Signed up for NASA competition advisories at Challenge.gov?

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions soon!

http://www.spaceref.com : NASA Announces Three New Centennial Challenges

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Source: NASA HQ

WASHINGTON -- NASA announced three new Centennial Challenges Tuesday, with an overall prize purse of $5 million. NASA's Centennial Challenges are prize competitions for technological achievements by independent teams who work without government funding.

"NASA sponsors prize competitions because the agency believes student teams, private companies of all sizes and citizen-inventors can provide creative solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation," said Bobby Braun, the agency's chief technologist. "Prize competitions are a proven way to foster technological competitiveness, new industries and innovation across America."

The Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge is to place a small satellite into Earth orbit, twice in one week, with a prize of $2 million. The goals of this challenge are to stimulate innovations in low-cost launch technology and encourage creation of commercial nano-satellite delivery services.

The Night Rover Challenge is to demonstrate a solar-powered exploration vehicle that can operate in darkness using its own stored energy. The prize purse is $1.5 million. The objective is to stimulate innovations in energy storage technologies of value in extreme space environments, such as the surface of the moon, or for electric vehicles and renewable energy systems on Earth.

The Sample Return Robot Challenge is to demonstrate a robot that can locate and retrieve geologic samples from wide and varied terrain without human control. This challenge has a prize purse of $1.5 million. The objectives are to encourage innovations in automatic navigation and robotic manipulator technologies.

http://www.nasa.gov : NASA Chief Technologist Hosts Forum to Discuss New Space Technology Programs

NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist will host a Space Technology Industry Forum at the University of Maryland on July 13-14 to discuss the agency's proposed new space technology investments. The event will focus on the President’s fiscal year 2011 budget for NASA's new Space Technology Programs. Representatives from industry, academia, and the federal government are invited to learn the latest plans for these programs and discuss strategy, development, and implementation of these broadly applicable technology development activities.

Watch live in HD!

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions soon!

SDC : In New Contests, NASA Invites Citizens To Design Robots and Satellites

By Denise Chow
SPACE.com Staff Writer

posted: 13 July 2010

05:50 pm ET

ADELPHI, Md. - NASA on Tuesday announced three new multimillion-dollar contests to build smart robots and launch tiny satellites as part of a program to develop innovations of benefit not only to the U.S. space agency but to the nation at large.

The contests are NASA's newest Centennial Challenges, which offer cash prizes for technological achievements by teams who work without government funding. A combined prize incentive of $5 million will be split among the three competitions.

The competitions call on teams to repeatedly launch miniature satellites into orbit, develop a solar-powered rover that can run at night on stored energy, or build a sample-return robot that can navigate over varied terrain and retrieve an identifiable object.

"NASA sponsors prize competitions because the agency believes student teams, private companies of all sizes and citizen-inventors can provide creative solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation," said Robert Braun, NASA's chief technologist. "Prize competitions are a proven way to foster technological competitiveness, new industries and innovation across America."

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions soon!

SDC : NASA Launches Contest for Inflatable Space Houses

By Zoe Macintosh
SPACE.com Staff Writer

posted: 13 July 2010 05:28 pm ET



NASA has launched a summer contest for students to design the best inflatable loft for life in space or on another world. A cash reward and a field test of the winning design are up for grabs.

Three awards of up to $48,000 each will be granted to the university student teams that produce the best loft-like inflatable space habitats that can be attached to a hard-shell NASA structure. The winner of a head-to-head competition of the modules' performance in the Arizona desert will earn another $10,000, NASA officials said in an announcement.

The X-Hab contest, short for "eXploration Habitat," follows in the tradition of NASA's Lunabotics program and the space-related X Prize awards offered by the non-profit X Prize Foundation to spur interest in aerospace fields.

 

[FictionBecomesFact]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions!

Despite bureaucrats' resistance to being rendered obsolete, the competitive prizes procurement approach is spreading throughout the federal government:

http://www.challenge.gov

The General Services Administration claims that that site's contents will become visible to the public in September of 2010:

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions!

www.nasahackspace.org : NASA Space Settlement Design Contest

Design a space colony! Space colonies are permanent communities in orbit, as opposed to being on the moon or other planets. Designing a space colony involves physics, mathematics, space science, environmental science and many other disciplines.
The NASA Space Settlement Design Contest is for 11-18-year-old students from anywhere in the world. Individuals or teams may enter. Grades 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12 are judged separately, except for the grand prize. All participants will receive a certificate.
Submissions must be received by March 15, 2011. For more information about the NASA Space Settlement Design Contest, visit http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/Contest/. If you have any questions about the contest, please e-mail Al Globus at aglobus@mail.arc.nasa.gov.

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions!

http://www.nasahackspace.org : NASA Selects University Finalists for Inflatable Loft Competition

Posted by Keith Cowing
on September 1, 2010 10:48 PM

NASA and the National Space Grant Foundation have selected university teams from Maryland, Oklahoma and Wisconsin as finalists in a competition to design, manufacture, assemble and test an inflatable loft.

NASA is challenging college students to design and rapidly develop prototype concepts for inflatable habitat lofts for the next generation of space explorers. The loft will be integrated onto an existing NASA operational hard-shell prototype habitat. The winning concepts may be applied to space exploration habitats of the future. "This competition gives these students the opportunity of a lifetime," said NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "They'll design and build new hardware. If their team wins, they'll get the chance to integrate their designs into a NASA hard shell habitat and see it field tested next summer."

The inaugural eXploration Habitat, or X-Hab, Academic Innovation Challenge finalists are: Oklahoma State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Maryland

For information about the competition, visit: http://www.spacegrant.org/xhab

For more information about the Habitation Demonstration Unit project, visit: http://go.usa.gov/cLM

For information about the Analog Field Tests, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/analogs/index.html

For information about NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/oct

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions!

www.nasahackspace.org : Registration Open for 2011 NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition

Posted by Keith Cowing
on September 6, 2010 8:30 PM

NASA is challenging U.S. and international undergraduate and graduate student teams to design and build a remote-controlled or autonomous excavator that could be used on the moon. The excavator must be able to collect and deposit a minimum of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of lunar simulant in 15 minutes.

For more information about the competition and to apply online, visit http://www.nasa.gov/lunabotics.

 

[FictionBecomesFact]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions!

Would you like to sign up for various kinds of alerts & advisories involving your favorite NASA competitive prizes? The following website went live this week:

http://www.Challenge.gov

How do you like that new governmental prizes website? Any predictions?

 

[EarthlingX]

Re: Space prizes (Centennial Challenges): new competitions!

http://www.nasa.gov : NASA Selects High Schools To Compete In New Challenge; Winning Software Designs Will Program Satellites on the International Space Station

Sep. 22, 2010

Michael Curie

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass., have selected 24 high schools to participate in a new science, technology, engineering, and math education program. The teams will design software to program small satellites aboard the International Space Station.

The Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, and Reorient Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, are three volley ball-sized spherical satellites that fly inside the space station's cabin to test advanced maneuvers for spacecraft, like formation flying and autonomous rendezvous and docking. Each contains its own power, propulsion, computing, and navigation equipment.

The selections are part of the Zero-Robotics investigation, which is run by MIT and designed to inspire future scientists and engineers. Students write their own algorithms to solve a problem important to future missions. This year's pilot program, "HelioSPHERES," allows selected high schools to compete against each other and helps students build critical engineering skills, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, teamwork and presentation skills.

The competition was open to all accredited high schools in the United States and attracted 48 applications. The 24 high schools are from 19 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. The list of schools is available at
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/zero_robotics_2010.html

The 24 teams will compete in elimination rounds against each other using online simulations and ground-based testing at MIT. The software of the top 10 winners will be sent to the station, and an astronaut aboard the orbiting laboratory will program the SPHERES satellites to run the students' tests.

MIT's Space Systems Laboratory developed the SPHERES program to provide the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA and other researchers with a long-term test bed for validating technologies critical to the operation of future satellites, docking missions and satellite autonomous maneuvers. SPHERES have been used by many organizations, including other government agencies and graduate student research groups, since the program began in 2006. The satellites provide opportunities to test a wide range of hardware and software at an affordable cost.

For additional information on NASA and MIT's Zero-Robotics program, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/SPHERES-Zero-Robotics.html

For more information on the Zero-Robotics "HelioSPHERES" competition, selection process, and upcoming activities, visit:
http://zerorobotics.mit.edu/

 

[FictionBecomesFact]

Isn't the need for NASA [and all other government agencies worldwide] to offer more competitive prizes and fewer contracts made substantially more obvious by the emergence of yet another recent felony conviction of a former NASA chief-of-staff who also headed the Bush / Cheney transition team endeavor regarding space? For more on that astonishing subject:

http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/1 ... years.html