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| A NASA astronaut jokingly advertises a recovered defective satellite for sale during a space walk (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
By
Carl Weiss
If
you’re my age, you can remember the excitement of the space race. The race to
have your countries have its team be the first step foot on the moon. TV coverage
was huge and constant. We also had all that drama when we first circled the
moon and the spacecraft was in trouble. Today we have a new race!
Nearly everyone on the
planet has heard of the XPrize, which has spawned hi-tech
competitions with
multi-million dollar prizes for everything from fuel efficient vehicles to
sub-orbital spacecraft. However, in what must be the XPrize that is by far the
most "Out There," the race is on as three-dozen teams are vying to
become the first private enterprises to land a rover on the moon. The winner
takes home $30 million. In fact, the Google Lunar XPrize competition has
recently heated up with one competitor, Team Astrobotic collecting a three
quarters of a million dollar "Milestone Prize" for overcoming key
technical risks in the areas of imaging and mobility. XPrize may announce more
Milestone winners in the coming weeks, if other teams can prove their rovers are
on track to land on the moon by December 31, 2016.
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| Courtesy of Wikipedia |
As a Trekie Would Say, "To Go Where No XPrize Has Gone
Before"
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| English: SpaceShipOne test pilot Mike Melvill after the launch in pursuit of the Ansari X Prize on September 29, 2004. Photo taken by RenegadeAven during Civil Air Patrol duties. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
To understand the sheer audacity of the
current prize, you need to understand those that came before it. The XPrize Foundation was founded in 1995 by
entrepreneur Peter Diamandis who offered a $10 million prize to the first
privately financed team that could construct and fly a three place vehicle 100
kilometers into the stratosphere. The contest,
which later morphed into the Ansari XPrize eventually involved 26 teams whose
combined expenditures topped $100 million.
Won by Burt Rutan and his Mojave Aerospace Ventures team who flew
SpaceShipOne into space and back, the XPrize did not end there.
In fact, the inspiration for the XPrize did
not get its start in the space age, but the Roaring 20s when French
Hotelier Raymond Orteig offered a $25,000 prize for the first person to fly
nonstop between New York City and Paris.
That’s right, this is the very prize that inspired Charles Lindbergh to
work with the Ryan Aircraft Company to construct the Spirit of St. Louis. While Lucky Lindy won this prize in 1927,
what most people forget is that he was not the first, nor the only person, to
attempt the feat.
The same year that the Orteig Prize was
announced, the Daily Mail offered a 10,000 pound prize for any airplane or
airship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in either direction between the British
Isles and the US or Canada. Captain John
Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten-Brown of the RAF accomplished this feat in
a WWI Vickers-Vimy bomber, making the prizewinning flight from Newfoundland to
in a little more than 16 hours.
They weren’t alone.
According to thestraightdope.com, “Major
George Herbert Scott of the RAF and the crew of the British dirigible R.34 in
July 1919 flew from East Fortune, Scotland, to Mineola, Long Island, New York,
a distance of almost 3,000 miles, in about four and a half days. Also on board
were a stowaway (William Ballantyne), a stowaway cat (Whoopsie or Wopsie) and
two homing pigeons. The R.34 made the return flight to Pulham, England, a few
days later, marking the first round trip transatlantic flight.”
While 10,000 Pounds Sterling or $25,000
American sounds like a paltry amount today, as well as a flight from Europe to
the US or vice versa, when taken into context both the prizes offered and the
lofty goals put forth were staggering for their time. It also goes to show that cash prizes are an
incredible way to galvanize the creative spirit and spur competition.
Other Prizes That Were Newsworthy
While the Ansari XPrize was the most newsworthy,
it was not the only competition to bear that moniker. In 2007, Progressive Insurance through its
hat into the ring announcing the Automotive XPrize whose goal was to design,
build and race vehicles that could achieve 100 MPG that were capable of being
mass produced. On September 16, 2010
three winning teams were announced:
- Team Edison2 won the $5 million mainstream competition with its 4-passenger Very Light Car that achieved 102.5 MPG.
- Team Li-Ion Motors won the $2.5 million Alternative competition with their Wave-II electric vehicle that achieved 187 MPG.
- Team x-Tracer Switzerland won the $2.5 million Alternative Tandem competition with an electric motorcycle that clocked in at 205.3 MPG
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| Courtesy of |
On July 29, 2010, the Wendy
Schmidt Oil Cleanup XCHALLENGE was introduced that offered a $1 million prize that
inspired a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of
cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage from ocean platforms,
tankers, and other sources. The team of Elastec/American Marine won the
challenge by developing a device that skims oil off of water three times faster
than previously existing technology.
A Clear Cut Case of Lunacy
This brings us to the Google
Lunar XPrize introduced in September 2007.
The goal of the prize is for teams to launch, land and operate a rover
on the lunar surface. Offering $20
million to the first team that successfully roves more than 500 meters and
transmits back high definition video, the competition also offers a $5 million
second prize as well as millions in bonuses by being the first to achieve
specific goals.
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| Courtesy of Wired.com |
According to Wikipedia, “As of June 2014, 18 GLXP
teams remain in the competition, and five of those are thought to be making
good progress. However, none of the GLXP teams have announced firm launch dates
to attempt the prize. The prize expires at the end of 2016 and launch
service providers typically require launch
vehicle reservation 24 months prior to the date of the launch.[4] Also
in June, one GLXP team is scouting co-competitors to travel with it on a common
launch vehicle and lunar transit satellite. Astrobotic announced it would be
willing to share a single "ride" to the Moon with up to four
competitors. The shared transporter, including a shared Lunar landing, would
result in a common start time for a race to
achieve the 500 m lunar-surface distance-traveled objective. However,
Astrobotic had not yet lined up its own launch arrangements with 18 months left
in the competition.[5]”
That’s not to say that
several teams haven’t made significant progress. Several teams, including Carnegie Mellon
University have already completed rovers. Astrobiotics Griffin Lander is well
under way.
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| Courtesy of |
https://www.astrobotic.com/griffin Whether any of the teams will be able to
snatch the prize before the clocks runs down is anybody’s guess. But if Lucky Lindy hadn’t risked his life to
make the first solo transatlantic crossing by airplane, think of how different
the world might be today.
But Wait, There are More XPrizes
If a trip to the Moon isn’t
far out enough for you there is yet another XPrize that’s even more
out
there. In 2011 Qualcomm sponsored a Tricorder
XPrize with the goal of creating a mobile device that can deliver medical diagnosis,
better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians. Inspired from the Tricorder device from the
series Star Trek, this prize has yet to be won. I have seen a device at last year’s One Spark
that actually measure heart rate, temperature and several other bodily
functions, that is actually a little bigger that the “'Star Trek' Tricorder." It
works, but it still needs a physician to provide a diagnosis. With $10 million
in prizes on the line, all I can say is, “Get cracking, all you Trekkies out
there." No one will need a doctor when you can point, click and read the diagnosis!
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| Courtesy of http://tricorder.xprize.org/ |
In this article, I discussed in detail the XPrize race to land, rove and take pictures with an unmanned rover on the moon.
Millions of dollars in prize money are up for grabs as dozens of team via for
milestone prizes and the grand prize. And if that’s not far-out enough, I also
talk about the Tricorder XPrize, for the first company to develop a working Tricorder a la
“Star Trek” fame.
If
you would like to read similar articles, check out, "More Star Trek Tech", "A Borg in Every Boardroom - Cyber Augmentation
for All" or “"Birth of the Bionic Man"”
or type these phrases in the search box at the top of the
blog.
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Thanks for sharing your time with me.
If you like this article, you can find more by typing “Drones or robots” in the search box at the top left of this blog. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. If you would like a free copy of our book, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century", fill out the form below.Thanks for sharing your time with me.
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This article was -- sorry, I can't resist -- out of this world!
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