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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.'"
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..
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!
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 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.
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.
if we make this like NASCAR, then all the rockets would only turn left.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
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
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
Now taking bets on the Kessel run.
2-1 on the guy with the wookie.
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
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)
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
... 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.
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.
... 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!
Driving a non-air-conditioned, 400HP car in a circle at 150 mph for a few hours just slightly faster than the other two dozen guys in identical cars, however, does require skill.
Do you tailgate (less drag, more heat)? How long and with who? Which line through the banked corners is optimal right now (it'll change as the track gets dirty and your tires heat up/wear, not to mention different amounts of traffic at different levels)? How many times will you stop for gas? Change tires? Do you need to adjust the suspension?
Don't you see? This is all leading up to the landing of the first Mullet on the Moon©!
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
It's not even close. The average NASCAR team spends about $10M a year. Most of the X-prize teams are spending less than $1M total, with a few in the $1-2 M level. They could do some really cool shit for $10M a year, if they could find the right sponsors to give it to them.
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.
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.
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
You know, as cold hearted as that is, that might not be such a bad thing.
As things stand now, if an accident occurs during a space flight and people get killed it's a national tragedy and the entire space program shuts down for months or years. When Dale whosie got killed it was still a tragedy (although a lot more worked up than i thought it really deserved to be) but they didn't stop doing NASCAR or Formula One races for any significant period of time.
As someone else pointed out on the last spaceship related article, thousands of people get killed every year just commuting to work, but no one makes a big deal of it because it's part of our lives. Likewise worldwide there's probably at least one lost commuter jet a year, which gets more press than your average car accident since they're rarer and kill hundreds of people at once, but we don't stop using planes because of them.
Perhaps routine-as-in-sporting-event is a good first step towards routine-as-in-taking-a-commuter-jet.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
So
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.
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.
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?