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NASA Unveils Centennial Challenges

Posted by samzenpus on from the step-right-up dept.

wonderfesten writes "NASA has finally got its Centennial Challenges program off the ground. Like the X Prize, the Challenges award cash prizes to private inventors who come up with solutions to problems. The first challenges are to design a light-weight, ultra-strength tether and a means of transmitting power wirelessly. But with a prize of just $50,000, will anyone give it a shot?" Details also available on MSNBC and Space.com.

8 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Transmitting power wirelessly... by slavemowgli · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Transmitting power wirelessly is easy. Every signal, be it from a radio station, wifi, a cell phone or whatever, is a transmission of power.

    --
    quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
    1. Re:Transmitting power wirelessly... by dingDaShan · · Score: 5, Informative

      The first person to wirelessly transmit power, Nikola Tesla, demonstrated such a feat before 1900. The wireless transmission of power is simply the tranmitting of electromagnetic energy. The process is very inefficient at high energy and it is likely that NASA simply wants a more efficient way to do so.

  2. Gasp! by aendeuryu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good lord! They want to combine a light-weight, ultra-strength tether with a means of transmitting power wirelessly. Read that again. A light-weight, ultra-strength tether with a means of transmitting power wirelessly. My God! Do you know what this means? Do you?!?

    Yeah, neither do I.

  3. Re:Ultra strength tether by imrec · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh... LIGHT weight...

    Damn...

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    Note: This sig contains nine S's, nine I's and five O's which... means absolutely nothing.
  4. New prizes announced by DanielMarkham · · Score: 4, Funny

    With NASA trying to do too mnay things with too little money, I'd like to get in on the action as well.

    - $10 for first person to discover tenth planet
    - $15.75 for invention of anti-gravity device. Must include batteries
    - $17.50 for first person to deliver truckload of gold bullion to my house
    - $37.50 for proof of alien life

    I've got the money right here (pats wallet). Let's all not rush. Stand in line, please.

  5. Um'... makes sense why, too. by danalien · · Score: 4, Informative
    http://www.elevator2010.org is one of http://www.spaceward.org's 'flagship projects'

    What's 'spaceaward'? "The Spaceward Foundation is a public-funds non-profit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of space access in educational curriculums and the public." [found in NASA's press release: M05-083]

    --
    I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
  6. $50,000?! by Anita+Coney · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does NASA realise you can make that kind of money by simply working?!

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  7. Re:Space elevator? by gr8_phk · · Score: 4, Funny
    I have wondered why the space elevator people want to use transmitted power. Why not just have your tether be a loop with a pully on the satellite? Then you just clamp a payload on and turn a crank on the ground. You get bi-directional delivery at the same time. Now there are potential issues with the 2 strands and associated payloads running into each other, but that seems like it should be easier to solve than all the issues with robotic climbers with beamed power.

    Oops, I should have patented this variation of the Space Elevator before writing about it....