Slashdot Mirror
Power Beaming For UAVs and Space Elevators
An anonymous reader writes "The idea of power beaming — using lasers or microwaves to transmit usable energy over great distances — has been around for decades. But recent advances in cheaper, more energy-efficient diode lasers have made power beaming commercially viable. LaserMotive, based in Kent, WA, is best known for winning the Level 1 prize of the NASA Power Beaming Challenge at the Space Elevator Games last November. In a new interview with Xconomy, LaserMotive co-founder Tom Nugent, who previously worked on the 'photonic fence' mosquito-zapping project at Intellectual Ventures, talks about gearing up for Level 2 of the NASA competition, slated for later this year. What's more, LaserMotive is trying to build a real business around beaming power to unmanned aerial vehicles, remote sensors and military bases, and other locations where it's impractical to run a wire, change batteries, or truck in fuel. The ultimate goal is to beam large amounts of solar power to Earth."
From:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/428439main_Space_technology.pdf
"The return on investment with prizes is exceptionally high as NASA expends no funds unless the
accomplishment is demonstrated."
Am I the only one thinking that perhaps they should structure more government contracts like this?
With a focus on "expends no funds unless the accomplishment is demonstrated".
Which I would have thought should be a requirement for all government contracts but sadly is not.
It increases the risk to the companies involved but that just means you need to make the winnings pot a decent size.
Stop fucking around with these tiny little prizes of 1 or 2 million dollars and offer pots that would make a venture capitalist salivate( like 500 million dollars for the bellow)
"put at least one human being on the moon and bring him back to earth safely and collect *list of samples* and place *list of scientific equipment* on the lunar surface"
For comparison:
the space shuttle: 115 missions (as of 6 August 2006) - total cost $150 billion
at the moment prize pots seem to always be trivial quantities of money compared to the rest of the budget.