NASA Needs Prize Contest Ideas 180
Michael Huang writes "If you like the idea of tech contests--think ANSARI X PRIZE and DARPA Grand Challenge--and you also like space, then NASA wants you. It needs ideas (and rules) for the Centennial Challenges, prize contests with $20 million funding in 2005. Current ideas (download Excel spreadsheet) include: Mars and asteroid microspacecraft missions, lunar robotic landing, robotic triathalon, rover survivor, Antarctic rover traverse and extreme environment computer. Wikipedia has good coverage."
Sustenance studies. (Score:5, Interesting)
Another idea is ocean habitats. It seems very strange to me that we haven't 'prototyped' long-term human sustenance studies by building an "International Ocean Station" somewhere in the Marianas trench or something
IF we've gotta live for 6 months on de-hydrated/hydroponic foods, lets do it in that other hostile environment we have yet to fully explore, provided by our Oceans, or Deserts, where ordinary 'normal' humans are also struggling to survive...
The ultimate prize... (Score:5, Interesting)
It might seem a bit far-fetched, but seriously, if I designed something for NASA that might really advance humanity, a space-flight isn't too out of the question, is it?
Practical Long Lasting Space Suit (Score:5, Interesting)
Three little words... (Score:5, Interesting)
Idea: Create cheap spacecraft (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Practical Long Lasting Space Suit (Score:5, Interesting)
imagine an 'environment' suit you can put on which is good enough to act as the primary housing for the entire trip through to orbit. a suit so good, you put it on, then 'latch on' to a rocket booster, and its all you need to get you to the docking port of ISS2, or whatever
how much 'lighter' could our space transport systems be if we put absolutely 1000% more into human-sustaining suits, i wonder
Re:Sustenance studies. (Score:4, Interesting)
The Navy has been using submarines with nuclear power sources and life support systems for decades.
High Specific Impulse Engines (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course, who knows how someone would find a way to make an engine like that. However if it is something with a low cost of entry (unlike the X-prize) which every backyard inventor can work on, then you instantly have a few thousand amateur rocket scientists working for a prize of a few hundred thousand. A pretty good deal, I say.
Biosphere 3? (Score:5, Interesting)
I know the name is cringe-worthy, but (I think) it hasn't been done successfully yet, and it needs to be.
Re:Practical Long Lasting Space Suit (Score:4, Interesting)
Constant-pressure hardsuits would be one alternative, but as they require complex joints for all the limbs you won't be exactly agile in one.
A more interesting alternative is the skinsuit. This consists of a very close-fitting elastic body stocking that provides pressure on the skin to protect you from vacuum, while not actually containing any air. (The only hollow part is the rigid helmet.) These would --- probably --- be much more comfortable, restricting motion much less, probably be more reliable, certainly simpler to construct, etc. Although they might be rather hard to put on.
Unfortunately, I can't find any references to skinsuits, although I gather they've been tried in prototype --- can anyone confirm this?
Prolonging the life of Hubble (Score:2, Interesting)
That's a horrible idea. (Score:4, Interesting)
[Now, there's other groups in the US government who might be willing to provide funds for killing people, I just don't think that NASA is the one, though]
But let's think about it -- you'd probably have to find someone who's willing to make the one-way trip, but wouldn't be crazy enough to commit suicide on the trip there. That's a pretty dedicated person. [Although, I am making the assumption that they'd be looking for a live human on Mars, and not just someone shooting a corpse up there because of a poorly worded contest]
Re:High Specific Impulse Engines (Score:3, Interesting)
Lowering fuel requirements would lower costs indirectly, mostly by allowing vehicles to be smaller and more robust, of course, but fuel itself isn't a killer.
The problem is that better engines are a fundamental physical problem. The Isp of chemical engines is limited by the physics of chemical bonds, and you aren't going to get anything beyond small incremental improvements. If something was workable, it would be in use. Research is being done, and a few million dollars in a prize won't speed anything along. There are two near-current technologies we know of that would radically reduce fuel requirements and cost to get to orbit, and neither one would be influenced by a prize. Orion is politically impossible, although technically easy. Space elevators are waiting on materials and will cost tens of billions of dollars to develop. Other hypothetical systems, like laser launch, railguns, etc. still need lots of fundamental research to be done to become remotely practical.
20 million dollars? Piffle! (Score:5, Interesting)
Jerry Pournelle was suggested the following:
Easy: (Score:3, Interesting)
EM Assisted Launch (Score:4, Interesting)
Solar Sailing Regatta (Score:1, Interesting)
Interestingly there are a bunch of problems involved with sailing through the shadow of earth which the story explains quite nicely. Even though one may think of such a race as boring since there is no water and wind people have to deal with there are many more issues which come up with solar sailing, well if somebody goes ahead and does it.
Here is a link: "http://www.ec-lille.fr/~u3p/textang/propha.html"
If you search with google then you find that people at NASA have been read this story too. I just couldn't find out what they think about this particular story.
Re:EM Assisted Launch (Score:4, Interesting)
This was my intention when (above) I mentioned railgun launches. Since most of the mass we want in orbit is (at present) consumables and other commodity products, this would do fine for EM launches.
A competition featuring the best railgun designs (open to all university engineering students especially) would stimulate development of this area. I am convinced the military has versions of this they are not mentioning, but the civilian world should have some capabilities here too.
This is a fairly simple project to build for an engineering department, and would combine the disciplines of mechanical, power, and computer engineering departments to get things right. Further, if groups of engineers in a city wanted to build such a device, this would be a possible thing to try.
A note about manned launches using EM / railgun / mass driver technologies. In physics class in high school we worked out that it was nearly impossible to build a railgun / EM launch vehicle that would achieve orbital velocity and carry a manned payload. The G-force limit of 12 G's prohibits acceleration to mach 25+ in a reasonable ground distance (it's way too long geographically to build).
This competition would be easy to run (at some gunnery range, out over an ocean, etc.). Military radar could track the payloads. Bonus points could include if the payloads were recoverable, and more bonus points if the payloads contained inert liquids that would simulate liquid O2 in density.