Space competition

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A space competition is an inducement prize contest offering a prize to be given to the first competitor who demonstrates a space vehicle, or a space exploration apparatus, which meets a set of pre-established criteria. It spurs pioneering development in private spaceflight.

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X PRIZE

The Ansari X PRIZE was a space competition in which the X PRIZE Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable human spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century aviation prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight. The prize was won on October 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch, by the Tier One project designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, using the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne. $10 million was awarded to the winner, but more than $100 million was invested in new technologies in pursuit of the prize.

Google Lunar X Prize

Google Lunar X Prize calls for teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and operating a rover on the lunar surface. The prize awards US$20 million to the first team to land a rover on the Moon that successfully roves more than 500 meters and transmits back high-definition images and video. There is a $5 million second prize, as well as $5 million in potential bonus prizes for extra features such as roving long distances (greater than 5,000 meters), capturing images of manmade objects on the Moon, detecting ice on one of the Moon's craters, or surviving a lunar night. The X Prize offers the first prize until December 31, 2012, thereafter it offers $15 million until December 31, 2014. [1]

America's Space Prize

America's Space Prize is a US$50 million orbital spaceflight competition established and funded by hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. The prize would have been awarded to the first US-based privately funded team to design and build a reusable crewed capsule capable of flying 5 astronauts to a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space module. The prize expired January 10, 2010. There must be two flights within 60 days. The teams must be based in the United States.

Other, sub-million dollar prizes

In addition, there are several minor space competitions, with prizes being less than one million dollars or its equivalent.

Centennial Challenges

Seeking to continue this incentive-based approach, in 2006 the X PRIZE Foundation organized the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup at Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico. Cash awards were offered in three areas as part of the NASA Centennial Challenges Program: the Beam Power Challenge, the Tether Challenge, and the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Although no contestants fulfilled the criteria necessary to win any of the three challenges, the competition elicited promising technology developments and demonstrated their potential to the general public. Subsequent annual X PRIZE Cups are planned to encourage further innovation in the personal spaceflight industry, and are expected to feature cash prizes for vehicle developers who achieve milestones such as fastest launch turnaround time, maximum altitude, and fastest speed record. [2]

Mars Prize Fund

The Mars Prize Fund was created to encourage a human Mars mission to occur sooner than was planned. Managed by The Mars Initiative, The Mars Prize Fund is crowdfunded by people across Earth and will be awarded to the lead organization that first lands one or more humans safely on Mars. https://marsinitiative.org/

As of May 2022 the Mars Prize Fund has raised $25,000 and is growing every month. Estimates put the cost of a Mars mission at roughly $100/mile, so every donor who hits this mark is given a Certificate of Recognition for sponsoring one ‘Mars Mile’ of humanity's journey to the Red Planet.

N-Prize

The challenge posed by the N-Prize is to launch a satellite weighing between 9.99 and 19.99 grams into Earth orbit, and to track it for a minimum of nine orbits. Most importantly, though, the launch budget must be within £999.99 (about $2000) - and must include all of the required non-reusable hardware and fuels. According to the full rules of the N-Prize, it is "intended to encourage creativity, originality and inventiveness in the face of severe odds and impossible financial restrictions" and "is aimed at amateurs, enthusiasts, would-be boffins and foolhardy optimists." [3]

NewSpace Business Plan Competition

This competition for new business plans with space applications was founded in 2012. It was won by Space Ground Amalgam, LLC in 2012, and Generation Orbit in 2013. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armadillo Aerospace</span> American aerospace startup company

Armadillo Aerospace was an aerospace startup company based in Mesquite, Texas. Its initial goal was to build a crewed suborbital spacecraft capable of space tourism, and it had also stated long-term ambitions of orbital spaceflight. The company was founded by John Carmack, co-founder and former chief technical officer of id Software.

Human spaceflight programs have been conducted, started, or planned by multiple countries and companies. Until the 21st century, human spaceflight programs were sponsored exclusively by governments, through either the military or civilian space agencies. With the launch of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of human spaceflight programs – commercial human spaceflight – arrived. By the end of 2022, three countries and one private company (SpaceX) had successfully launched humans to Earth orbit, and two private companies had launched humans on a suborbital trajectory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ansari X Prize</span> Award

The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable crewed spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century aviation prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight.

The Centennial Challenges are NASA space competition inducement prize contests for non-government-funded technological achievements by American teams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vision for Space Exploration</span> 2004 US human space exploration plan

The Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) was a plan for space exploration announced on January 14, 2004 by President George W. Bush. It was conceived as a response to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the state of human spaceflight at NASA, and as a way to regain public enthusiasm for space exploration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private spaceflight</span> Spaceflight not paid for by a government agency

Private spaceflight refers to spaceflight developments that are not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA.

Bigelow Aerospace was an American space design and manufacturing company which closed its doors in 2020. It was an aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactured and developed expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998, and was based in North Las Vegas, Nevada. It was funded in large part by the profit Bigelow gained through his ownership of the hotel chain, Budget Suites of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Origin</span> American aerospace company

Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P., commonly referred to as Blue Origin is an American aerospace manufacturer, defense contractor, launch service provider and space technologies company headquartered in Kent, Washington, United States. The company makes rocket engines for United Launch Alliance (ULA)'s Vulcan rocket and manufactures their own rockets, spacecraft, satellites, and heavy-lift launch vehicles. The company is the second provider of lunar lander services for NASA's Artemis program and was awarded a $3.4 billion contract. The company has four rocket engines in production including the BE-3U, BE-3PM, BE-4 and the BE-7.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America's Space Prize</span> Award

America's Space Prize was a US$50 million space competition in orbital spaceflight established and funded in 2004 by hotel entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. The prize would have been awarded to the first US-based privately funded team to design and build a reusable crewed capsule capable of flying 5 astronauts to a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable space module. The criteria also required the capsule be recovered and flown again in 60 days. The prize expired January 10, 2010, without a winner or any test flights attempted. The teams were required to have been based in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masten Space Systems</span>

Masten Space Systems was an aerospace manufacturer startup company in Mojave, California that was developing a line of vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rockets, initially for uncrewed research sub-orbital spaceflights and eventually intended to support robotic orbital spaceflight launches.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar Lander Challenge</span> Competition funded by NASAs Centennial Challenges program

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge (NG-LLC) was a competition funded by NASA's Centennial Challenges program. The competition offered a series of prizes for teams that launch a vertical takeoff/vertical landing (VTVL) rocket that achieved the total delta-v needed for a vehicle to move between the surface of the Moon and its orbit. The multi-level competition was conducted by the X PRIZE Foundation, with sponsorship from the Northrop Grumman Corporation who ran the ongoing competition. The prize purses were paid by NASA. It was held annually at the X PRIZE Cup, making its debut at the 2006 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup in October, 2006, until 2009 when the prize purse was awarded to Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X Prize Cup</span>

The X Prize Cup is a two-day air and space exposition which was the result of a partnership between the X Prize Foundation and the State of New Mexico that began in 2004 when the Ansari X-Prize was held. This led to plans to build the world's first true rocket festival. Three X-Prize Cups have been held: in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Each X Prize Cup hosts different events and demonstrations, such as rocket-powered bicycles, rocket jet packs; but particularly notable are the Lunar Lander Challenge and the Space Elevator Games. 85,000 visitors attended the 2007 X Prize Cup. Although there was no X Prize Cup in 2009, there was a Lunar Lander Challenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of spaceflight</span>

Spaceflight began in the 20th century following theoretical and practical breakthroughs by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard, and Hermann Oberth. First successful large-scale rocket programs were initiated in Nazi Germany by Wernher von Braun. The Soviet Union took the lead in the post-war Space Race, launching the first satellite, the first man and the first woman into orbit. The United States caught up with, and then passed, their Soviet rivals during the mid-1960s, landing the first men on the Moon in 1969. In the same period, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and China were concurrently developing more limited launch capabilities.

The Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station was a private orbital space station under conceptual development by Bigelow Aerospace in the 2000s and 2010s. Previous concepts of the space station had included multiple modules such as two B330 expandable spacecraft modules as well as a central docking node, propulsion, solar arrays, and attached crew capsules. However it was also suggested that each B330 can operate as an independent space station. Attaching a B330 to the International Space Station or flying a B330 alone have been suggested by Robert Bigelow.

t/Space

t/Space was an American aerospace company which participated in NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS), and later, Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) programs for delivering cargo and crew to the International Space Station. The company was headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

TeamIndus is a private for-profit aerospace company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It consists of a team of professionals from various backgrounds in science, technology, finance, and media, that came together in 2010 with the aim of winning the Google Lunar X Prize competition announced in 2007. Although the competition ended in 2018 without a winner, TeamIndus is still working towards developing and launching their lunar rover mission sometime in 2020 after partnering with OrbitBeyond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billionaire space race</span> Billionaire space rivalry

The billionaire space race is the rivalry among entrepreneurs who have entered the space industry from other industries - particularly computing. This private spaceflight race involves sending privately developed rockets and vehicles to various destinations in space, often in response to government programs or to develop the space tourism sector.

The future of space exploration involves both telescopic exploration and the physical exploration of space by robotic spacecraft and human spaceflight.

References

  1. ↑ "Google Lunar X PRIZE Competition Guidelines". googlelunarxprize.org. Retrieved 2007-09-16.
  2. ↑ "2007 U.S. Commercial Space Transportation Developments and Concepts: Vehicles, Technologies, and Spaceports" (PDF). FAA.
  3. ↑ ""Nines" have it for Nanosatellite space race: The N-Prize". ITWire. 2008-05-03. Archived from the original on 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
  4. ↑ "NewSpace Business Plan Competition". NewSpace. Archived from the original on 2013-09-30.
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