime Award, Space Shows, N-Prize Interview, More

2010-09-20T05:12:00.000-05:00

Interview with Paul Dear of the N-Prize - RLV News

@pkhomer - Was just visited by Buzz Aldrin! Yup. For real. My head is still spinning!

@NASAGoddard - 3rd-8th graders, make a short video about spinoff tech and you could win the coveted NASA Optimus Prime Spinoff Award http://go.usa.gov/xbk

@doug_comstock - NASA and Hasbro partner for Optimus Prime award. Students do videos how NASA techs 'transform'. http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/optimus/index.php

Here are NASA's main links for the NASA Optimus Prime Award:

Home
Contest Details
Spinoff Technology Choices

@fineri - Spanking new website up at http://www.kiwi2space.co.nz/,thanks to @expertnz for donating their time & resources to make this happen!!choice!

Dr. Bryan Laubscher to appear on the 9/12/2010 Space Show - The Space Elevator Blog

Here's the podcast: Broadcast 1422 (Special Edition) - The Space Show

Just to mix things up a bit, instead of giving you the Space Show link, here's a link from The Space Show's Way Outside The Box Ideas And Plans Blog for Friday's interview of Tim Pickens. One of the subjects is the new Google Lunar X PRIZE team, the Rocket City Space Pioneers:

TIM PICKENS, Friday, 9-17-10

It looks like Armadillo is keeping busy this weekend ... but how did it turn out?

@armadillogadget: after 5 rocket racer runs we are about to pull out for a couple mod tests.

25 minutes to launch...

Keeping Up with Lunar Lander Challenge Teams

2010-09-17T07:16:00.033-05:00

Armadillo flies Super Mod
Armadillo Super Mod altitude goals
Super Mod take off and landing view - all from RLV News

Jon Goff gives some background on his company:

@rocketrepreneur: Ok, finally got my Business of Altius Space Machines post up: http://is.gd/feFEB Now back to packing and sleeping, then way too much driving

The Business of Altius Space Machines - Selenian Boondocks - Here's some information about one of the enabling technology product lines from Altius Space Machines:

Reusable First-Stage NanoSat Launcher
This is a topic area I’ve been working on for quite some time now, but particularly over the past year or so. There are many competitors in this market area, especially with the announcement of the NanoSat Launcher Centennial Challenge, but most of them are looking at expendable systems based on solids or other components.

Another product line involves reusable micro reentry vehicles. Micro reentry vehicles were considered by NASA Centennial Challenges (see slide 20 here (PDF)), but that hasn't happened (yet?). With NASA's new emphasis on the ISS, potential market growth from new platforms like DragonLabs and commercial space stations, NASA's new technology focus that includes landings, and the need Jon describes to fill the RLV technology gaps left by trends like suborbital RLVs and smallsats, a micro reentry vehicle seem to me to be a good subject for a future space prize (as well as Jon's technology business!).

@unrocket: http://plixi.com/p/45492209 motor bottom

Pressure Fed Upper Stage.
Stainless Chamber bottom on the way. - both from Unreasonable Rocket

Update:

Video of Armadillo's Super Mod flight on Friday - RLV News

Something Wonderful Is About To Happen - Team Phoenicia (via RLV News) - This post has a lot of hints in the tags. Those include "California Space Authority", New Mexico Spaceport Authority", and "Nanosat Challenge". They also include "Vog Rockets", which Google search suggests is vogrockets.org, "Vog Rocket Builders". Vog Rockets includes the following posts that give a couple more hints about their plans:

The Start of Vog Rockets
New Rocket Mockup Picture