Anybody been following this X prize race for space? check it out at www.xprize.org There are two canadian teams that I know of. The Da Vinci Project is based in Toronto and the Canadian Arrow is based out of London Ont. but will be launching their craft from Kindersley Saskatchewan (really close to MY hometown!). If anybody finds another Canadian team let me know, I haven't read up on all of them, there's a lot.

   

That is kewl, i have known about the X Prize and have seen shows on it, but didn't know of any Canadian teams. Might hafta do a little spot on them...

   

ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS DISCLOSED in an interview that the White House will begin work next week on a blueprint for interplanetary human flight over the next 20 or 30 years, with plans calling for Bush to issue an ambitious new national vision for space travel by early next year.
The officials said they will wrestle with the militaryÂ’s role in space, as well as with whether to emphasize manned or robotic missions, whether to build a base in space, what vehicle should replace the shuttle and what planets should be visited.
“The question is: What do we say to the president about why we should continue humans in space and in what vehicles and to what ends?” a senior administration official said.
But those answers will not come as swiftly as Congress would like, and lawmakers and some administration officials said they do not see how Bush will find the money to pay for any meaningful expansion of the space program given the costs of his tax cuts and the demands on the budget from the Pentagon, homeland security and possibly new Medicare benefits. That could turn his aidesÂ’ study of options for future astronauts into something of an academic exercise.
“You can’t fight a war on terrorism and stimulate the economy and put billions and billions of new dollars into the space program,” an official said, adding that the end of the Cold War had made mastery of space a less pressing priority.
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Lawmakers in both parties are calling for Bush to respond aggressively to the report issued Tuesday by the board that investigated the disintegration of Columbia. The report warned of the “lack of a national vision for space” in recent decades and a “failure of national leadership” in developing a replacement vehicle for the aging shuttle.
The release of the hard-hitting report set the stage for what promises to be an exhaustive series of congressional hearings, which will begin next Thursday and could lead to dramatic changes in the manned space program. Lawmakers said they are intensely concerned about what it will take to safely resume shuttle operations.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA, said he will seek a presidential panel to examine the future of the space program, including whether to shift resources from the shuttle in order to resume the exploration of the moon.
Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.), a member of the House Science Committee, is calling for a shift from manned to unmanned flight “for both safety and research value.”
Since the board issued its indictment of the space agency’s handling of the doomed shuttle mission, Bush has had nothing to say beyond a written statement that “our journey into space will go on.” He was similarly elliptical during his 2000 campaign, and the issue of space disappeared from his speeches after he delivered a eulogy for the seven Columbia astronauts in February.
A senior administration official said a White House group will meet at least weekly to assess “the benefits to the nation and the world of continued human spaceflight by the United States.”
“We know we can do it. What do we seek to achieve through it?” the official said. “Where and how does human spaceflight fit into national requirements and national priorities over the next several decades?”
Officials said the new panel on human spaceflight, led by the White House and involving several Cabinet departments, is scheduled to have recommendations ready for Bush in the next several months. Aides said they hope Bush will make decisions by the end of the year so that the ideas can be included in the administration budget for 2005, which will go to Capitol Hill in February.
The official said the interagency group will look at the space program’s relationship with national defense, as well as with the advancement of science, and at “the question of how this relates to national goals that, at first blush, have nothing to do with spaceflight.” “The president’s been very clear from the beginning that we want to continue doing this,” an aide said.
Another administration review of space policy, led by the National Security Council, was launched in June 2002 by a National Security Presidential Directive and was completing a report on future space transportation systems when Columbia broke up. The report was shelved, but the review is continuing.
With the budget for the coming fiscal year already stretched thin by pressing security needs, key lawmakers and aides cautioned that there may be little additional money for NASA unless Bush speaks out quickly about his plans for space.
NASA officials said it may take several weeks or months to digest the accident boardÂ’s findings and translate them into budget requests, possibly after lawmakers have completed the new spending bills.
“A clear signal of a commitment to NASA and the future of spaceflight from our leader [is] what’s needed right now,” said Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls NASA spending.
NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe has vowed that his agency will implement, “without reservation,” all of the board’s recommendations addressing the “human failures” and shuttle hardware problems. He went to the White House yesterday and met via videoconference with Vice President Cheney, who is in Wyoming.
The House last month approved a $5.7 billion NASA spending bill that includes only the modest increase Bush proposed in the budget submitted the week after the Columbia disaster. The Senate is to begin work next week on its own version.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (Md.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over NASA, has repeatedly expressed concern that the administration has provided little useful guidance about the potential cost of the return-to-flight effort.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairmen of their chambersÂ’ Science committees, said they want a reassessment of the manned space program before Congress commits to major spending increases. Many lawmakers said they are frustrated with NASAÂ’s planning, which has left the United States dependent on an aging shuttle fleet to service the international space station and the Hubble Space Telescope.

   

If they're not carefull the Indians are going to take the lead.

   

I can't wait for the private sector to get into space. NASA has been stagnant since the end of the cold war. How long ago did humans land on the moon? Decades, and name me one mayjor accomplishment since. I wanna see what's up there, unmanned is probably the way to go.

   

Robots are safer, no doubt. But they cannot compete with a human in terms of research capability.

Another ignorant Republican...surprise surprise.

   

Not just safer, CHEAPER! Building a vehicle that has to sustain human life compared to strapping a rocket to a robot. The price difference must be staggering. I am an engineer and this stuff really interests me.

   

No question. I am totally for letting robots do the dirty work. When we decide to colozie Mars it will be the robots that build the structure long before we arrive. Some of the technology we have is truely amazing - and only getting better.

   

Sun shines on Canada in space race


JACK KAPICA

Globe and Mail Update


POSTED AT 8:51 AM Thursday, October 09

If the residents of Kindersley, Sask., were initially sniggering at the idea of a rocket launch pad being built at the local airport in a field outside of town, they were polite about it. They admitted only to scratching their heads in consternation.

Since it was first proposed in February, the residents of this town of 5,000 on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border have gone from scratching heads to outright enthusiasm.

People are getting excited by this project to tether a rocket to a big balloon, float it into the sky, and then fire it up and blast into space.

That's because some big muscle has joined the da Vinci Project, Canada's entry into the $10-million (U.S.) X Prize competition. The international contest is designed to kick-start a manned commercial space industry.

Now the project is getting some major support from outside the community, too. Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. has joined the da Vinci team as an "official technology products partner," offering the Canadian team a range of powerful hardware and network cluster tools for design simulation and virtual prototyping. Sun's tools will power applications such as Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics, important processes in substantially reducing engineering costs and improving time-to-market for aerospace designers and engineers.

In March, the da Vinci team became the first private group anywhere in the world to seek government clearance for launching a human into space.

Team leader Brian Feeney, 44, plans to strap himself into a rocket and be lifted into the upper atmosphere by a giant helium balloon. That will save a substantial amount of fuel and reduce the ship's overall mass, compared to having engines lift the craft all the way from ground level. Once the rocket reaches the designated altitude, its thrusters will boost Mr. Feeney's capsule into space, and he will eventually parachute back down to the prairies.

Kindersley is being used as a launch site because prevailing winds should guide the parachute safely down into an uninhabited field.

"At Sun, we have 21 years of relentless innovation under our belts," Sun Canada president said Stéphane Boisvert said. "Our role in supporting the da Vinci Project is another example of our commitment to incubate and showcase new applications that utilize proven technologies, including those that take advantage of networking and integrated software solutions."

Sun's technology will be used to reduce the time needed to run stress tests on the spacecraft, solve complex analytics problems, and enhance graphics that enable the team to visualize how design changes affect the design of the spacecraft before construction even begins.

The project is backed by almost $5-million in donations, plus labour from more than 300 volunteers.

But Sun's help will give the team an even bigger boost. As far back as May they said their project is leading a pack of 23 teams from around the world.

"We're very much leading the X Prize race," Mr. Feeney said at the time.

Dr. Vladimir Kudriavtsev, head of da Vinci engineering team, agrees.

"This sponsorship allows direct integrated analysis of the flight hardware during the preliminary design phase, thus reducing product development phase down to six months while cutting product development costs by several-million dollars," he said Wednesday.

"Not only has Sun equipped us with the world's best-in-class technology, they have positioned us to build our spacecraft from design to final-stage testing and performance validation," Mr. Feeney added.

The X Prize was announced in 1996 by a U.S. foundation. It is to be awarded to the first privately financed group that can launch a three-person vehicle 100 kilometres up to the near edges of space, and then repeat the feat with the same vehicle within two weeks. Organizers hope the contest will encourage companies to invent cheaper ways of shuttling people and materials in and out of orbit.

There is one other team from Canada, Canadian Arrow, which had plans to launch some time this year from a location near one of the Great Lakes. At last report, the group's engine testing was behind schedule.

Nobody has claimed the prize so far, but several groups are reportedly preparing missions within the next seven months.

The da Vinci Project's novel rocket design will be launched from the world's largest reusable helium balloon at an altitude of 24,400 metres. The plan is to then soar under rocket power to a peak altitude of more than 100 kilometres. So far, the da Vinci team has tested the spacecraft propulsion system and flight guidance system. It has created a manned flight simulator and a satellite-based communications system.

The da Vinci engineering team is based at da Vinci Polytechnic Institute in Toronto, another one of the project's sponsors. The engineering team is looking for more sponsors, as well as volunteers in all aspects of design, manufacturing and analysis, the team's head of engineering and R&D, Vladimir Kudriavtsev, told globetechnology.com.

Detailed engineering and construction of the manned rocket is continuing, and flight-testing is scheduled for early 2004, the group said.

"The X PRIZE Competition is all about speed, innovation and opening new frontiers — areas similar to the computer revolution of the 1980s and 1990s which companies such as Sun helped to make happen," X Prize Foundation chairman Dr. Peter Diamandis said.

"We are delighted that Sun Microsystems of Canada has shown vision and foresight in becoming a sponsor of the da Vinci Project."


GO C A N A D A !

   

well race is over

http://www.canada.com/national/story.ht ... 0cec1cd9a3

spaceshipone did it

now the question is, would you take a ride, and how much would you pay for said ride

   

Kinda sucks that the winner of the prize has no doubt invested WAY more than the actual prize itself.... sort of defeats the purpose of the competition, doesn't it?

Ah well, the billionaires are having their fun I guess.

   

i think anyone who spent less, like much less the 10M, would probally have died trying, i does sort of suck that billionairs did it, but hey its their $$

   

I think that this race for space is long over... BUT IM NOT! Here's my 800th post... I need a pic for this one... and some moving text!

[marq=right]Im the King of Nicaragua![/marq]

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This thread died out almost a year ago!!!!!

   

And you resurrected this almost a year after that!



This should have died two years ago!!!! NECROPOSTERS!!!!!!