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.'"

Comments

Formula One Budget

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Encouraging aggressiveness?

[Trigun]

Uhhm, do you own a car?

How many private planes were crashed during the barnstorming era? How many commercial planes are there today?

Your argument is flawed.

Re:I would pay for tickets.

[Niles_Stonne]

Perhaps have the scoring based on the most "necessary mechanical systems" that the robot can lose while still being the last robot standing/operating...

Sort of goes back to the Intrusion Tolerance article from earlier today.

Or perhaps have the scoring based on "Mass removed from the other robot" - so the more chunks you break off, the higher your score. It would drive the competition towards lighter components (the other team scores less if it breaks off) with more damaging capability.

The balsa is a great idea :)

Done before - with disastrous results

[RobertB-DC]

The concept of showing off the latest technology with a dazzling display of its power has been done before, though I'm sure we can all hope that it doesn't have the same unexpected results as the famous Crash At Crush. From the Handbook of Texas:

CRASH AT CRUSH. A plaque fifteen miles north of Waco in McLennan County marks the site of the "Crash at Crush." On September 15, 1896, more than 40,000 people flocked to this spot to witness one of the most spectacular publicity stunts of the nineteenth century-a planned train wreck. The man behind this unusual event was William George Crush, passenger agent for the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. In 1895 Crush proposed to Katy officials that the company stage a train wreck as an attraction; he planned to advertise the event months in advance, sell tickets to transport spectators to and from the site on Katy trains, and then run two old locomotives head-on into each other.

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):

The engines met in a thunderous crash and climbed each other toward the sky,
the impact rattled the earth for miles around, and the twisted wreckage did fly.
In a moment more the boilers exploded, and the steam blocked out the sun,
some lost their lives while others lie bleeding, and the rest of them could only run.

Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, wheels a-rumblin' on the railroad track,
once they go they can't turn back, once they go they can't turn back.

In a cotton field near Waco, Texas between two peaceful hills
a sign reminds us to hold respect for the power of the beasts we build,
and you and I in our lifetimes will never get to feel such a rush
as the people who saw and lived to tell of the awesome crash at Crush.

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.