Slashdot Mirror
X-Prize Cup Site Chosen: New Mexico
savuporo writes "MSNBC reports: "The X Prize Foundation and the New Mexico Office of Space Commercialization are joining forces to stage the multifaceted X Prize Cup, a two-week-long event that allows for privately financed, passenger-carrying space vehicles to compete for prizes.' The first Cup is expected to be held summer, 2006, while 2005 will probably see a 'Public Spaceflight Exposition.'"
I wonder how many UFO chasers will come out of the woodwork when some metal falls from the sky.
Steal This Sig
3rd tier US private industry is catching up to the Chinese government!
So, where would the best place to hitchhike be, after all, I do need to get back home to my home planet one of these days...
I am guessing that I will have to do a bit more than flash the driver (as if I was female anyway) to get a ride, arrgghhh. Maybe they follow the unspoken rules of the road (watch Dogma)!
Like arts? Like cheesy little Indie mags? Check out www.artwerkmag.com, and don't laugh at the bad coding please.
Whoa, let's make sure we use the name, "Ansari X-Prize" Hell, if I'd paid my way into that name, I'd be damned annoyed if my name wasn't mentioned!
And going up with the Russians doesn't count.
You'd hope they would host this in the United States instead of a foreign country!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Ha.. I read that as "Public Spaceflight *Explosion*". Probably not a word you would want to use in that context ;)
First you get the lucky destinction of having Trinity getting Hot first in the sands of New Mexico only to be followed by this Rocket Launch!
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. -- Hunter S. Thompson
They should merge this with the various human-powered vehicile competitions held on desert flats and roads from Nevada to New Mexico. I for one want to see a human-powered space vehicle.
Um, ok. and they'll all stand nearby while high powered rockets, designed and built by just about anybody, take off and land... mmmmm that sounds safe.
I hope the viewing area is as far away as during shuttle launches.
Seriously, should we be considering something like this yet? with passengers and spectators?
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Whoa, slow down there, maestro. There's a *New* Mexico?
Makes sense, considering that Goddard was launching sophisticated liquid-fueled rockets outside of Roswell prior to World War 2, and of course, White Sands Missile Range is also in New Mexico. Also, New Mexico is (imho) the most beautiful state in the United States, but also one of the poorest. It needs a boost like this.
--
SKYKING, SKYKING, DO NOT ANSWER
And Santa Fe kinda looks like Mos Eisley as you are driving into it in your Land Speeder. Perfect place for a space port. :)
planet texture maps and more
Do they mail that to the United States? Sounds interesting.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This past January the Aviation Technology Group announced they'd base the manufacturing plant for their Javelin (think $5M F18) here as well.
Now the Xprize? Cool. We'll take it!
"Pepsi presents Ansari X-Prize"?
The article listed the following prize categories:
1. Fastest turn-around time
2. Maximum number of passengers carried in one flight
3. Total number of passengers carried during the entire X Prize Cup event
4. Maximum altitude attained
5. Fastest flight time from take-off to landing
Overall I think this is an excellent idea, but some of the prize categories seem to be... interesting choices. Take for example number 2, "Maximum number of passengers carried in one flight." I instantly have a mental image of dozens of people being packed like sardines into a spacecraft, and the horrible tragedy and PR fiasco which would occur if something went wrong. Having a category like that really doesn't seem like a hot idea.
There's also number 5, "Fastest flight time from take-off to landing." Is this really that interesting a problem? I can't see any connection to potential commercial applications. It seems like it would be more a measure of how much acceleration the human occupants could tolerate than anything else.
While building an X-Prize class of vehicle is an impressive achievement, it's a long, long way from putting somebody into orbit and retrieving them again. You require a hell of a lot more thrust to put somebody into orbit, the heat shielding requirements for the way down are much tougher, and you've got to be able to maintain life support for at least several hours rather than a few minutes.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I myself am a space enthusiast. Personally, I have no problem with the private sector wanting in on space flight, and in fact, I think it would be good for the troubled American economy. The only thing is these companies have no practical experience with putting humans into space, and they seem to be jumping in head first rather than 'testing the waters' so to speak. Remember, NASA has had more than 40 years experience putting humans into space, and they by no means just dove right in. I don't know fully about the tests being conducted with these spacecraft, but from what I can gather these companies are in over their heads. They are attempting to start their 'space business' by putting 20 or 30 people in space at a time, when they should really start out slow for safety's sake. What's going to happen if these companies rush to put massive numbers of people in space, forgetting about safety and we have another Challenger or Columbia, but this time with civilians, and more of them? The industry really needs to slow down, or else we are in for a terrible tragedy.
To the Governor of New Mexico:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Congratulations! New Mexico has been determined to be sufficiently desolate and barren enough that the possibility of launchpad explosions and space debris raining from the sky pose little or no threat to the general population of your great state. Therefore, we are pleased to annouce that we are awarding the X-Prize Competition Site to New Mexico. We also looked at a small, uninhabited atoll in the Pacific Ocean but we found that it would be cost-prohibitive to provide portable toilets at that location on such short notice.
Yours,
The X-Prize Competition Site Selection Committee
The Orteig Prize awarded $25 000 to the sole man who flew non-stop on a single-engine aircraft 3635 miles from New York to Paris within a matter of hours (33.5 hours).
It's interesting how the model for this prize has evolved from modest air planes to surrealistic, yet impressively feasible spaceships.
Can everybody in the US please get over the need to relate everything in the entire world to terrorism?
There was one attack, 2.5 years ago. It was a horrible thing, but if someone wants to do something like it again there are uncountable ways that are easier than getting their hands on an as-yet-nonexistent private orbital craft and a weapon capable of surviving re-entry.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
What about the longest sustained flight?
I'm guessing that the events are aimed at promoting safe transportation of people and cargo but there is not specific mention of the amount of time that a craft will be 'airborn' for. Even mach 3 on a sub-orbital flight will take a few hours to make it coast to coast. During this time the craft might launch to the proper altitude and then glide the rest of the way. The amount of time spent in powered flight affects height and speed and therefore the distance travelled.
What if the organisers had an event where competitors have to lift a pre-determined mass to a minimum altitude and keep above there for as long as possible?
On top of that I live in Florida. The cape is really a turn-key operation and isn't setup to easily handle new payloads and rockets. Florida also doesn't have any large barren areas, it's either trees or swamps.
I don't think anything but White Sands was ever really an option, although playing that Florida might be an option might be a good bargaining chip to ratchet up the price that NM pays.
I wonder if I can schedule my next launch to coincide with this.
Statistically, you're probably right. Sooner or later, a privately-funded spacecraft is going to have an accident. There have been many events that push the limits of human capability, such as the air races, the America's Cup (or the Vendee Monde (?) solo-around-the-world yacht race), motorsports, and pretty much any other sport involving state of the art technology and human know-how, and in each of them there have been fatalities, and usually not due to reckless abandon on the part of the participants. Everyone knows that some endeavours are inherently dangerous, but that doesn't stop them from making the attempt. If everyone was content to live in a neutral coloured soft padded cubby then the world would be a pretty boring place. Plus we'd all still be living in (padded) caves.
Less is more.
(a) the people currently pursuing the X-Prize have no regard for the safety of themselves or others, or that they're incapable of making sound decisions based on their knowledge (presumably because they're blinded by the need to be-there-first); and
(b) somehow, "properly funded and controlled organizations" (such as NASA?) DO have the ability to make these decision.
Recent events in the Space Shuttle program would suggest that the people doing the controlling are blinded by their career aspirations and the need to meet arbitrary schedule and performance targets, rather than making properly informed decisions based on sound risk assessment. "It's okay to launch in cold weather".... "We don't need to check the tiles because EVA is a little bit dangerous"...
Less is more.