Centennial Challenges
Seeking to continue this incentive-based approach, in 2006 the X PRIZE Foundation organized the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup at Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico. Cash awards were offered in three areas as part of the NASA Centennial Challenges Program: the Beam Power Challenge, the Tether Challenge, and the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
Although no contestants fulfilled the criteria necessary to win any of the three challenges, the competition elicited promising technology developments and demonstrated their potential to the general public. Subsequent annual X PRIZE Cups are planned to encourage further innovation in the personal spaceflight industry, and are expected to feature cash prizes for vehicle developers who achieve milestones such as fastest launch turnaround time, maximum altitude, and fastest speed record.
Read more about this topic: Space Competition, Other, Sub-million Dollar Prizes
Famous quotes containing the word challenges:
“The approval of the public is to be avoided like the plague. It is absolutely essential to keep the public from entering if one wishes to avoid confusion. I must add that the public must be kept panting in expectation at the gate by a system of challenges and provocations.”
—André Breton (1896–1966)