Some important news...

[pauldear]

Hi all,

(I'm going to post this on both the Space Fellowship and the N-Prize forum, and feel free to circulate and relay it.)

Well, first of all my apologies for a long absence - I can only say that life has been interesting of late!

I've been thinking a lot about what happens after this September, if nobody succeeds by then. So, on the minus side, I promised myself last time that this would be the final extension, and that repeated extensions would just be a disincentive to teams who had been working hard toward the existing deadlines.

But, on the other side of the scales... I really do want to hand out the fantastically small prize (or prizes - two categories!) one of these days. And, ultimately, it does no harm to leave the N-Prize open indefinitely, except possibly to my ego in having to admit that it's an even tougher challenge than I had believed. And my ego is the last thing that should influence my decision. People who told me it was impossible can say 'we told you so', but I can live with that and I'm confident that, someday soon, one of you will prove them wrong.

So, here's my decision, which I'll make official on the N-Prize website at some point between now and the expiry of the current deadline. The N-Prize is going to become "open", in the sense that there will be no deadline; and both prizes will remain open (that is, if someone wins in one category, the other category will remain up for grabs until someone wins it). I will also re-open the Prize to new entrants, again with no time limit.

Some people have suggested modifications to the rules, such as increasing (or removing) the budget or satellite-mass restrictions. However, I'm definitely not going to change those. First of all, that would be unfair to those teams who have been working under the existing rules. They've already stretched their ingenuity to meet the restrictions, and it would be plain wrong if a new team came in with a bigger budget and scooped them. Second, the aim of the prize was to stretch people's brains - we already know that it's possible to launch big, expensive satellites. Enough teams have gone far enough already to show that the N-Prize restrictions are not completely, absolutely impossible, even if they are extremely difficult to work within.

There have also been a few comments, here and there, suggesting that the restrictions were set precisely to ensure nobody could win. Well, I'm not a rich guy, but handing over two prizes to N-Prize entrants would be one of the greatest thrills I can imagine - certainly way ahead of anything else I could do with the money.

Other folks have commented on the microscopic size of the cash prizes, and suggested that they don't provide enough incentive. Well, they're right - the cash prizes offer no incentive when set against the amount of effort and development costs needed to win them. But that was always the case, right from the outset. Nobody is going to win the N-Prize for the money, and I cannot offer a large enough prize to make the money alone worth the effort.

The teams who are still working towards the N-Prize are excited for the same reason I am - because it would be a truly breathtaking achievement, and because a shoestring satellite launch would change the way people think about space. The cash prizes, such as they are, should be enough for the winners to throw a pretty impressive celebration party. If I tried to offer a prize that reflects my admiration for the winners-to-be, there would need to be another three zeroes.

There are lots of people out there who are smarter and richer than I am. They can, and have, offered worthwhile cash prizes for goals that are incremental and attainable. The only thing I can contribute is plenty of unrealistic optimism and the belief that, once in a while, people can reach seemingly unattainable goals when you set them apparently impossible challenges.

So, there you have it. If anyone has any comments or questions, feel free to email me (info@....). And, if anyone does make it by the current September deadline, I'll add a beer to the prize money.


Paul
N-Prize Chief Optimist

[rick m]

I'd like to commend Paul for eliminating the deadline, it is a great decision. I have had concerns over deadlines, the one for the Ansari X-Prize, Google's Lunar X-Prize, and NASA's Centennial Challenge (that they canceled before the deadline). Sure, deadlines encourage people to get off the butts and get to work but they can also dissuade people from thinking their effort may not be rewarded if setbacks occur and the deadline expires. True, there would be the chance that someone could beat you for the prize (Amundsen-Scott) but to be beaten by a time limit would be unfortunate after spending the time and effort. This unlimited extension may also bring in new or rejuvenate old teams. More in the spirit of the prize for the first accurate marine chronometer that had no time limit. Though it took John Harrison a long time to perfect it and be awarded the prize one can only wonder if Harrison would have tried if Parliament had put a deadline on the prize.

Though the goal of Sugar Shot is to simply get a sugar powered rocket into space, calcs have shown that a sugar powered rocket could get a satellite in orbit using five stages but the cost would exceed the N-Prize restrictions. Perhaps when we reach space on a suborbital flight, a decision could be made to at least try to get into orbit...with no time limitation it might be possible. We would never take the prize because of the cost and the fact that if we tried, it be doing so with a more useful CanSat sized payload.

Rick

[rick m]

[rick m]

Paul, could you open a new entrant called Team N-Prize?

[WillD]

This is good news and will give rejuvination to those who needed it, and to those who saw the deadline looming sooner than they were ready!
Excellent - I think it certainly will be interesting to see what happens next!

[pauldear]

[rick m]

[pauldear]

[rick m]

[pauldear]

$6000 is very impressive! Out of interest, does it scale much if you reduce the payload size down from 1kg?

Paul