Entrepreneurial New Space
Space Prizes
Throughout history, prizes have played an important role in breaking open new frontiers of science and commerce. The Longitude Prize offered by the British government in 1714 led to advances in celestial navigation and the invention of the chronometer. The Orteig Prize stimulated innovation in aviation technology and made transatlantic flight a reality.
In 1996, the X Prize Foundation announced a $10 million award to the first private team to launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth's surface, twice within two weeks. The idea was to incentivize new investments in reusable launch vehicle technology by the private sector, as opposed to traditional government programs. The total private capital that went into the 25 competing teams exceeded the prize amount, leading to a diversity of innovations and increasing the overall visibility of the commercial space transportation industry. In October 2004, the Scaled Composites team won the prize with two successful, suborbital flights of their SpaceShipOne vehicle.
Learn more at xprize.org...
Taking a cue from the X Prize, NASA started the Centennial Challenges program, a series of prize competitions designed to tap the nation's ingenuity to make revolutionary advances in support of NASA goals and the U.S. Vision for Space Exploration. Challenges currently underway include: Lunar Regolith Excavation; General Aviation Technology; Lunar Lander (see below); Power Beaming and Tether; Astronaut Glove; and Lunar Oxygen Production. Additional challenges are under development.
In 2004, competition began for America's Space Prize, a $50 million competition in orbital spaceflight. Bigelow Aerospace is offering the prize to the first U.S.-based, privately-funded team to design and build a reusable capsule capable of flying five astronauts to Bigelow's orbiting space module on two separate occasions within 60 days. The prize expires January 10, 2010.
Reaching beyond Earth orbit, the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize Challenge was announced in 2006 to accelerate commercial technological developments supporting a new generation of lunar landers capable of ferrying payloads or humans back and forth between lunar orbit and the lunar surface. Such a vehicle could have direct application to NASA's space exploration goals as well as the personal spaceflight industry. The multi-level competition was conducted by the X Prize Foundation with corporate sponsorship and $2 million in prize purses paid by NASA. The competition was comprised of two levels; each level included both first and second place prizes. In October 2008, Armadillo Aerospace took first place in the Level 1 portion, earning $350,000 in prize money.
In late 2009, two teams successfully completed the Level 2 challenge. At an awards ceremony on November 5, 2009, the X Prize Foundation and NASA culminated the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize Challenge by presenting the Level 2 awards to Masten Space Systems ($1 million for first place) and Armadillo Aerospace ($500,000 for second place). Masten Space Systems also received $150,000 for being the second team to complete the Level 1 challenge.
Learn more at xprize.org...
Also with eyes on the moon, the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize was announced in 2007. Sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, this prize is being offered to the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit video, images, and data back to the Earth. Sixteen domestic and international teams are currently competing for the prize.
In 2009, the Heinlein Prize Trust announced a Microgravity Research Competition to promote research innovation in zero gravity for the advancement of biotechnology, nanotechnology, combustion, metallurgy, and/or other fields. The competition offered a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from low earth orbit for the winning experiment. The winning team will also get to watch the launch of their experiment from Cape Canaveral. In April 2009, the prize was awarded to a team from the University of Texas for nanotechnology research that may be applicable to drug delivery and other commercial applications.
Learn more about the competition at labflight.com... Learn more about the winning team at heinleinprize.com...The Office of Space Commercialization strongly supports the use of space prizes as a means to spur commercial innovation in space. The Office is examing ways to potentially use the Commerce Department's Commercial Space Achievement Award authority to offer its own kind of space prize.
Read more about the Commercial Space Achievement Award...This page includes references and links to specific private sector organizations, satellites, and/or websites. These are provided for educational purposes and do not constitute a U.S. government endorsement of any private sector products, services, or views.
