Win the X-Prize Cup

fitten writes "CNN is reporting that the X-Prize competition may become an annual event. From the site: 'Hoping to build on the momentum sparked by a private rocket plane's dash into space, supporters of opening the heavens to civilians are turning the winner-take-all race into an annual competition that might further fuel imaginations.'"

Comments

Good or bad? Time will tell.

[eddy]

"into an annual competition that might further fuel imaginations."

Yeah, like the Loebner Prize?

Or maybe not.

Vehicle Challenge

[flyboy974]

I would suggest that the next XPrize be a vehicle challenge.

Develop a zero emmisions vehicle able to travel 1,000 miles, carrying 4 people, minimum distance between stops being 200 miles. No stop may last longer than 15 minutes.

This would essentially emulate a family driving in any EU or N. American country. All while driving a stake through the Oil companies hearts.

Sounds cool, but...

[RalphBNumbers]

I hope this doesn't detract from other more ambitious prizes.
Just getting to space is nice, but I'd like to see bigger prizes for things like orbital flight, rather than reccuring smaller prizes for doing the same old thing a little bit better than the last guy.

I can imagine a cool concept for the X-Prize version 4.0 (or thereabouts).

Pay some space agency to launch a tiny satelite, just a transponder with a n-million dollar check rolled up inside. The first private team to go up and retrieve it in person keeps it.

Let's honor James Doohan, aka "Scotty".

[reporter]

Let's try to honor James Doohan by rename the "X-Prize" to the "Doohan Prize".

Also, let's be a bit more ambitious. With the recent revelation that the American military is working on anti-matter weapons, we can safely conclude that we have "found" the fuel necessary for intergalactic travel. An matter-antimatter engine would have almost limitless power.

So, instead of merely "shooting for low-earth orbit", let's "shoot for the stars". Let's "boldly go where no man has gone before ..."

Re:Bad idea

[kfg]

The America's Cup races are held every four years, primarily because it's a technical series and it takes that long to raise the money, build and develop a boat.

Something to think about though, SpaceShipOne only cost about as a much as a well funded, front running 12 meter yacht program.

If you can scrap up the moolah it's now a legitmate choice, boat or space ship.

KFG

Re:Not as interesting as the Bigelow $50 mil prize

[Rei]

Yeah, and only 2,000$ per pound, and with a 1% chance of your package being incinerated in the upper atmosphere!

But to answer your question... no. SpaceShipOne couldn't go that far point to point. At 100km, it could make it that far if it *also* had a velocity of ~7800 m/s at that altitude.

However, on the subject of deliveries, it does remind me of something else. I had a friend who worked as a translator for the army during the cold war. She took part in the inspections of one of those regular disarmament agreements, in which both sides agreed to destroy so many missles, and then used it as an excuse to get PR while scrapping their old missiles that they didn't wany any more. The inspectors were there to probe into any space small enough to possibly hide a treaty-limited item.

Well, over there, she got to talking to the Russian equivalent of a (Colonel? I forget what she told me). Anyway, she mentioned to him how much of a waste it was, to see these complex pieces of machinery that can go anywhere in the world in half an hour just be scrapped. She told him about how she had done calculations, and that you could retrofit an ICBM, fuel and launch it, and use it as an intercontinental pizza delivery system. You put the raw pizzas in the top, and they're cooked on reentry, and then the pizza "warhead" parachutes down. If enough pizzas were in demand in a given location to fill the warhead, the delivery cost (assuming you don't have to pay for the missile) would only be 10-20$ per pizza.

According to her, he looked at her like she was completely insane.

They left out the most important category...

[vrmlguy]

From the article:

Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall cup: Fastest turnaround time between the first launch and second landing, maximum number of passengers per launch, total number of passengers during the competition, maximum altitude and fastest flight time.

How about maximum ground distance traveled while still reaching space? Right now, SS1 goes up and comes straight back down, so the maximum down-range cup could be won by landing somewhere in Texas. Each year you'd have to beat the previous year's distance, so eventually the teams would transition to transatlantic ballistic trajectories. Eventually, someone would land back in New Mexico after circling once around the Earth and the prize would be retired, but by then you'd be almost orbiting.