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When you think of space, you probably think of NASA, the government, Neil Armstrong
and Star Trek. Since it was begun, space travel was limited to the elite government
agencies with the big bucks to fund such exploration, and if they didn't pay
for it, no one was going to space. That was, no one until the program known
as the Ansari X Prize came along.
What is the Ansari X Prize, you may ask? Long story short,
it is a contest in which a team has to (1) build a spaceship that's able to
carry three (3) adults, then (2) launch the spaceship with the three people
to a height of 100 kilometers and of course return the ship safely (no broken
bones or severe damage to the craft), and (3) repeat the flight within two weeks
using the same craft, thus classifying the craft as an RLV (reusable launch
vehicle).
Oh, and did I mention the first team to accomplish this gets
$10 million?
Hm, if you want to win the award, can't you just go to NASA
and have them fund your spaceship? One problem. No financial help can be accepted
from any government. This means no government grants, no NASA ships and no NASA
parts.
But there are companies that aren't government-owned... for
example, Microsoft.
Once you get around the money issue, you have yet another.
Most countries require would-be astronauts have what is called a launch license.
Without this magical little license, you aren't launching anything into space.
I'm not going to go into detail with that right now, though. Maybe I'll write
another article... who knows. In any case, you can actually get that license,
it's just challenging.
Before you start dreaming up ways of getting into space first,
let me tell you -- there is already a winner!
In October 2004, the winner of the $10 million was named: A
team from Mojave, California, called "Scaled Composites LLC" made
it into space for the second time, to claim the big bucks! (You can visit their
site at www.scaled.com)
Wow, I guess that rocket game really does pay off!
And guess what? You know how the German V-2 rocket never works
for getting to the moon on Whyville's WASA game? Well, the winning team design
was a two-stage rocket based on, you guessed it, the GERMAN V-2. Hmm.
Ironic, huh?
Could this be the stepping stone to space travel for the public?
Who knows, in 20 years, instead of going to the Grand Canyon for your vacation
for the billionth time, you could be going to the moon for spring break! How
cool would that be?
If you want to learn more about this exciting program, a simple
search on any search engine will return loads upon loads of results. Or, on
a rainy day, go check out the movie "Black Sky: The Race for Space."
Olive900 signing out, and remember, Ad Astra! That's
Latin, for "To the stars!"
Editor's Note: And some folks say, Ad Astra, per Ardua!
which means "To the stars, with effort!"
And here's another good link to help you learn more about
the team that put together this $10 million space-chasing dream: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/raceforspace/raceforspace.html.
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