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X-Prize Cup/Olympics Planned
sckienle writes "Space.com has a quick article in their astronotes section about the X-Prize committee's idea of an X-Prize competition. Apparently they are thinking about having a 'X-Prize Cup' where 'teams would compete for cash prizes, attempting to set new records.' My favorite quote: 'The notion is to try and bring the money and excitement of NASCAR and Formula One racing into space.'"
So are we off to find Dale Earnhardt?
Can't wait for the sponsors to jump on this one.
This space for rent.
I think its ideas like this that the current space program needs to reawaken peoples interests in Space exploration, especially after the last few months and the negative attention it has recieved.
It's hard enough to remember my opinions, never mind the reasons for them..
It's all about the Mello Yellow rocket...
Days of Thunder 2: Stock Rocket Racing
As long as they bring the money.
I'd love to see a shuttle rocketting towards the stratosphere with "Viagra keeps our rocket up too" stenciled down the side of it!
'The notion is to try and bring the money and excitement of NASCAR and Formula One racing into space.'" So will there be studies on maintaining carbonation in Natural Light in zero-g? I hear you can do killer keg stands in space.
Well, as much as those NASCAR vehicles cost, and as little money as is being put into hardware for most of the Mars missions, we're getting fairly close when it comes down to the bottom line...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I suppose beer companies sponsoring really fast driving is just as inane as a rocket...
I just hope that it draws the white trash chicks that are willing to show us their tits on the big screens.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
For a brief moment I read that as crash prizes...
I'll donate money if they make all NASCAR & Formula racing take place in space.
Mumbles something about nothing being on the tube.
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
I am a big fan of science, and would be more than willing to shell out some cash to watch this sort of thing. My lack of interest for a lot of modern mechanical sports is the udder lack of distinction between any of the entries, two cars in nascar are more alike than your and my DNA. I really think these kinds of games, at least initially, will show some greated distinction, and innovation between competitors. I would also love to see a robot wars where they built things out of balsa wood, nothing actually breaks anymore.
paul reinheimer
I hope their not trying to bring the exact same type of excitement as NASCAR. Most of the people there are just waiting for a big crash to watch.
Devil Ducky
MY peers would get out of jury duty.
One of the competitions could be to launch a NASCAR into space and race it 3 hours after its return.
This is about the only way you're going to make that lot considered 'Sexy'.
Years from now, it'll be all about the people with beer guts and no shirts on cheering for their favorite rocket driver/sponsor and they'll be wearing t-shirts with the rocket on them.
Ferrari spends nearly $300 million a year on it's F1 team ... I think the budgets are there if the technology was a little more sound.
Spot the oxymoron.
if we make this like NASCAR, then all the rockets would only turn left.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
Dale Earnhardt was a card-carrying member of the GNAA?
It's going to be like NASCAR eh? I'm actually damn interested to see how they pit a rocket during the race. What if a pit crew member fell from the pit station?
Happy Noodle Boy says "F###ing doughnut! Mock me? You fried cyclops!!"
Nasa and Nascar have officially merged...
so they basicly want to get a bunch of redneck retards to come out to an unshaded grand-stand, sit inthe sun for 10 hours and watch planes take off and land......
yeah, that sounds about as exciting as watching a group of cars drive in circles all day.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Sounds dangerous, if safety is let slip.
Could give commercial space flight a bad name.
French judges inexplicably vote for Russians despite their team's x-prize entry of three fat guys on a trampoline.
The most exciting thing in the article to me was the fact that there are "over a dozen spaceports now under development". Rock!
I know about OSIDA, the one in Oklahoma that Armadillo is planning on using. Anybody know where the others are?
--riney
So does that mean spectators go to the launchpad hours early and gets drunk off their ass waiting for the rockets to launch?
...bring the money and excitement of NASCAR...into space
Dude 1: "Look, a meteor shower!"
Dude 2: "No, just some Bojangles in re-entry."
help fill in hidden movie endings @ End of the Credits
With the latest Guiness craze (anyone willing to do the dumbest, most dangerous stuff to get their names in the book), I'm afraid to make space the next competition. Yeah, they put their lives in danger, which is no biggie by me... cleanse the gene pool...
But what happens when someone's custom-made SaturnV crashes into your house?
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Watching silly men go Vrmmm vrmmm vrmmm vrmmm until one hits the crowd and explodes?
The best part of Formula One is the girls who shake the champagne. Maybe we can just dispense with the loud noisy machines and just have girls opening large bottles of champagne. Playboy in Space? Gotta be cheaper and more fun.
Vrmmm vrmmm vrmmmm... Nope, just does not do it for me.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
...why we're talking about the winner of the "X-Prize Cup". We should be talking about the winner of the "D-Cup Prize": Ms. Jennifer Connelly!
It's all fun and games until a bunch of cadets tries to pull a Kolvord Starburst and one of 'em bites it. If only CleverNickName had told the truth from the start...it's all his fault!
(I fully expect to be karma-lynched for this)
Sign me up, where do I get tickets?
This reminds me of the air competitions in the 20's and 30's, normally funded by wealthy newspaper owners. Cash prize for the first to cross the Atlantic East to West, then in reverse. First to Hawaii, around the world, etc.
If not for some of those competitions, aviation would have progressed much slower than it did.
I'm putting my money on the Viagra sponsored rocket. I'm sure they can get it up faster than any other team ;)
Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
'The notion is to try and bring the money and excitement of NASCAR and Formula One racing into space.'"
Good luck trying to get a bunch of drunk rednecks and their double-wide trailors into space. You know trailors go up like they're filled with gasoline if one tiny spark hits 'em.
I can just see the out fit too.
A wife beater, mullet, big space helmet, rolled up, skin tight jeans with oil stains, and a pair of cowboy boots
You aren't free to do anything, until you've lost everything.
... however, I would imagine that once upon a time, the idea of racing cars for sport seemed rather ridiculous.
Racing for money and fame is another matter, though, and usually happens far before racing hits the "Nascar" level. Remember (reading in history books) when they would show the might and speed of the newest railroad trains by racing them head-to-head with horses? The art of racing to impress and encourage investment will need to be mastered way before it matures into sport.
Its the only reason I watch NASCAR.
Now, I can watch space launches and hope for crashes too.
Win-Win situation
just don't bring the fiery crashes.
between the greater and lesser infinities sleep the dreams undreamt
I am not sure if you could turn this into a spectator sport like NASCAR and Formula 1. It would be a neat concept to get corporate sponsors and televise the various test and launches on say Tech TV or Discovery Channel. I am sure the Budweiser, Miller, Tide, Insert Car Maker Name Here or Insert Petroleum Company Name Here corporate crowd would front the money if where to be broadcast to a wide audience. I would watch weekly to see who was in the lead in terms of progress towards a manned launch.
Finally, some interesting reality TV with meaning.
The Darwin Awards have opened a new award category.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I don't think I totally agree with this. Part of the point of the X-Prize is finding the cheapest way to space, not necessarily the fastest way to space. Remember: good, cheap, fast, pick two. If we pick cheap and fast, we get deathtraps.
I'd much rather see the X-Prize lead to something good and cheap that takes 2 days to get to orbit than have some over-engineered phallic symbol dominating the space race for the next 50 years.
...for me has always been the anticipation that someone is going to have a nasty fiery wreck and then walk away from it.
;-)
I really don't think this is what we want in a space "race". I think you need to look at it more from the stand poitn of the America's Cup rather than NASSCAR.
I find all this stuff fascinating.
The fact that the guy who wrote Duke Nuk'Em will be the first man in space is absolutely thrilling. The fact that he is openly gay only adds to the bravery.
The only thing I dont get is racing. If they both have to get the same escape velocity to go to space then they'll both go the same speed.
But still, I would stay up all night to watch rich guys launch model rockets.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Why bring the money into space where it will be of no use to anybody? Just give it to me so I can finish paying for college!
... The next Muppet Show ...
Isn't the favorite part of car racing when things blow up?
That seems like a contrary goal.
Design for Use, not Construction!
The notion is to try and bring the money and excitement of NASCAR and Formula One racing into space
Ok, maybe the money of NASCAR, but the excitement?! I mean, come on, who actually watches NASCAR? Nobody. The reason being, it's not exciting!
The notion is to try and bring the money and excitement of NASCAR and Formula One racing into space
I can't speak for everyone, but everyone I know who is excited about NASCAR and Formula One racing, they only watch because they're hoping that there will be a crash...
NASCAR strategy wouldn't work here, since nothing makes another vehicle's slipstream look less inviting than flames shooting out the back end.
This post is dedicated to all of those
My lack of interest for a lot of modern mechanical sports is the udder lack of distinction between any of the entries, two cars in nascar are more alike than your and my DNA.
Contrary to popular belief there are other motorsports besides NASCAR:
...just to name a few.
For example, on Speedvision(now "The Speed Channel"), you can catch events like the Maine Forest Rally. In rallying, there are lots of different cars, it's pretty exciting, often more so than NASCAR- you've got insane speeds, limited traction, crazy drivers, and little to no control over the course(helloooooo wildlife! :-)
Rallying is intensely popular pretty much everywhere except the US, where the population seems fixated on NASCAR bullshit.
Please help metamoderate.
Almost sounds like they dont have all the money to award the winner of the X-Prize, so that they are changing the rules now. Of course, the previous statement is 100% speculation on my part.
Heh, good one! (probably your intention:) But for those not in the know, Tang was developed to provide the early astronauts with something to drink.
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
Hmm. Good ol' boys turning left while trying to make a demolition derby not look like a demolition derby, or Bernie Ecclestone's High-Speed Parade Lap Revue. :-) Maybe WRC is more like it.
This sig intentionally left blank.
If you just want to race into space, just send a rocket with no payload up there. The lightest rocket [that can reach escape velocity] will, in all probability, win it.
Now if you want to send a person and a payload up there too, that requires a different set of rules.
Basically, it'll probably end up being more like Battlebots than NASCAR: there will be several categories of competitions.
(Then again, maybe NASCAR is like that too. I just don't watch it. "*singing* Alienating most of America..." -Conan)
Actually, if you want something that will get the most load up into space the fastest, the space elevator would take the prize hands-down.
Karma: NaN
If they made this competition like NASCAR, they'd limit the participants to space technology engineered in the 50's.
There's a problem with the girls here on Earth
They stopped acting dizzy wearing miniskirts
Seems like everything wild is in distaste
Gotta get my band off in outer, outerspace
It can't come too soon,
Someone always has to break the rules,
Like a rock n roll cartoon,
First Band on the Moon!
- Motley Crue, "First Band on the Moon", 1999.
What would the space shuttle look like if NASCAR-like sponsership was allowed?
Shouldn't be too hard if this is possible
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
the hoopla around the x-prize is starting to look like the dot-com era. this space stuff is expensive. people are going to die. it is WAY off the curve for profitability, even if you factor in the x-prize money. yes, i'd love to go too (disclaimer #2: i am an MBA, but I am also the test pilot for a small aerobatic aircraft manufacturer), but please people.. this will take time.
(Posting anonymnously since I feel guilty karma whoring)
The onion recently had an article about NASA and NASCAR merging. They seem to have taken it down, but here's the text.
My favorite line: "The shuttle encountered further problems in lap 271, when its massive first-stage solid fuel rocket boosters jettisoned into the Talladega Speedway grandstand, killing more than 1,500 spectators."
XXX Prize. Now there's competition I would pay to go see (just, for the love of god, make sure that no geeks participate):
Top Ten Awards to be presented at the XXX Prize contest:
10. Best "tits on glass" from a rocket occupant
9. Best moon (of course)
8. Body most improved by zero gravity
7. Most unique position for rocket occupants
6. Most creative use of non-human test flight animal
5. Fewest minutes on-line to obtain a burnable VCD image of "Gayniggers from Outer Space"
4. Most creative use of "G" forces
3. Best ejection (male and female)
2. Most creative use of the "Johnson Space Center"
and.....[drum roll]
1. The venerable...Most Rings Around Uranus
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
The winner was Tom Swift Jr. and it's even documented on the NASA web site!
Kids these days -- nobody reads ...
FIM Motorcycle racing is pretty damn exciting. So is WSBK. AMA is okay, but all the real talent seems to be on the world scene.
The New England Lawnmower Racing Association puts on some pretty good races, too, buy they're hard to find on television.
That said, you're right on the money with rally cars. If I had to buy a car, I would *so* want a WRX as my daily driver.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Rednecks, baking in the sun all day, could fund the space program with their beer purchases alone.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Oh great, something else for Michael Schumacher to win...
"Information wants to be paid"
Who'll be the Dale Earnhardt of this silly thing?
I vote for the inventor of ping, who died recently (last few years some time)
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
The X-Prize is a fantastic idea, and the X-Prize Cup is an amazing extension. This is what our space program needs: people in garages building new rockets. We need that good old fashioned American attitude to reshape our spacefaring aspirations. It's like the Rocket Boys (October Sky movie): a bunch of people with similar interest working on a common goal with space as the destination.
NASA has failed to excite us, or even deliver anything other than a few experiments on a very expensive orbiting autonomous laboratory with a bathroom and a view. I hate to say it NASA... I loved you so much growing up, but you're going nowhere.
Hell, NASA should be providing funding for X-Prize competitions!
Again, I wish they would make me administrator of NASA. I'd really kick ass.
The main question is how can we reinvent the air races that died when planes became to fast to be able to watch.
--"Sorry for the inconvience." Gods Last Words to his Creation
DNA, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
I cannot wait for the X-Price Special Olympics. I got thrust, I got thrust, I got thrust...do you have thrust? I got thrust, I got thrust, I got thrust, I got thrust!
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
So
This proposal has a number of interesting ideas.
First, competition attracts more interest. Part of the reason for the decline in interest in space since Apollo is the lack of any real competition. NASA launches shuttles -- who really cares that much? While not "routine access to space" shuttle launches are fairly common. There's no drama -- unless something goes wrong. Competitions such as this will bring some drama back to the field.
These kinds of competitions can also bring the participants together, much as happens in automobile racing. I discovered when photographing SCCA races that they were as much social events as automobile competitions. Bringing people together in these competitions can facilitate information exchange. One team can see what another is doing and learn from it. That kind of thing goes on in the Sports Car Club of America. Why not X Prize competitions as well?
These efforts will be much less bureaucratic. It would be easier for young scientists and engineers to get involved in meaningful ways. Doesn't that happen now in various competitions to build and race solar powered automobiles?
Yes, I'd like to watch -- hell, even get involved somehow.
"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- B. Franklin
I don't know if Murphy's Law had been established in 1895, but its results were in clear evidence: despite assurances that it couldn't happen, one of the train's boilers exploded upon the collision. The result (as sung by Texas songwriter Brian Burns):
Frankly, I can't see any way to stage an "X-Prize Cup", with multiple competitors simultaneously trying for the biggest spectacle, without chancing a repeat of the Crash At Crush. That said, I'd buy a ticket... but I'd leave the kids at home.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
The avaition advances in the 20's and 30's allowed the german war machine to advance quickly in the opening moments of WWII.
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
They origanally came up with an orange drink made from whale blubber, but the name: Harpoon Tang just didn't stick.
According to spacedaily.com the American contestants are having trouble with overwhelming paperwork concerning FAA regulations based on the 100-year old aviation industry. Therefore a coalition of businesses, customers, public interest organizations, and public policy experts have joined together to call on Congress for a clear and stable regulatory environment for suborbital flights to take place.
I was thinking the same thing until I heard the Magliozzis pan the WRX on Car Talk one Saturday morning. Apparently it's absolutely gutless unless you wind it up enough for the turbo to kick in, which is not something you'd really want to do at every intersection. Afraid I'll have to pass and go with an Impreza Outback instead.
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
> Apparently it's absolutely gutless unless you wind
> it up enough for the turbo to kick in
Argh, that's unfortunate. I wonder if the WRC has the same motor?
On the other hand, I wonder how hard it would be to modify the WRX with the "VTEC" (quotes important) technology in the new Honda VFR 800 motorbike. It keeps half the exhaust valves closed 8000 rpm, allowing much more bottom end grunt than it would have other.
Probably cheaper to buy a new motor, though.
Still, depending on the turbo characteristics, that might okay. I ride a 250cc motorbike as my daily driver, and it is totally and completely limp below 8,000 RPM. Fortunately, after the first 8 grand there are another 6 to play with, and I'm quite good with the gear box.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
the only reason people watch racing is to get drunk and see cars explode. Both things you can't really do with space vehicles.
though drunken astronauts would surely improve the ratings for it.
"hey ya'll watch this"
"In post 9-11 soviet russia, only beowulf clusters of welcomed overlords are belong to old grit-eating Koreans!" aendeur
Right now, the teams are trying to break the 100 km barrier by going straight up and returning straight down. For example, in Rutan's design the airspeed never exceeds 155 knots. As a result, it will take 80 minutes to cover a horizontal distance of 35 miles. That is enough to win the prize and I'm fine with that. But, in years to come, there should be new targets that get us closer to orbital flight. Greatest distance prizes will do that.
The first one, greatest distance traveled between takeoff and landing, could possibly be won by some sort of hybrid between Rutan's globe-circling Voyager and his Spaceship One, but that's also something that I'd be fine with. It would, like the current X-Prize, stretch aviation technology to lits limits.
My second idea, greatest horizontal distance traveled above 100 km, would be a logical follow-up to the first one, since it could only be won by someone following a ballistic trajectory. This would might inspire new research into thermal shielding, or it may generate all new ways to return to earth. (For example, find a way to eliminate your horizontal velocity before re-entering the atmosphere.)
Either of these would be far better than the possibilites discussed in the article.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
No, Tang existed before the astronaut use.
However, Tang did create a marketing success by connecting themselves to astronauts.
In some ways its laudable that they want to make space travel as exciting as NASCAR, but it's scary at how little they understand about the situation. Even if they talked about the great airplane races of the '20s and '30s, I would be concerned.
Blast offs (to use the most exciting term for a rocket ship taking off) is not something that will keep an audience riveted for a long period of time. Re-entries, in orbit manuevering and so on, is not very exciting. Maybe sports would be exciting, although the one to get the biggest draw would be not available to those under 18...
What is exciting is the element of danger (ie Columbia and Challenger) and isn't that exactly what commercialization is focused on eliminating? Along with eliminating danger the focus is on lowering costs.
If they want to make space important to people (important is not synonomous with "exciting"), is to work at making space part of people's everyday lives. Have a contest to have the first 10,000 person city powered from space. Offer cars that are built with 100% Lunar titanium. Offer drugs made in space that will add 30 healthy years to a person's lifespan (hell, just cure baldness using drugs manufactured in space). Once these things start, you will see space becoming more and more important in people's eyes and result in them being interested and maybe going to the local spaceport to look at the different ships.
Just like people go to the airport to look at the planes. The excitment and romance will be in what they carry back and forth and where they go; not in how they do it.
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
The X-Prize Cup is a great idea, because it will continue the momentum started by the X-Prize. When the X-Prize is won, I expect to see a surge in interest in space by the general public (and investors). The question, of course, is whether that interest will fade in a few weeks or whether it will translate to ticket sales and investment offers. The X-Prize Cup will hopefully bring about a favorable resolution of this question.