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Comments: 97 +-   X-prize Award paid on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:21AM

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:21AM
from the faster-than-most-ebay-bidders dept.
money
space
science
daveywest writes "According to the AP, "SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan accepted the Ansari X Prize money, along with a 150-pound trophy, as a chase plane flew over the ceremony in a field adjacent to the St. Louis Science Center.""
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  • How long... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ckwop (707653) * <Simon.Johnson@gmail.com> on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:23AM (#10746219) Homepage
    until he's got the proposed orbital prize? I bet 2010.

    Simon.

    • Not Rutan (Score:5, Insightful)

      by senseofhistory (823192) on Sunday November 07 2004, @11:11AM (#10746575)
      Burt Rutan is a brilliant airplane designer, and SpaceShipOne is a great rocket-powered airplane (as was the X-15, in 1951), but I don't think he'll even attempt to gain Robert Bigelow's "America's Space Prize" for a 7-passenger orbiter. Orbiters are in a nearly completely different design domain than space-planes, needing about 10 times the total impulse (energy), and much more critical management of reentry-generated heat. Rutan's not a daredevil. He's cautious and thorough. Orbiters are innately more risky than space-planes. I don't think he'll be able to come up with a way to reduce the risk to something he can accept.

      • Re:Not Rutan (Score:5, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 07 2004, @11:51AM (#10746853)
        In the documentary "Black Sky: The Race for Space" on the Discovery channel, Rutan showed some designs he is working on for an orbital vehicle.

      • Re:Not Rutan (Score:4, Insightful)

        by khallow (566160) on Sunday November 07 2004, @03:16PM (#10748105)
        I don?t think he?ll be able to come up with a way to reduce the risk to something he can accept.

        I don't see this. You ignore how he worked on SpaceShipOne. Namely, he gradually worked up to the altitude. I think he can reduce the risk to aacceptible levels though incremental testing.

      • Perhaps something we need - like cost effective wind power designs that don't kill birds.

        Seriously,

        Rutan is a genius at aerodynamics, if that prize had been for a 10 dollar airfoild design to generate 100 killiwatts, we could have joined the kiyoto treaty rednecks notwithstanding.

        AIK
    • seems to have a design that is more likely to go orbital than what Rutan did.

      • Re:John Carmack (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Yeah, he's optimized the number of pieces at reentry to O(N^2) pieces, where N is the number of pieces that were launched.
      • Which design are you referring to? His design changes every week ;) Last I checked, he was looking into ditching the whole monoprop concept ;)

  • Next task (Score:4, Funny)

    by pete_norm (150498) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:24AM (#10746222)
    Make the thing fly with the trophy in it...

  • hey, nice check! (Score:5, Funny)

    by muntumbomoklik (806936) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:26AM (#10746233)
    Was it one of those big checks? I always wondered how you're supposed to get them in the tiny deposit envelopes.

    • Re:hey, nice check! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Average_Joe_Sixpack (534373) on Sunday November 07 2004, @10:11AM (#10746370)
      I heard it was paid in cash using several money sacks, each marked with a big green '$' sign.

    • Re:hey, nice check! (Score:4, Informative)

      by Ayaress (662020) on Sunday November 07 2004, @11:23AM (#10746627) Journal
      I got one of those giant checks for about $10 once from a sweepsakes that I might have won $100,000 in, but didn't really read all the fine print so I'm not sure exactly. The giant check isn't the real check - they don't have any of the markings on the back, and they even say, "NON NEGOTIABLE" in non-giant print at the bottom. You get to keep that one, and buy a giant picture frame in and hang it on the wall or something. They give you a real, normal-size check to cash.

      • Re:hey, nice check! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by roman_mir (125474) on Sunday November 07 2004, @01:50PM (#10747604) Homepage
        Well, I worked for Symcor Inc [symcor.com] for 3 years, and I can tell you that I went on tours into the check processing facilities and there are items there that pass as checks that are FAR more bizarre than just gigantic checks. ANYTHING with an account number written on it, a 'To' field, an amount and a signature qualifies as a check. I mean, thay had a bra (yes, a part of a female warderope that an average /.'er wouldn't be familiar with and most normal men wouldn't know how to handle on any first attempt) signed and it was accepted as a check.

          • So do bras. Real checks basically have security features so you can't change them into something else, for example make a five dollar check into a five thousand dollar check by altering it. It would probably be pretty hard to alter a check consisting of a bra inscribed (engraved?) with a magic marker.

  • The next big prize (Score:5, Funny)

    by pchan- (118053) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:29AM (#10746244) Journal
    After the Ansari X-Prize, the next big prize to watch is the Ralph Kramden Prize.

    One of these days, Alice... to the moon!

  • Money (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Paster Of Muppets (787158) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:32AM (#10746252)
    As for the $10m prize, how is it all going to be split? I assume Rutan won't get to keep all of it?
    • Well since the prize was $10m and the spaceship team borrowed $20m to build it, I expect a large proportion will go back to Paul Allen.. unless he is feeling kind hearted?

    • It will be split (Score:5, Informative)

      by slobber (685169) on Sunday November 07 2004, @10:04AM (#10746352)
      "Paul Allen will split the $10 million prize with inventor Burt Rutan, with Rutan making payments to each of his employees who helped design, build, test, and fly SpaceShipOne.
      thestranger.com [thestranger.com]

    • I'm sure we here on /. will get an update when Rutan goes to the bank on Monday to deposit the check, and a follow-up news flash when he balances his checkbook later in the week. :-)

  • Congrats to St. Louis, Diamandis and Ansaris (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baldrson (78598) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:37AM (#10746264) Homepage Journal
    The folks who made this prize award real, the folks at the St. Louis Science Center, the leadership of St. Louis, Peter Diamandis and the Ansaris are real heroes in this. They deserve as much recognition as Rutan's team.

  • It's well deserved (Score:4, Insightful)

    by qwave54 (671614) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:37AM (#10746265)
    He accomplished what the X-Prize was meant for. All criticisms aside, he won the prize fair and square. I hope his team makes good use of their design in the future.

  • This Great News (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Space_Soldier (628825) <not4_u@hotmail.com> on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:39AM (#10746274)
    This is great news. However, we all know that the X-Prize works based on donations. I hope that they still have money for daily operations and for future pricez. The X-CUP will require a lot more money than the X-Prize. However, I'm sure that corporations will turn the white space crafts into race cars (full with ads), which should pay for most of the expenses. The SpaceShipOne has the Virgin logo on it.
    • I wonder if VC companies would consider investing in an X-Prize-like endeavour now that Burt Rutan and his crew have proven that it's not just doable but also possible to do it in a manner that attracts prime-time media attention.

      I guess it won't happen since a VC company would very likely be concerned about X-Prize Spinoff Inc.'s 5-year-return (basically, the way it works is that VC companies focus on return-on-investment; as a rule of thumb that should happen in a 3-7 year timeframe (5 being the median),

    • However, we all know that the X-Prize works based on donations.

      This is true only if you replace "donations" with "insurance money"

  • We need a monument (Score:5, Funny)

    by CodeWanker (534624) on Sunday November 07 2004, @09:48AM (#10746302) Journal
    This is the kind of thing all us hard-core geeks who grew up reading the Real Heinlein (from the '40s and 50s, before he got too preachy to tell a story) have dreamed of. A lot of really good geeks have died wanting to see this day.

    Maybe a Mainframe Terminal of the Unknown Geek can be built for them. Instead of an eternal flame it could have an eternal Estes engine on it.

  • Zefram Cochrane (Score:5, Funny)

    by dapyx (665882) on Sunday November 07 2004, @10:27AM (#10746412) Homepage
    Burt Rutan looks a bit like Zefram Cochrane, doesn't he? :-)

  • The next challenge for Rutan (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Timesprout (579035) on Sunday November 07 2004, @10:36AM (#10746443)
    Is to convince his bank manager that spending 25+ million to win 10 million was actually a good idea.

    It was an excellent achievement but I think the real challenge is to get people to actually hand over their cash as easily as they pledge it and create a viable space tourism/haulage business.

    To be honest once the novelty and rich morons exclusivity factor wears off I cant see it happening.

  • How to spend the money? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CrazyTalk (662055) on Sunday November 07 2004, @10:42AM (#10746466)
    I'm wondering how they will spend that money - I realize their development costs were well over 10 mill in the first place, but I hope some of that goes back into new ventures.
  • ...should be enough cover his gas costs.
    ;)

  • Gotta Be Orbital (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DanielMarkham (765899) on Sunday November 07 2004, @11:09AM (#10746566) Homepage
    I'm a huge Rutan fan, but it's gotta be orbital or bust.

    Creating a huge reverse bungee-jump looks like a hoot, but until you go orbital you are not demonstrating real economic value (over just fun).

    Perhaps the industry can survive for several years on 90-minute tourist rides, but I don't know. 1-hour delivery of packages and executives anywhere in the world will change the future.
    • Agreed that we need to start thinking about orbital spaceflight now. So what are the current thoughts on HOW we might get orbital - realistically? Are we still dependent on pure chemical propellant, which would require a lot of initial mass - which would surely keep the project strictly in the domain of a few very well equipped companies. The only improvement I know of is nuclear thermal propulsion - using hydrogen as a propellant, but heating it up and getting it out of the exhaust at high speed with th
      • I can't give you the answer but I can make some observations.

        I think if you do the math you realize that with the current power of propellants you can't carry your fuel with you.

        Some ideas: earth-based mass drivers, ion scramjet technology, even blimps into space (JP Aerospace) looks interesting. The mass driver and blimp technology involve no (zero) big science acheivements and are both heavy-lift and completely reusable.

        • I recall Jerry Pournelle getting very excited by the potential for ground-based laser back in the late 70s. Is any work being done on that or has it proven to be impractical?

          Regards
          Luke
    • 7.000 interested custumors for a $200.000 ride. I agree: two hundred million tourist industry doesn't qualify as 'real economic value'.

      And don't forget, this is the first step. Rutan and others have already made their follow-up plans...they just need time to implement them.

  • Made a small fortune (Score:3, Funny)

    by murderlegendre (776042) on Sunday November 07 2004, @11:22AM (#10746619)

    spending $25 million to make $10 million

    Q: Know how to make a small fortune in space travel?

    A: Start with a large one.. ;-)

    In all seriousness, nice going folks. You won that fair & square; hats off!

  • Scaled Composites also has a new CMS 5-Axis Gantry Mill [scaled.com].

    How fucking cool is that?
  • There is nothing easier in the world than being a critic, a doubter, a pessimist, a naysayer. Such as those on this forum who cast doubts that spaceship one concept would work and who now doubt that Rutan can even make an orbital vehicle. Well sir, nothing great is ever accomplished by such thinking. I celebrate the crackpot tinkerers and inventors who toil on despite critics and deriders and continue to think outside the box to bring forth "Impossible" wonders. Burt Rutan is a brilliant engineer and thos
  • Wow, He should have spent some of those millions on a new jacket. Or maybe he's just that hip and he bought it since retro 80's gear is hot right now.

    • Re:Real shame (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mr_snarf (807002) on Sunday November 07 2004, @10:25AM (#10746407)
      Spaceship one only cost something like $20 million. How much money do you think the Soviet Union spent on in 40+ years ago? I don't know the figures, but I'm guessing its far far more than $20 million.

      The amount of money was pretty small. Thats the point of privitization, the price goes down due to neccessity

      I hope the a similar thing to the x-prize continues. The next big thing is getting into orbit (far more difficult than the sub-orbital flight, which was still very difficult).

      The winning of the x-prize is step one. Hopefully, we'll see more progress in the years to come.

      But yeah, it is a shame this hasn't happened sooner.
      • While I'm not debating that privatization lowered the price considerably, don't forget that all the billions of dollars sunk into the space program by the public sector mostly paid for research. Not to disparage the SC team's amazing accomplishment, but most of the "hard" stuff was already paid for - by the public sector. Saying that "see the private sector did it for 1% the price, free markets for everyone!" is a bit disengenous to all the people who did a lot of researcht that these private projects are r
      • The soviets had to figure (most of) it out for themselves, besides what we didn't all already know, because we weren't exactly friendly. Consequently it probably cost a lot. They, however, had an orbiter, and so far only governments are there. Be interesting to see it happen though, I'm waiting eagerly.
      • Don't know that orbital is the next logical step for a private venture. Sub Orbital though could be quite interesting if you stretched out the legs a little. Would get right interesting if you could get a passenger vehicle to follow the flight profile of something like an ICBM. Anywhere in the world in a couple of hours. If you can do it with a plane that can land conventionally you can use already existing airports.

        Say a recreation of the New York to Paris challenge. Only this time it is for a sub orbital
    • OK... It was something between a flamebait and a troll, but I do have to answer, anyway.

      If we leave space travel and exploration to NASA or ESA, next time a big rock fall from the sky, we will join the dinossaurs.

      What we need are cost-effective ways to get to space and back. We need cost-effective general-purpose vehicles to carry probes, people and cargo around. We need simple and reliable systems that can be assembled in orbit to form larger structures. No government agency, no matter what it does, will
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