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>One could argue that the X prize helped spawn today's commercial space companies. That'd be a stretch. The Ansari X Prize led to a bunch of companies pursuing
by rory096 9y ago
>One could argue that the X prize helped spawn today's commercial space companies.
That'd be a stretch. The Ansari X Prize led to a bunch of companies pursuing a goal with little commercial value and few designs with orbital aspirations. The winner led to a costly, dead-end design that has still yet to fly again for suborbital tourism, killed four people along the way, and will never service orbit. The rest of the companies are either dead or vaporware.
That said, I'm generally in favor of prize-based challenges to spur development at lower cost, as long as you aren't forced to set a goal that's entirely tangential to what you want out of industry. Newt Gingrich is a notable supporter of the idea, but I'm not aware of any other prominent politicians who support it.
- ChuckMcM 9y agoAgreed it is a stretch, but the argument would be that Virgin Galactic is exactly the follow-on to the rocket that won the x-prize and that Blue Origin's effort came out of their work to win the x-prize but didn't get it done in time. That said, the challenge is a goal that, if accomplished, results in some foundation capability (like vehicle navigation in the 'real' world). I was hoping the robotics challenge that DARPA has been running would have similar benefits but those efforts don't seem nearly as applicable to everyday stuff.
- jkimmel 9y agoSanders proposed a prize system for pharmaceuticals. It's an interesting alternative to patents for rewarding innovation in that space particularly, which is entirely patent dependent. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s627/text https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s627/text