Tomorrow marks the Ansari X-Price in the Mojave Desert, California. This year the prize for getting to place a ship 100 Km. High, it is 10 million dollars. The big favorite is the team of Paul Allen (Microsoft) and Burt Rutan (aerospace pioneer) in SpaceShipOne.
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipOne (which is one of the ships of the team Paul Allen and Burt Rutan), means that increasingly we are closer to private space flight.
But back to the X-Price:
The X-Price is to achieve two flights to 100 Km. Of soil, within a maximum of two weeks.
Allen and Rutan are sure to get it, but there are 24 more teams competing against them.
Among these, is the team of Eric Meier and Phil Storm, the company Space Transport Corp Inc, both renowned scientists and experienced in the manufacture of spacecraft since both worked for Aerojet Corp. (Redmond [neighboring town of Seattle] ).
[Mental Note 1: Paul Allen = Seattle, Aero Jet Corp = Seattle ... It seems that the Seattle area is fully aerospace boil. Will it be by generations of locals have worked at Boeing and the subsidiaries that have been created around?].
In the Seattle area, we also find another interesting company: LiftPort Inc (Bremerton). Nothing more and nothing less than dedicated to building a space elevator, which will drastically reduce the cost of materials placed in orbit. Specifically, according to statements by its President and founder Michael Laine, the cost would be reduced from $ 20,000 per pound to $ 400. The first prototype is already under construction.
(Article where we explained a few months ago, the operation of a space elevator: space elevator)
Although it seems clear that SpaceShipOne wins, most of the participants, what they really expect is to find investors for their projects. Projects are all aimed at locating people and goods in space, at low cost, which in itself, and seem like a good deal.
It is said by unofficial means Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder is also working on creating a company that will manufacture spacecraft. Specifically it founded in Seattle (yes, again Seattle) the Blue Origin, a company that thinks devoted to space tourism.
[Mental Note 2: With Paul Allen (Seattle), Jeff Bezos (Seattle) and Richard Branson (London) and we have 3 billionaires entrepreneurs, tucked into the world of space tourism. This is a clear indication that there are business opportunities and money to win].
From these pages we will monitor the X-Race in the coming days ...
very interesting years ahead. Definitely.
Further information for anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge:
Official of X-Price:
X-Price
Information on the Argentine team that will compete in the X-Price:
WildFire
The Seattle Post article where the virtues of companies in the Seattle area and its relation to space tourism industry and the X-Price are discussed:
Seattle Post - Space Tourism
"Odyssey" It is part of the series The God Machine And you can see it. The first quarter of the book is only in a position to put the reader and makes you wonder more than once if you've not made a mistake and you've already read this book.
