Next NASA Centennial Challenge Competition

Andrew-Unit writes "NASA today announced the next competition in the Centennial Challenge series. A prize of $250,000 USD will be awarded to the team that can autonomously deliver the most lunar regolith to a collection device in 30 minutes. From the press release: 'This challenge continues NASA's efforts to broaden interest in innovative concepts ... We hope to see teams from a broad spectrum of technical areas take part in this competition,'"

Comments

Man.. I Can See Where This Is Going...

[ackthpt]

$250,000 USD will be awarded to the team that can autonomously deliver the most lunar regolith to a collection device in 30 minutes.

I can see exactly where this is going*...

• 300,000 USD First craft to achieve orbit.
• 350,000 USD First craft to carry man in orbit.
• 400,000 USD First craft to reach Moon.
• 450,000 USD First craft to orbit Moon and return.
• 500,000 USD First craft to take man to Moon orbit and return.
• 550,000 USD First craft to land on Moon, take off and return.
• 600,000 USD First craft to land Man on Moon, take off and return.
• 650,000 USD First craft to land materiel on Moon, build structure.
• 700,000 USD First craft to land Man and materiel on Moon, build structure, inhabit for one day and return.
• 750,000 USD (optional) First craft to land Man on moon who spends 1 night in haunted Moon Mansion and return alive (Bonus: Gets eccentric uncle's inheritance)
• 800,000 USD First to build town on Moon
• 850,000 USD First to build domed city on Moon
• 900,000 USD First to build Monorail (Monorail, a monorail!) on Moon

NASA, if very, very cagey can do what they want on a pittance, letting people knock each other over trying to do for piddly prizes. Of course, Richard Branson will probably end up owning the Moon anyway...

*Prizes not necessarily in order. Actual prize amount may vary. NASA employees and their family members not eligible (especially if an abnormal amount of materiel is missing from NASA) Offer subject to withdrawal at whim of sponsor or Congress.

Re:Man.. I Can See Where This Is Going...

[Soft]

NASA, if very, very cagey can do what they want on a pittance, letting people knock each other over trying to do for piddly prizes.

Actually, with adequate funding, this could be a nice incentive. As Henry Spencer said:

As I've noted before, if the government wants to put Americans back on the Moon and is willing to spend (say) ten billion to make it happen, much the most effective way is to simply announce that the next hundred Americans to walk on the Moon will each be given $100M. It will be the biggest stampede you've ever seen, and nobody will have to "oversee" anybody.

More mundanely, consider having NASA announce that starting in 2010, each year it will buy 20 round-trip tickets to the Moon from the lowest bidder, bids not to exceed $50M/ticket. If concerned about safety, stipulate that each year, one of those tickets will be used to fly a randomly-selected senior executive of the spaceline, refusal being grounds for cancellation of the contract.

Meritocracy over aristocracy

[Safe Sex Goddess]

The article does make a good point when it says that these competitions let everyone compete on a level playing field.

We get to see a published set of standards, an open competition, and the winner isn't based on who has taken whom to dinner.

Wow! Making awards based on what one has accomplished rather than who one knows. This could have a major impact on business integrity if it's widely adopted.

Wow, Imagine that.

[GeneralEmergency]

Millions of years of evolution.

Thousands of years of painstaking acquisition of knowledge.

Decades of space exploration.

The next big challenge:

-- How to get dirt into a bucket. --

"How do I get out of this chicken shit outfit?"

Re:Wow, Imagine that.

[paco3791]

I don't think it can be overstated how important automation is to our future.

If we can turn technologies like this into something that: collects, proccesses, and utilizes' raw matireials, and self replicates, the possibilites are limitless. If we can get automation sufficiently advanced we can send a small robotic factory to the moon or mars and have a habitate, fuel, air, water, and bio-mass ready for use when we get there. Terraforming and other "sci-fi" ideas become a little more plausable.

The raw matirals are out there that will allow the human race to expand away from the "one planet, one disaster away from extinction" problem. And the solution isn't people in space it's automatons as an extention of our will.

*checks above post* Whoa! Too much Red Mars today.

And the winner goes to:

[temojen]

Catterpillar. Oh wait... there's probably weight restrictions.