Florida and New Mexico Compete for X-Prize

N8F8 writes "Looks like the fight for the location for the first X-Prize competition is in the final stage. Florida and New Mexico are the finalists. New Mexico is courting the X-Prize officials heavily. Living in Satellite Beach, Florida, it isn't hard to guess where my vote is going! It's too bad Governor Jeb Bush isn't putting much effort into lobbying for Florida though other efforts may be under way. Getting in on the ground floor of private space entrepuraneurism would be priceless. X-Prize officials have delayed the final decision to April 16th."

Comments

Re: NASA Gets Left Behind?

[seaswahoo]

The $10 Million cash prize will be awarded to the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a three-person spaceship to 100 Km (62.5 miles), returning safely to earth and repeating the launch with the same ship within two weeks.

It seems that non-governmental groups are a little less squeamish about taking risks and heading off this hunk of rock we call Earth.

Still...they're doing it for the sake of commercial interests, not simply for the sake of exploration and gathering knowledge, like NASA, the ESA, and the space agencies of other countries including, yes, formerly Soviet Russia.

I realize that for us as humans it's inevitable that we'll break free of Earth and go out...it's something characteristic of our species. Take the discovery of the Americas for example.

Can we be so sure that the end here (travel in space, colonization, etc.) justifies the means we as humans may need to take to get there (commercial interests)?

Methuselah Mouse Prize - successor in technique

[exratio]

The Methuselah Mouse Prize (rewarding scientists who manage to extend healthy life span in mice) has some of the same names involved as advisors, and is in many ways an attempt to further evolve the fundraising methodology used so successfully in the X-Prize.

http://www.methuselahmouse.org

I think that progress to date since the launch last year is pretty impressive. $50,000 raised and $300,000 in pledges is far greater progress than the X Prize managed in the same period of time after launch - learning from the past and improving on it is a good thing. Check out The Three Hundred as well as a good example of how to get a certain set of people involved:

http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/threehundred.a sp

Why are prizes for research so good? Take a look at this piece on how they work and why they work so well:

http://www.longevitymeme.org/topics/research_prize s.cfm

Doesn't Vandenburg California worry also?

[aauu]

Most of the path of a space vehicle to orbit is vertical. New Mexico starts several thousand meters higher in the atmosphere reducing the length of travel and density of air when starting. White Sands Missile base would be a good starting point for a space port. We already launch missiles from White Sands. A electromagnetic vehicle accelerator could be run up the face of the Sandias in Albuquerque giving an initial vehicle free flight beginning at 3,000 meters. Located along the spine of the Rocky Mountains so shipping from California and points east are averaged. We dropped a shuttle on Texas and nobody got hurt except the passengers. Florida is quite crowded compared to eastern New Mexico and Western Texas. I vote for New Mexico. (My love of good mexican food may be biasing my decision ;))

Wish New Mexico luck.

[BCW2]

I grew up in Las Cruces. On the other side of the mountain is White Sands Missle Range, the place where space flight started in this country. Werner von Braun and his group of scientists were taken there after WWII to start their research in this country. Every rocket this country has had flew there first(except Saturn 5 and shuttle). The lake bed at Northrup strip is where all shuttle pilots practised there landings for 10 years, and where one shuttle landed when Edwards was flooded. That place is the history of space and weapons reseach and innovation.