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NASA Needs Prize Contest Ideas
Michael Huang writes "If you like the idea of tech contests--think ANSARI X PRIZE and DARPA Grand Challenge--and you also like space, then NASA wants you. It needs ideas (and rules) for the Centennial Challenges, prize contests with $20 million funding in 2005. Current ideas (download Excel spreadsheet) include: Mars and asteroid microspacecraft missions, lunar robotic landing, robotic triathalon, rover survivor, Antarctic rover traverse and extreme environment computer. Wikipedia has good coverage."
I live in an area with lots of tall pines. My plan is to make the worlds biggest slingshot. So far I'm a bit short of orbital velocity, so I might apply for some money to get better rubber bands.
Artificial Intelligence. I mean robots, space missions, even just regular things are all cool, but Artificial intelligence would enhance them all. It would allow for more unmanned space flights, and lessen the amount of direct attention necessary for some given projects. Not to say that we are to rely on AI solely, but that it can be a great aide in what NASA is trying to do, and it would help other realms of science as well.
je suis parce que j'aime
Current ideas (download Excel spreadsheet) include: Mars and asteroid microspacecraft missions, lunar robotic landing, robotic triathalon, rover survivor, Antarctic rover traverse and extreme environment computer.
And Lander Fear Factor! The rover has to drink a wicked puree of something a rover would find revolting....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
Part of the problem about using AI is that it is kind of an umbrella term which covers everything from expert systems, neural nets, adaptive computing, machine vision. Also AI techniques aren't always the best way to approach large engineering type tasks like space missions. While getting neural nets to perform intelligent behavious is helping our understanding what intelligence is and how it works most of these technologies just aren't ready for prime time yet
I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this post is too small to contain.
How about a contest to find the best method of begging congress for money? It pays for itself!
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Lets see NASA put all that human medicine/nutrition knowledge to use, and set up a "Survivor" program in ... say ... Mozambique ... that uses bare-bones scientific evaluation of bio-mass consumption to prolong human survival as long as possible.
... Perhaps we have, perhaps its not useful, but it sure would be interesting to see all the details about human sustenance that an underwater, sealed 'biosphere X' kind of project could provide...
Another idea is ocean habitats. It seems very strange to me that we haven't 'prototyped' long-term human sustenance studies by building an "International Ocean Station" somewhere in the Marianas trench or something
IF we've gotta live for 6 months on de-hydrated/hydroponic foods, lets do it in that other hostile environment we have yet to fully explore, provided by our Oceans, or Deserts, where ordinary 'normal' humans are also struggling to survive...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
uh, How about saving me a seat on the next mission?
It might seem a bit far-fetched, but seriously, if I designed something for NASA that might really advance humanity, a space-flight isn't too out of the question, is it?
The suits from the Apollo era are rotting away in museums, in spite of efforts to preserve them. I sometimes wonder just how long those suits on the International Space Station will be usable, because they NEED to be usable when an emergency happens. Next, the 1960s-era suits were also quite cumbersome to put on and work in. Fixing those two things will be essential if we want a long-term human presence in space.
Webcams in Space! Live webcam pics (or streams) of the Earth from orbit, maybe one on the Moon (pointed at the earth?). Someday, even one from Mars? I know they have pics from the mars rovers, but what about a continuous raw feed?
All the really cool stuff happens once we leave orbit, right? (Deimos, Asteroids, Europa, etc.) Because there is already a prize for getting to orbit, so now we need to develop cheap spacecraft that can go that next step. I suggest that NASA allow experimenters to develop different spacecraft components. Categoires include: 1. Electrical Generation Systems 2. Navigation 3. Main Engine 4. Ways to "see" objects (sensors?) 5. Ways to gather volatiles frozen on something. 6. Ways to tow something. NASA takes the entries, tests them on the ground, and then takes the first 10 workable entires in each category to LEO, where they test them in space. NASA promises to take the winner from each category, and scale them to build a ship, which will be used to visit some piece of rock floating somewhere. NASA pays the prize as "royalties" to the winner. Andy
Parent: +6 Insightful
I'm a researcher in AI, and I can do nothing but backup the parent's claim (sad as it is). When we use AI, we would expect a robot to be able to perceive its surroundings (analyzing sensory inputs), make decisions (reasoning) and act (generating actuator outputs).
I can only comment on the first, since I'm a Ph.D. student in Computer Vision. And the general picture is, to be quite honest, depressing. Forget all you've seen in e.g. Terminator (e.g. the robot analyzing its visual input, and all the nice text in the image): it ain't gonna happen for a long time! Although space missions are (presumably) less complex in terms of sensory inputs, the state of affairs in dealing with normal natural images gives a nice idea of what's currently (im)possible:
I'll provide an example here. I'm doing Computer Vision (face-detections), and the current state of affairs is about this: When finding faces in 800x600 images, this can be done in about 1 second (yes: 1 full second), at about a 90% detection rate and a couple of false detections per image. For more complex object classes that are not so nicely symmetric (think cars, houses, landscapes, etc.), the performance is dramatically worse.
You can look at the BitTorrent link. And ONLY if that doesn't work, use this. As for reasoning: this is still in it's infancy, but I'm not working in that field, so I cannot comment on that well. Any takers? ;)
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Well, what NASA needs more than anything, is low cost access to orbit. That is what the X-prize is about, but NASA could probably get more bang for their buck by having a prize for a high specific impulse rocket engine which can operate in atmosphere. Simply set a minimum thrust, maximum weight, and minimum specific impulse, and see what people come up with. Ion and plasma engines have Isp of 10,000 or higher, but can't run in atmosphere (and require power supplies). If the space shuttle had that high of an Isp, it would need a ton or two of fuel (just guessing, don't feel like doing the math at the moment).
Of course, who knows how someone would find a way to make an engine like that. However if it is something with a low cost of entry (unlike the X-prize) which every backyard inventor can work on, then you instantly have a few thousand amateur rocket scientists working for a prize of a few hundred thousand. A pretty good deal, I say.
Issues with solar flares etc can be dealt with by wrapping the entire thing in aluminium foil. Aluminium foil is reflective (I can't believe nobody's thought of this), so this should protect anyone inside, and that's assuming a solar flare occurs at all.
Communication costs are coming down all the time. Most cellular companies these days have excellent coverage and well defined roaming agreements.
So really, it ought to be quite cheap, but I think the reason it's seen as expensive is because it's professionals doing it, and they can't very well be seen stitching old sheets together and covering rusty Winnebagos in foil.
So what I'd do, if I were NASA, is set up an award of $6,000 for the first person to go to Mars and come back in one piece.
And if NASA's willing to do this, I for one would throw my hat into the ring.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Create an almost entirely closed environment (receiving only heat and sunlight from outside), that is able to support human life indefinitely.
I know the name is cringe-worthy, but (I think) it hasn't been done successfully yet, and it needs to be.
Jerry Pournelle was suggested the following:
// TODO: fix sig
Easy contest to define, but maybe not so easy to win. Just specify the material properties needed for a practical space elevator, and offer a sizeable prize to the first group to present a sample of a certain size.
Also, you could offer annual prizes for the best results each year, even if they don't meet the final prize criteria. At least that'd give the research groups a short-term goal to reach for.
What about an electromagnetic assisted launch? I remember from my astro engineering class that a very significant percentage of any launch vehicles fuel is required to just get it to clear the tower. Why not build a scale model launch vehicle and tower that is capable of attaining a certian altitude using EM assisted launch. Make one of the requirements that you use 20% less fuel than a non-EM assisted launch. We already have maglev trains that go 300 MPH and roller coasters driven by linear induction motors, so it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to adapt these technologies to space launch.
If I drive fast enough at the red light, it'll appear green.
As noted on the web page, there's the Centennial Challenges program is organizing a workshop in Washington DC on June 15-16. You can register online (please, authentic registrations only!). This sounds like an excellent opportunity to help shape history.
Here's the blurb from the web site:
To kickoff Centennial Challenges, NASA's new program of prize contests, NASA will host a workshop on June 15-16 in Washington, DC. The purpose of the workshop is to:
1. Gather ideas for Challenges,
2. Develop rules for specific Challenges and gauge competitor interest in various potential Challenges, and
3. Promote competitor teaming.
This workshop will be a key input into Centennial Challenges planning, helping to determine what specific Challenge competitions NASA announces in 2004 and 2005 and the rules of those competitions. All potential Centennial Challenge competitors, including interested members of industry, academia, students, and the general public, are invited to attend.