X Prize Competition Gets New Sponsor, Amended Name 203
An anonymous reader writes "The X Prize Foundation today announced that entrepreneurs Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari have made a multi-million dollar contribution to the X Prize Foundation. As a result, the X Prize Competition is being renamed to the Ansari X Prize Competition." However, the X Prize rules stay the same: "The ANSARI X PRIZE will award $10 million to the first private organization to build and fly a ship that can carry three passengers 100 km (62 miles) into space, return safely to Earth and repeat the launch with the same ship within two weeks. Both flights must be completed by January 1st, 2005."
Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
You can get your name put on anything for the right price anymore.
I just can't wait for the new Maxwell House Instant Shuttle from NASA.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
Good to the last drop?
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
That was the idea behind the prize in the first place, but no big donor stepped forward early -- hence the "X" prize because there was no name, yet, to attach to it. The intention was always to name it after whoever stepped up with the prize money.
Read your aviation (and other technology) history, you'll see lots of progress due to (named) prizes offered by folks with no skills but how to make (or inherit) money.
I just can't wait for the new Maxwell House Instant Shuttle from NASA.
Me neither, although preferably not from NASA. And I think FedEx or American Airlines might be more likely logos.
Re:Wow (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:3, Informative)
The prize program itself was very much modelled on named prizes like the Orteig Prize, and "X" worked out both for unknown and for the X Program. Both the named prize and X program memes were floating around in s
Re:Wow (Score:2)
Think: Carnegie Hall.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Why, you ask? Because they bankrolled it and told everybody so. Of course they were shooting for a valuable spice trade and missed, but the point is that Columbus, an Italian with few resources, was not bankrolled out of altruism or interest in discovery, navigation or research, but out of a desire by Spanish royals to be rich and to stand out among European royalty as the greatest.
Altruism has its place, but greed, egos and personal desire for eternal fame are what pay the bills. There's nothing new about that.
Re:Wow (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:2)
Re:Wow (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:2, Informative)
Karma whoring at it's best.
Re:Wow (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Wow (Score:2)
Is the ship more important... (Score:4, Funny)
What about the passengers? Or they really do care only about the ship
Re:Is the ship more important... (Score:5, Informative)
Rule number 5
I guess they don't put in on the press release since it points out that people might not come back in good health...but the full rules don't let dead people win.
Money talks... (Score:5, Funny)
Mods - get the whole joke? (Score:5, Informative)
Ads really are going on baseball bases. Spiderman 2 has bought the rights [cnn.com] to put some logos on baseball bases in the next few weeks.
Next thing you know, corporate sponsors will be buying insightful or funny slashdot posts.
THIS POST BROUGHT TO YOU BY MCDONALDS [mcdonalds.com]. WE'RE LOVIN' IT.
Re:Mods - get the whole joke? (Score:2)
Yes, they'll be visible (Score:2)
b) Un-editable content. While there are many ads in major league baseball already [see: the scoreboard, the stadium, etc], there are none on the field of play. If something big happens in these games, they can't edit the spiderman logo out.
c) Mention by the announcers. Something like a), except, this is going to be a big deal.
d) Regular advertising. Yeah, they'll be visible on m
Re:Money talks... (Score:2)
Re:Money talks... (Score:2)
I predict Australia for the first, McDonald's for the second, and have no idea about the third.
Re:Money talks... (Score:2)
FIFA bans advertisements of any kind in the field of play or on the goals; even logos for the tournament or league never appear on the field.
Brand names printed on the balls and the uniforms are not subject to this ban, of course.
Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:5, Interesting)
The ANSARI X PRIZE will award $10 million to the first private organization to build and fly a ship that can carry three passengers 100 km (62 miles) into space, return safely to Earth and repeat the launch with the same ship within two weeks. Both flights must be completed by January 1st, 2005
I hope they extend the date and I also hope the prize money goes up. I think the major entrants have all spent more than $10,000.000 as it is. Still, I don't think they are doing it primarily for the money anyway.
Happy Trails!
Erick
Re:Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:5, Insightful)
Most are doing it for the money, but just not soley the X-Prize money. Afterall, if a team ends up finishing late or beaten by another team finishing before them... they'll still have a working reusable orbital spacecraft. That's gotta be useful for something.
Re:Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:4, Funny)
Yes definitely. I'm going to use mine to escape earth when the RIAA cracks down on me and travel to one of those rogue travel outposts they have in the movies... or something.
Re:Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:2)
Going to space to escape the RIAA ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hey! In space, copyright laws don't apply (yet). You can set up a rogue state for file traders.
History is bound to repeat itself. Apparently, many of the Europeans who came to the US way back when did so to escape opressive taxes. Of course, others did it for wealth or land. Who knows, if cheap affordable spaceflight becomes a reality, the chance to create a new state from scratch will be upon us.
However, the *IAA are probably ahead of you, or will do their best to be. I had Entertainment Law this semester (had the final today) - we learned that one of the record company executives saw a shot of astronauts in space with music playing. Apparently it was MCI. Well, believe it or not, while artist contracts previously required assignment of all rights for the whole Earth, now they say for the Universe. (Can't have artists suing and reclaiming that lucrative interplanetary market!)
Hollywood. (Score:2)
Re:Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:5, Informative)
I mean, sure, once they start running a profitable business taking people up to space, Zero G for seconds to a few minutes, and then down real fast, then they can start working on the exponentially harder orbital flights, which will be even more profitable with business applications as well as pure fun.
Re:Increase the prize money and extend the date (Score:2)
Expiration date (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Expiration date (Score:2)
It's fascinating that sponsors are showing up as the race comes into it's final laps.
Wow, interesting. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:especially the Atheist faith (Score:2)
the Atheist faith
Isn't that an oxymoron?
No it isn't. "the Agnostic faith" would be an oxymoron. But because there is no proof of the existance or non-existance of God, then asserting one way or the other is not a valid fact, theory, or hypothesis of science, but instead is an opinion or belief. Hence Atheism is a belief system based on faith.
Re:especially the Atheist faith (Score:3, Insightful)
(Most) Atheists don't maintain there can't be a god. They maintain that, due to the nature of the claim and lacking of evidence, one most likely does not exist.
Re:especially the Atheist faith (Score:2)
It's a common enough claim that Google will find plenty more detail in places where it's on topic (and where it isn't). "strong" and "weak" are useful terms to add to the search.
What kind of passengers? (Score:5, Funny)
I notice it doesn't say what kind of passengers - wonder if mice are acceptable?
Re:What kind of passengers? (Score:2, Informative)
"The flight vehicle must be built with the capacity (weight and volume) to carry a minimum of 3 adults of height 188 cm (6 feet 2 inches) and weight 90 kg (198 pounds) each. Three people of this size or larger must be able to enter, occupy, and be fastened into the flight vehicle on Earth's surface prior to take-off, and equivalent ballast must be carried in-flight if the number of persons on-board during flight is less than 3 persons."
Insensitive clods! (Score:2, Insightful)
Dwarfs and midgets have been barred from the Final Frontier. I guess it is back to the mines to look for precious precious mithril.... Oh, and Mini-Me, stop humping the laser!
Re:Insensitive clods! (Score:2)
Nah, they can fly on the X-Prize ships after they've finished going for the prize. It's the giant NBA players of the future who are being barred by such an oversight.
Re:What kind of passengers? (Score:3, Interesting)
However, in order to qualify for the X-Prize money, the space ship must be built with enough space for three people, and must also carry enough ballast weight to make up for the fact that they have less than three people on board.
You can read the complete rules [xprize.com] for the details.
Cats (Score:3, Funny)
*JK! I love my cat. He could probably leap up into space. I'm not going to do any tests.
Let the marketing drones call it what they want. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll just keep calling it "the X prize" until there is more than one.
Fine then. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Let the marketing drones call it what they want (Score:5, Funny)
There, now there's another X prize.
What happend to the insurance policy? (Score:2)
I would have bet that Burt Rutan would have won the prize by January 2005.
I guess they're cobering the bases so they don't have to go out of business in January.
The organizational imperative is to survive and stay viable.
Re:What happend to the insurance policy? (Score:3, Funny)
No, that's the reproductive imparitive. The organizational imparative is to pay large retention bouses when you go bankrupt.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Um, not a regular /. denizen... (Score:4, Interesting)
As far as the organisers are concerned, I can't recall them ever posting here, but the plan after the X Prize is won by somebody (probably Rutan, at this stage) is the X Prize Cup [xprize.org], an annual festival/competition where teams will compete to launch their craft as high and as fast as they can.
If they are successful with that competition, I imagine that sooner or later they will propose a private orbital shot.
Re:X-Prize to the Moon... (Score:4, Informative)
(Disclaimer: Like any Usenet group, we have our share of trolls, but most of them are easily identified and kill filed. In general the s.s.* groups have an extremely low tolerance for fools, idiots, and those unwilling to learn. It's a tough place to get started in, but well worth it if you are truly interested in the topic.)
No, not Rutan (Score:3, Informative)
You will find, however, many informative posts by the one and only Henry Spencer [lysator.liu.se], author of The Ten Commandments for C Programmers [lysator.liu.se] and possibly the most knowledgeable person in the world about the history of the U.S. space program.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Loopholes (Score:5, Funny)
As someone already pointed out, it says that the ship has to return safely, not the passengers.
It does not specify if the passengers have to be alive or not. If you send up corpses, it is easier to keep them intact than it is to keep live passengers alive.
Mice? Does not say you can't send them instead of humans.
Re:Loopholes (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. Rule 3 says "Each flight must carry at least one person..."
It does not specify if the passengers have to be alive or not. If you send up corpses, it is easier to keep them intact than it is to keep live passengers alive.
It's even stricter than that. Rule 5 says "The crew must return to the Earth's surface from both flights in good health as reasonably defined and judged by the X PRIZE Review Board."
Mice? Does not say you can't send them instead of humans.
Nope, but Rule 3 says "person" and I don't think mice count as people.
Try finding loopholes in the actual rules [xprize.com] instead of the Slashdot summary of them.
Re:Loopholes (Score:5, Funny)
That's a good way to avoid paying.
Successful Cosmonaut: Hi, I successfully piloted to outer space and back. I'm here for my 10 million.
X Prize Review Board Member: Uhh...sorry, you have to be in good health.
Cosmonaut: What? I'm in perfect health. The mission went off without a hitch.
Board Member: No, you definitely look a little peaked. And let me feel your forehead...Ah, yes, you're burning up.
Cosmonaut: No, I'm fine, I've never felt better.
Board Member: You're at death's door. No prize for you.
Re:Loopholes (Score:4, Funny)
Successful Cosmonaut: Hi, I successfully piloted to outer space and back. I'm here for my 10 million.
X Prize Review Board Member: Uhh...sorry, you have to be in good health.
Cosmonaut: What? I'm in perfect health. The mission went off without a hitch.
Board Member: No, you definitely look a little peaked. And let me feel your forehead...Ah, yes, you're burning up.
Cosmonaut: No, I'm fine, I've never felt better.
Board Member: You're at death's door. No prize for you.
I thought of this. Couldn't help it. (ducks, prepares for loss of karma)
Re:Loopholes (Score:2)
As much as I hate corporate sponsorship (Score:3, Informative)
And to risk venturing off-topic for a second,
I think Ansari X prize should consider expanding there efforts at not just the tech to get us there, but to provide a prize for the think tank that can invent a corporate (manufacturing?) incentive to go there. Basically, show practical applications in space and provide due dilligence.
Or maybe more on the mark... provide a multimilllion dollar reward for the company that can first create an operable facility in space.
Yeah... wishfull thinking, but the more efforts put towards extra-terrastial expansion the better I say.
Re:As much as I hate corporate sponsorship (Score:3, Interesting)
This just in... (Score:5, Funny)
(Why, yes, this was an obligatory Simpsons reference, [snpp.com] thank you for noticing!)
~Philly
Re:This just in... (Score:2)
Need investors for my idea (Score:2, Funny)
propulsion methods (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:propulsion methods (Score:2)
"If you want a mission in which you want to reach your destination in a hurry or accelerate quickly, ion propulsion's not for you," Rayman said. "It takes four days to go from zero to 60 (miles per hour). I like to say it's acceleration with patience."
Not really conducive to climbing out of a well.
Re:propulsion methods (Score:2)
Re:propulsion methods (Score:5, Informative)
What I want to know... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What I want to know... (Score:3)
No they can't. NASA can't do it today, and they never have done it (or been able to) in the past. And no one else has ever done it either.
The closest is the X15 flights in the 1960's, some of which went up 100 km, but with only one person instead of three. I don't know whether the X15 ever went 100 km up twice in two weeks, but they probably could have done that (with one person) if they wanted to.
Re:What I want to know... (Score:2)
Re:What I want to know... (Score:3, Informative)
You're forgetting about the two week stipulation. The Apollo mission launch dates:
The Apollo program only once managed two launches of different vehicles in
Re:What I want to know... (Score:2)
Apollo never reused the same vehicle for another trip. XPrize requires use of the same vehicle for both trips.
Re:What I want to know... (Score:2)
You also failed to use the words 'safely' or 'converting all measurments to metric'
Re:What I want to know... (Score:3, Interesting)
It gets worse when you note the extra rule that only 10% of the non fuel mass of the craft can be replaced between flights. That pretty much counts out all the Apollo program stuff, even if they had managed a launch in 2 weeks. Also, while I'm not clear on the exact numbers, I suspect those rockets used to launch the space shuttle account for more than 10% of the non fuel mass.
Of course the Shuttle gets to LEO, which is a much larger step than 100km up, but if
Anousheh Ansari - Iranian Woman! (Score:5, Interesting)
Anousheh Ansari
Founder and CEO
telecom technologies, inc. (tti)
Anousheh Ansari is president, founder, and CEO of telecom technologies, inc. (tti), a supplier of softswitch based solutions for network and service providers offering end-to-end solutions for next generation, carrier-grade multi-service networks. Prior to founding tti, Ansari provided consulting services to the major telecommunications service providers and vendors in the areas of Frame Relay and ATM switch testing and evaluation.
Early in her career, Ansari held positions with MCI Telecommunications Corporation and Communication Satellite Corporation (COMSAT) in various engineering capacities. She worked on architectural design for SS7 and ISDN networks.
Ansari was recognized by Working Woman magazine as the winner of the 2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellence award, and was chosen as the winner of the 1999 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Southwest Region, for the Technology and Communications category. She has authored numerous technical papers and has two patents for her work on Automated Operator Services and Wireless Service Node. She was a U.S. delegate at ITU SG VII, SG XI and SG XVII, and a representative at American National Standard Institute T1S1 and T1X1 Technical Subcommittees.
Ansari holds a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from George Mason University. She is also a member of Eta Kappa Nu, IEEE and NSPE.
Success
2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellence Award winner: Anousheh Ansari, CEO and chair of Telecom Technologies on the cover of Working Magazine (May 2000). "Anousheh Ansari once dreamed of being an astronaut while growing up in her native Tehran, Iran. Today the 33-year-old Ansari is turning upstart Telecom Technologies Inc into a force in the telecommunications industry."
Re:Anousheh Ansari - Iranian Woman! (Score:3, Informative)
one profile (Score:2)
Can anybody find Amir's info?
Does anyone else think... (Score:2)
Where'd the rest of the money go? (Score:2)
Re:Where'd the rest of the money go? (Score:5, Interesting)
The first team to make it gets the Ansari prize (Score:4, Funny)
Roddenberry's "on board" (Score:2, Funny)
"RODDENBERRY JOINS X PRIZE ADVISORY COMMITTEE"
I see where this is heading: Gene's son joins the team so he can get close to the launch site. He climbs some scafolding just as that Alaskan sheriff is about to board the ship (Contact). Instead of blowing everything up, Gene Jr. jumps onto said Sheriff with a big bear hug and ends up on board the ship (ST:IV:TVH). They slingshot around the Sun (ibid) where they go back to October of 1955 (BTTF). They steal Doc's DeLorean, drive into the future at 88 mph t
Can this even be done?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Can this even be done?? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Can this even be done?? (Score:2, Informative)
Not true. Check out these tests [scaled.com] . They have a 40 second manned burn under their belts and could probably win the X-prize tomorrow if the paperwork were squared away.
Re:Can this even be done?? (Score:3, Informative)
Armadillo has done hover tests as well. The UK group (starchaser) has done some unmanned testing of their rocket infrastructure as well. I know the DaVinci team is also planning at least one launch attempt this summer/early fall as well.
Too bad about Armadillo Aerospace, u
Wow. I'm disappointed! (Score:4, Funny)
Joint Strike Fighter (Score:4, Interesting)
Passengers (Score:3)
I always liked that scene in Dr. Strangelove when Slim Pickins rode the nuclear bomb into oblivion...
Seriously though, I wonder what the ratio of volunteers to projects might be.
100 km - boggle! (Score:2)
Awe at the fact that these people (and other teams) are attempting to get 100 km, safely, and reusably. The amount of engineering and knowledge to do this isn't trivial. I have attended high-powered model rocketry events, and to see these things go up 10,000+ feet, which is well under 5 km - and these things take a lot of work and knowledge alone, to get up and back down in one piece. One rocket s
This is actually a good sign (Score:2)
Re:Following the money (Score:4, Insightful)
I won't call you cynical. But I will call you an ignorant, paranoid, xenophobic and war-mongering fool - no offense.
Not everyone in the middle east would like to 'nuke' America - not yet anyway. Give it time, and consistency of US foreign policy and maybe... but even then you'd have to count on finding some fanatical middle eastern people with millions of dollars to spend on something insanely overt, huge risk and incredibly open to public and global scrutiny. And anyway, everyone knows the best delivery system for a nuclear warhead these days is a suitcase.
Re:Following the money (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Following the money (Score:2)
Precisely. Which is exactly why the extremists and the hard liners that finance them are shifting to terrorism and other methods. Building missiles, sattelites, and big rockets just attracts too much attention. Guys with vests concealing explosives, on the other hand, are a lot more difficult to spot comparatively.
Re:Following the money (Score:2)
Re:Following the money (Score:4, Interesting)
The Ansaris are U.S. residents (citizens too, I would guess - the article doesn't say, but as they both are well-established American businesspeople, I find it likely). Saying that their Muslim-nation background makes them automatically suspect is a witch-hunt.
The basic science of missiles is understood - the science of the X-Prize is on developing a re-usable vehicle that can make multiple trips within a couple of weeks. I'm not an expert, but I'd be surprised if X-Prize technology ends up getting used in ICBM's.
Sponsoring the X-Prize doesn't mean the Ansaris have exclusive access to its aerodynamic secrets.
The most popular movie in Iran right now is a satire of religious extremists. Of course they do hold most of the political power, but this isn't a heirarchal society where every person of Persian background (including US citizens) is trying to build a bomb for the religious right.
"Absolutely the only thing stopping them is fear of retribution ala Afghanistan or Iraq"??? I'd love to hear you back that up. It seems to me, that a determined state could make an anonymous terrorist attack of some kind. Anyway, the war on Iraq isn't retribution for anything; even Bush doesn't claim that, I don't know why you would. The war on Afghanistan may be retribution at heart, but the Taliban (or the people of Afghanistan) didn't attack the US.
Re:Following the money (Score:2)
Re:Obvious Question (Score:2)
Re:My BS Prize Foundation (Score:2)