Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

X-prize Award paid

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the faster-than-most-ebay-bidders dept.

daveywest writes "According to the AP, "SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan accepted the Ansari X Prize money, along with a 150-pound trophy, as a chase plane flew over the ceremony in a field adjacent to the St. Louis Science Center.""

11 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. How long... by Ckwop · · Score: 2, Interesting

    until he's got the proposed orbital prize? I bet 2010.

    Simon.

  2. Money by Paster+Of+Muppets · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As for the $10m prize, how is it all going to be split? I assume Rutan won't get to keep all of it?

    --
    Due to lack of disk space this user has been discontinued
  3. This Great News by Space_Soldier · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is great news. However, we all know that the X-Prize works based on donations. I hope that they still have money for daily operations and for future pricez. The X-CUP will require a lot more money than the X-Prize. However, I'm sure that corporations will turn the white space crafts into race cars (full with ads), which should pay for most of the expenses. The SpaceShipOne has the Virgin logo on it.

  4. The next challenge for Rutan by Timesprout · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is to convince his bank manager that spending 25+ million to win 10 million was actually a good idea.

    It was an excellent achievement but I think the real challenge is to get people to actually hand over their cash as easily as they pledge it and create a viable space tourism/haulage business.

    To be honest once the novelty and rich morons exclusivity factor wears off I cant see it happening.

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
    1. Re:The next challenge for Rutan by sketerpot · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In other words, you want to see Virgin Galactic get going.

  5. Re:Real shame by rbanffy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    OK... It was something between a flamebait and a troll, but I do have to answer, anyway.

    If we leave space travel and exploration to NASA or ESA, next time a big rock fall from the sky, we will join the dinossaurs.

    What we need are cost-effective ways to get to space and back. We need cost-effective general-purpose vehicles to carry probes, people and cargo around. We need simple and reliable systems that can be assembled in orbit to form larger structures. No government agency, no matter what it does, will ever want a cost-effective way to do something because it means less money for them to spend.

    If you factor in all the costs involved, you will realize your nose-hair-trimmer took more than a million years in developing. First, we had to learn how to use our thumbs, next we had to learn how to make and keep fire, then learn how to work with metals...

    --
    http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
  6. How to spend the money? by CrazyTalk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm wondering how they will spend that money - I realize their development costs were well over 10 mill in the first place, but I hope some of that goes back into new ventures.

  7. Gotta Be Orbital by DanielMarkham · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm a huge Rutan fan, but it's gotta be orbital or bust.

    Creating a huge reverse bungee-jump looks like a hoot, but until you go orbital you are not demonstrating real economic value (over just fun).

    Perhaps the industry can survive for several years on 90-minute tourist rides, but I don't know. 1-hour delivery of packages and executives anywhere in the world will change the future.

    1. Re:Gotta Be Orbital by Phiil · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Agreed that we need to start thinking about orbital spaceflight now. So what are the current thoughts on HOW we might get orbital - realistically? Are we still dependent on pure chemical propellant, which would require a lot of initial mass - which would surely keep the project strictly in the domain of a few very well equipped companies. The only improvement I know of is nuclear thermal propulsion - using hydrogen as a propellant, but heating it up and getting it out of the exhaust at high speed with the aid of a nuclear reactor. But I don't know for sure if this is usable for getting into orbit, or just once orbit has been reached. Finally - interesting book - George Dyson's Project Orion, about a massive interplanetary craft powered by bombs, just in case anyone hasnt caught it yet :)

    2. Re:Gotta Be Orbital by DanielMarkham · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can't give you the answer but I can make some observations.

      I think if you do the math you realize that with the current power of propellants you can't carry your fuel with you.

      Some ideas: earth-based mass drivers, ion scramjet technology, even blimps into space (JP Aerospace) looks interesting. The mass driver and blimp technology involve no (zero) big science acheivements and are both heavy-lift and completely reusable.

  8. Re:hey, nice check! by roman_mir · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, I worked for Symcor Inc for 3 years, and I can tell you that I went on tours into the check processing facilities and there are items there that pass as checks that are FAR more bizarre than just gigantic checks. ANYTHING with an account number written on it, a 'To' field, an amount and a signature qualifies as a check. I mean, thay had a bra (yes, a part of a female warderope that an average /.'er wouldn't be familiar with and most normal men wouldn't know how to handle on any first attempt) signed and it was accepted as a check.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.