X Prize Is A Little More Interesting These Days
It turns out that Iranian-born entrepreneurs Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari have donated a large sum of money to the X Prize program. The exact amount has been disclosed but it was sizeable enough to get the X Prize name changed to the “Ansari X Prize Competition”.
The X Prize, a $10-million prize for commercial suborbital RLVs, announced a major new donation and corresponding name change on Wednesday. The prize foundation said it had received a multimillion-dollar donation from Iranian-born entrepreneurs Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari. The exact size of the donation was not announced. To recognize the donation, the prize foundation said the prize would be renamed the Ansari X Prize Competition. The donation is the second major deal the prize has announced in as any months: in March the foundation inked a “seven-figure” sponsorship deal with the Champ Car World Series racing circuit. The Ansari X Prize offers the $10-million prize to the first commercially-developed suborbital RLV capable of carrying three people that flies to 100 kilometers altitude twice in a two-week period. The actual prize money is secured through an insurance policy that expires at the end of this year.
There was no info whether the prize money will be increased due to the new donation.
June 14th, 2004 at 1:35 pm
There has been quite a bit of press comparing this event with the first powered flight by the Wright brothers, or the first trans-atlantic crossing by Charles Lindburgh. Such press implies that it will spur a sudden growth in space travel. The idea being that once someone shows it can be done pretty cheaply, then anyone can do it.
OK, but things are not the same here.
Firstly, this is a sub-orbital launch to 62 miles, something possible by achieving Mach 3 and pointing straight up from about 50,000 (the initial launch height). Appreciate that Mach 25 will be needed to get into a stable orbit of around 250 miles. There is a huge difference between Mach 25 and Mach 3. Some new technology such as a scram-jet will be required to get up in speed, and then you introduce friction-related issues at that kind of speed.
Secondly, good old government legislation. All the competitors in the X-prize have had to apply for special permits from the government to attempt this kind of operation. This is more restrictive than the technology requirements !
So, my take is that, yes, a sub-orbital launch to 62 miles will be achieved, perhaps later this year. However, this will not herald in a new era of affordable space flight for all, at least not for quite a while. This will go down as another achievement by man, but will not impact the average man (or woman) for many many years.