NASA wants to cash in on the success of the Ansari X prize by offering its own awards for private innovation. But it will have to chose the projects carefully, or risk looking foolish.
Last week, the US House Committee on Science asked Peter Diamandis, founder of the X prize, for some advice. The $10 million prize, which will be awarded to the first privately funded spacecraft to take two trips to the edge of space within two weeks, has kick-started an intense space race. One 鈥渒ey component鈥�, said Diamandis, 鈥渨as the existence of a business or market to support the teams after the prize was won.鈥� A space tourism industry that could be worth billions is a prize worth shooting for. And teams competing for the X prize have forked out considerably more than the prize money because of the potential for commercial gain.
Yet according to a report published on 15 July, NASA is considering offering prizes for challenges such as building a better astronaut glove, collecting a rock sample from an asteroid, and racing spacecraft to the moon using solar sails. Companies taking up these challenges can expect little return beyond the prize and perhaps a NASA contract.
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For contests to work, NASA will need to stick to some of the other challenges in its report that could be adapted to make money on Earth, such as long-lasting power packs for planetary rovers and tethers made of carbon nanotubes.