- Ansari X Prize
The Ansari X PRIZE was a
space competition in which theX PRIZE Foundation offered a US$10,000,000prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-centuryaviation prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight. The prize was won onOctober 4 2004 , the 47th anniversary of theSputnik 1 launch, by theTier One project designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, using the experimentalspaceplane SpaceShipOne . $10 million was awarded to the winner, but more than $100 million was invested in new technologies in pursuit of the prize.The second X PRIZE, the
Archon X PRIZE , was announced in October 2006 by the X PRIZE Foundation.The third X Prize, theAutomotive X Prize , was announced shortly thereafter.The fourth X Prize, theGoogle Lunar X Prize , was announced in September 2007.Motivation
The X PRIZE was first proposed by Dr.
Peter Diamandis in an address to the NSSInternational Space Development Conference in 1995. The competition goal was adopted from theSpaceCub project, demonstration of a private vehicle capable of flying a pilot to the edge of space, defined as 100 km altitude. This goal was selected to help encourage the space industry in theprivate sector , which is why the entries were not allowed to have any government funding. It aimed to demonstrate thatspaceflight can be affordable and accessible to corporations and civilians, opening the door to commercial spaceflight andspace tourism . It is also hoped that competition will breedinnovation , introducing new low-cost methods of reachingEarth orbit , and ultimately pioneering low-cost space travel and unfettered human expansion into thesolar system .The X PRIZE was modeled after many prizes from the early 20th century that helped prod the development of air flight, including most notably the $25,000Orteig Prize that spurredCharles Lindbergh to make his solo flight across theAtlantic Ocean .NASA is developing a similar prize program calledCentennial Challenges to generate innovative solutions tospace technology problems.Created in May 1996 and initially called just "X PRIZE", it was renamed "Ansari X PRIZE" on
May 6 ,2004 following a multi-million dollardonation fromentrepreneur sAnousheh Ansari andAmir Ansari .Contestants
Twenty-six teams from around the world participated, ranging from volunteer hobbyists to large corporate-backed operations:
* Acceleration Engineering
* [http://www.adventlaunchservices.com/ Advent Launch Services]
* Aeronautics and Cosmonautics Romanian Association (ARCASPACE )
*Armadillo Aerospace
* [http://www.aeraspace.com/ American Astronautics Corporation]
* [http://www.bristolspaceplanes.com/ Bristol Spaceplanes, Ltd]
*Canadian Arrow
* Theda Vinci Project
* [http://www.pablodeleon.com Pablo de Leon & Associates]
* Discraft Corporation
* Flight Exploration
*Fundamental Technology Systems
* [http://www.harcspace.com/ HARC]
* [http://www.ilat.net/ IL Aerospace Technologies]
* [http://www.interorbital.com/ Interorbital Systems]
* [http://www.kellyspace.com/ Kelly Space and Technology]
* [http://www.lonestarspace.com/ Lone Star Space Access Corporation]
* [http://www.micro-space.com/ Micro-Space, Inc.]
* [http://www.tour2space.com/ PanAero, Inc.]
* [http://www.rocketplane.com/ Pioneer Rocketplane, Inc.] (now Rocketplane Kistler)
*Scaled Composites 'Tier One project (Winning Team)
*Space Transport Corporation
*Starchaser Industries
* Suborbital Corporation
* [http://www.tgv-rockets.com/ TGV Rockets]
* Vanguard Spacecraft
* Whalen Aeronautics Inc.This contestant list notably did not include traditional space access companies like
Boeing and Lockheed, which many in the industry believe to be incapable of replacing their presentspace transport ation vehicles with low-cost alternatives. These critics claim as evidence the companies' several failed attempts to do so, such as theX-33 project, on contract fromNASA and other U.S. government agencies. However, the X PRIZE Foundation itself did not ban these companies from applying, so long as they could prove their efforts on this project would be free of government funding.Competition status
The
Tier One project made two successful competitive flights, X1 onSeptember 29 2004 piloted byMike Melvill and X2 onOctober 4 2004 piloted byBrian Binnie . They thus won the prize, which was awarded onNovember 6 2004 . (Note: the winning team is referred to by several names at various times:Tier One ,Scaled Composites , andMojave Aerospace Ventures .)The trophy is currently on display in the
St. Louis Science Center in St.Louis,Missouri.Flight attempts by teams that did not win
Although only the Tier One team actually launched a spacecraft into suborbital space, several other teams have conducted low-altitude tests or announced future plans to launch into space:
*Theda Vinci Project originally announced that their first flight would be onOctober 2 2004 , but this was postponed indefinitely onSeptember 23 2004 , as they were unable to obtain a few necessary components in time. They have not announced a revised timetable.
*TheCanadian Arrow team conducted a successful full-power engine test in 2005 and announced onJune 2 ,2005 , that it had received permission from the Canadian government to useCape Rich as a future launch site.
*OnAugust 8 2004 , Space Transport Corporation's Rubicon 1 andArmadillo Aerospace 's test vehicle, in two separate unmanned test launches, both crashed and were destroyed.
*OnFebruary 15 2005 ,AERA Corporation (Formerly American Astronautics) announced its plans to send seven paying passengers into space as early as 2006, a full year before the first announced speculativeVirgin Galactic flight.List of major donors by order of donation
*
Anousheh Ansari andAmir Ansari
*First USA (J.P. Morgan Chase ), $1,000,000USD
*NewSpirit of St. Louis Organization
*Danforth Foundation , $500,000 USD
*Tom Clancy , $100K–$500K
*J.S. McDonnell (McDonnell Douglas )
*Andrew Taylor (Enterprise Rent-A-Car )
*Andrew Beal (Beal Bank)
*St. Louis Science Center Organization
With the Ansari X PRIZE, the
X PRIZE Foundation (based in Santa Monica, CA) established a philanthropic model in which offering a prize for achieving a specific goal stimulates entrepreneurial investment that produces a 10 times or greater return on the prize purse and at least 100 times in follow-on investment and social benefit. The Foundation has developed into a non-profit prize institute that conceives, designs and manages public competitions for the benefit of humanity.Spinoffs
The success of the X PRIZE competition has spurred spinoffs that are set up in the same way. There have been two major spinoffs at this point, the first of which is the M Prize (short for Methuselah Mouse Prize), which is a prize set up by
University of Cambridge biogerontologistAubrey de Grey which will go to the scientific team that successfully extends the life or reverses the aging of mice, which would then eventually be available to humans. The second is the NASACentennial Challenges , which consist of (among others) theTether Challenge in which teams compete to develop superstrong tethers as a component tospace elevator s, and theBeam Power Challenge which encourages ideas for transmitting power wirelessly. An independent spinoff called theN-Prize was started byCambridge Microbiologist Paul H. Dear in 2008, designed to foster research into low-cost orbital launchers.The X PRIZE foundation itself is developing additional prizes, including one around genomics, and another around energy -- the
Automotive X PRIZE . There is also a possible "H-Prize ", focused onhydrogen vehicle research, although this goal has already been addressed byH.R. 5143 , an X-Prize-inspired bill passed by the House of Representatives.ee also
* NASA
Centennial Challenges
*List of prizes
*Prizes named after people
*America's Space Prize
*Methuselah Mouse Prize , or M Prize (modeled after the Ansari X PRIZE)
*N-Prize , a low-budget orbital satellite insertion challenge
*Space Ship One Related technical topics:
*Specific impulse
*Tsiolkovsky equation
*Delta V Further reading
# "The X PRIZE", an article by Ian Parker on pages 52ndash 63 of the
4 October 2004 issue of "The New Yorker "References
External links
* [http://www.xprize.org/space/x-prize-cup/ X PRIZE Cup official site]
* [http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/331/ X PRIZE founder talks about the prize and the future of space travel (MIT Video)]
* [http://www.xprizenews.org/ Ansari X PRIZE Space Race News]
* [http://www.progressiveautoxprize.org/ Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE]
* [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040727/sc_nm/space_prize_dc Yahoo! News - SpaceShipOne Readies Run at $10 Mln Prize]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3549552.stm (Rubicon 1 un-manned test) X-prize contender rocket explodes]
* [http://scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm Tier One (SpaceShipOne) Homepage]
* [http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/spacetourism_future_040930.html Going Private: The Promise and Danger of Space Travel] -- a study of the future of spaceflight and its possible risks
* [http://www.fai.org:81/sporting_code/sc08.pdf FAI Rules for Astronautic Record Attempts]
* [http://www.xprize.org/press_room/press_releases/press.php?articleID=130 press release: SpaceShipOne reaches over 360,000 feet to win the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE]
* [http://www.spaceenterprise.net Space Enterprise Network]
* [http://www.socaltech.com/fullstory/0003465.html Interview with Mark Goodstein, Executive Director of the Automotive X PRIZE on new energy X PRIZE]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436126/ Black Sky: The Race for Space (Internet Movie Database listing)]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0444961/ Black Sky: Winning the X PRIZE (Internet Movie Database listing)]
* [http://americanantigravity.com/documents/XPRIZE-Interview-2005.pdf The NeXt-Prize: An interview with Peter Diamandis] Archon X PRIZE for Genomics:
* [http://www.base4innovation.co.uk www.base4innovation.co.uk ::: The first UK and non-US team to compete to sequence 100 Human Genomes in 10 Days]
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