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NASA JSC Advanced Planning Office Blog: Creating the Future: One Giant Leap at a time
"... Or is it too farfetched to create a prize for a non-rocket vehicle for access to LEO? While Commercial Space companies are investing in low cost access to Low Earth Orbit using rocket's should NASA partner up to create a prize that will look at the physics for the next LEAP forward in access to space?
OK, I have to say it... I'll even settle for a WARP drive X Prize."
Print this articleNASA has used prizes and competitions to produce Earth to LEO launch vehicles (=COTS), space gloves, reusable lunar lander demonstrators and ISRU proof of concept equipment. Following the Earth to Moon trail future prizes could be:
a. space tug. LEO to L1/L2 or low lunar orbit (LLO). Say half a tonne payload.
b. half a tonne payload reusable high ISP tug. LEO to L1/L2 or LLO or GEO.
c. inspace propellant transfer system.
d. cargo transfer system - Launch vehicle to tug and/or tug to lander.
e. high accuracy lunar and inspace navigation equipment
f. radiation hard and wide temperature range control board. Includes computer, ram, rom, analogue to digital, digital to analogue converters and SpaceWire communications.
2 Comments
Funny I thought I made that exact suggestion when the question was posed on what the next NASA x prize should be on a previous Post( a month ago or something).Glad someone took my suggestion although it had nothing to do with warp drive.:(