Masten Space Qualifies for Lunar Lander Challenge X-Prize

NOTE: Cross-posted to the Blog at Getting There From Here.

Congratulations to Masten Space Systems on successfully completing their qualifying flight for the $1 million prize in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge X-Prize. They join Armadillo Aerospace in qualifying for this prize.

To qualify, both companies had to demonstrate control of their vehicle by flying to an altitude of more than 50 meters, flying laterally for 100 meters, and landing on a simulated lunar surface complete with craters and boulders. After doing so, they vehicle had to take off from the simulated lunar surface and return to its starting point (with the option of refueling the vehicle between flights). And, oh yeah, they had to complete all of this (including any necessary refueling) in less than two-and-a-half hours.

Another team, Unreasonable Rocket, will attempt to complete their qualification tomorrow. BonNovA had intended to compete but had to withdraw.

We at Getting There From Here are huge fans of these types of competitions, as they allow a small amount of money to go a long, long way. In this case, the $2 million total prize money for the Lunar Lander Challenge has generated more than $20 million in research on rockets and helped at least a couple of small, entrepreneurial rocket companies to literally get off the ground. Kudos to the X Prize Foundation and Northrop Grumman for organizing and funding such a great contest.

If you want to read the Master press release about the successful flight, it is here.

Using Crowds to Solve Problems

The New York Times has an article today highlighting the growing trend toward prize-based science, especially highlighting InnoCentive, which I blogged about last year.

Award-based research turns out to be especially effective. Companies sponsoring the research only pay for research that delivers results, and they always come in at their budge—whatever value they place on the prize. In addition, you may get several competitors each performing research to attempt a solution to the problem at hand, but you only end up having to pay for the effort that succeeds.

The reason InnoCentive works is because often the best solution to a problem comes from somebody outside the field in question. Petroleum scientists, for example, specialize in their field and therefore do not have expertise that, say, a concrete chemist would have. But John Davis, a chemist specializing in concrete applied what he knew about keeping concrete from hardening to a problem set forth by the Oil Spill Recovery Institute in Alaska in order to keep oil in storage tanks from freezing.

The biggest organizer of research prizes right now is, of course, the X Prize Foundation, who currently has prizes active in genomics, automotive technology, and robotic lunar missions. But they're not the only ones. For several years now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has used monetary prizes to encourage outsiders to develop technology it can use for military purposes, most notably with regard to autonomous automobiles. And NASA has sponsored a number of challenges related to space exploration, such as the Lunar Lander Challenge, the Astronaut Glove Challenge (won by an engineer from Maine working at his dining room table), and a couple of competitions related to space elevator technologies.

If you have any scientific or technical skills, maybe it's time you took a look at some of these challenges facing us.

X Prize Foundation Extends Reach

Alan Boyle over at Cosmic Log reports that the X Prize Foundation is extending its reach to Europe through a partnership with British Telecom. Over the next three years, BT will provide the X Prize Foundation with $7 million to cover operating expenses, and will also share its scientific and technological expertise as new prize initiatives are rolled out.

Boyle spoke with Peter Diamandis, Chairman of the X Prize Foundation, who wants to expand the X Prizes to become more global initiatives, instead of focusing mostly on the U.S. Diamandis also wants to launch two or three new prizes every year in one of five primary areas: exploration, life sciencies, energy and the environment, education, and global development. Diamandis expects to unveil one or two more prizes by the end of this year.

McCain Proposes $300 Million Prize for Better Auto Batteries

UPDATE:Alan Boyle has more information.

John McCain wants the government to offer a $300 million prize to whoever can develop an automotive battery that far surpasses existing technology. His goals for the battery include delivering power for 30 percent of the current cost with better size, capacity, cost, and power. Doing so, he says, will help propel plug-in hybrid or fully-electric autos.

For a price of $1 for each man, woman, and child in the U.S., this project could propel us toward an economy in which petroleum-based fuels are a thing of the past. Prize-based competitions such as this (and the X Prize) generally produce gains far outstripping their costs, because a large number of competitors vie for the prizes, but only one wins. And in the case of the Ansari X Prize, the winning team at Scaled Composites spent approximately $30 million on R&D before winning the $10 million prize. And that doesn't include what other teams spent. And that $10 million helped launch the sub-orbital tourism flight industry.

In addition to getting better auto batteries for consumers, the prize money will allow the winning company to make presumably massive amounts of money either selling their new batteries the world over or licensing the technology to other battery companies. Either way, that money will provide industrial growth within the U.S. and create American jobs and American wealth. Jobs will be lost in the oil industry, sure, but the U.S. economy will be better off, and so will the environment.

Hybrid Technologies Plans X-Prize Entrant

C|Net's News.com reports that Hybrid Technologies is preparing to submit a green sports car for the Automotive X Prize. The version submitted for the Automotive X Prize will be a gas-battery hybrid that will get an equivalent 220 miles per gallon. An all-electric plug-in hybrid version will also be available, and will be expected to get 150 to 180 mpg.

The company expects to have a drivable prototype by September, and has ambitious plans for a wide-range of vehicles that run on batteries, not just cars.