Simply Awesome - Google just went up in my estimation

AcidHell2 said:
it doesn't have a proportional scale though, it has a expentional scale. Doubling the weight does not double the cost.

It's great what composite materials has achieved and I'm all for it. But they where doing it anyway. All these prizes do is to get the top 2 teams competing. where what we need is to get 20+ teams competing. There would be a lot more brake throughs and a lot more ingunity.
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Actually they weren't doing it anyway - you need to do some research before stating things like that. Scaled Composites were developing for the US military before then and Burt Rutan was a big name in the homebuilt aeroplane world long before then (My father has three of his planes).

As for 20+ teams? The Ansari X-Prize had 26 entrants - I say again - Research - goes a long way.

Also remember nasa and the Russians have spent billions on rocket designs and most of that information is free for the public.
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Publically available at the time? Used for the public good at the time? Please don't tell me that you believe that all that technology that they throw up there is publically available now? You don't think that the US government and NASA don't keep a few secrets?

I didn't say they should have given 100m, I said the prize should be 100million. It's also great for companies to offer anything, they don't have to.
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Like I said - it's not about the money - aside from that - how many people now know who Burt Rutan is and know about Spaceship One?
 
I think we should put an OcUK team together for this, we are more than capable of meeting that goal.

Start hunting in MM for items that may help us.
 
Lysander said:
$20m to put a robot on the moon. Do Google donate to charities as well? If not, that's a pathetic way to spend the money.
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Erm: Google it!!!!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4333942.stm

BBC said:
Google sets up $1bn charity fund

Google is committed to giving away some of its money
Web search firm Google - whose motto is "don't be evil" - is setting up a subsidiary dedicated to doing good.
Its new philanthropic division, named Google.org, will fund social investment projects in the developing world.

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are devoting 1% of Google's stock and profits - almost $1bn (£573m) - to the new charitable venture.
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AcidHell2 said:
and how many where any where near accomplishing it. as far as I know it was 2 teams, which ended up racing for the prize.
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I'm sorry - I don't recall there being a successful team proviso on your statement. What a ridiculous point - so what if only two managed to launch something. It's the end result of actually getting a private spaceship to launch twice in a week spread that is the goal and ultimately the triumph.
 
SteveOBHave said:
I'm sorry - I don't recall there being a successful team proviso on your statement. What a ridiculous point - so what if only two managed to launch something. It's the end result of actually getting a private spaceship to launch twice in a week spread that is the goal and ultimately the triumph.
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I'm looking at the bigger picture. Not just the initial prize.
 
SteveOBHave said:
Please enlighten me to the bigger picture. There is clearly something that you are seeing that I am missing here.
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To get cheap anything, you need competition. Competition also encourages development and ingenuity so the industry doesn't stall. Getting one space ship to fly is an amazing achievement and I'm not taking anything away from that. However It's much better to have a larger prize so 6 or so teams are racing for the prize and literally accomplish it within weeks of each other.
 
gjrc said:
people are so cynical. :confused:
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I'm not so sure. OK, so they put $1bn to charity. That's great, very good.

But still, another $20m is a hell of a lot of cash that could - in my opinion - go somewhere far better than a bloody robot. I don't want to come across as the woolly liberal here because for God's sake I'm not, but I don't think it's justified to look at it inasmuch as "they've got loads of money so it's ok - they can give loads more to charity and it doesn't matter if the odd million goes somewhere novel". It's companies like these - and only companies like these - that can make a massive difference to the world. $20m may be a drop in the ocean to them, but to most of us it's an insane amount that could change many peoples' lives. What tangible good will you and I see from $20m being given to someone who puts a robot on the moon?
 
AcidHell2 said:
To get cheap anything, you need competition. Competition also encourages development and ingenuity so the industry doesn't stall. Getting one space ship to fly is an amazing achievement and I'm not taking anything away from that. However It's much better to have a larger prize so 6 or so teams are racing for the prize and literally accomplish it within weeks of each other.
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I entirely agree and strongly believe that this sort of competition breeds exactly that. Even tho many team did not actually get off the ground, the technology developed and lessons learned in the process I'm sure were beneficial.

I'm sure that the other teams would take umbrage at the suggestion that they were not worthy competitors. They got beaten by someone who had the knowledge, the team and the resources to do what they couldn't, it doesn't make their contribution any less valid.

The lessons learnt from the first Ansari X-Prize will be applied to this competition and as such the development will be that much more progressive IMO.
 
Lysander said:
What tangiable good will you and I see from $20m being given to someone who puts a robot on the moon?
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Wow great short sightedness. Loads of stuff, from permanent bases of world, research, technology. Cheap space operations that can achieve further research.
 
Good on Google. The X-Prize is a great idea and foundation which I hope will ultimately achieve what it has set out to do; Cheap spaceflight. The origional X-Prize has already had an affect by pushing on Scaled Composites to complete spaceship one. They have now teamed up with Virgin Galactic to hopefully provide cheap (well cheaper anyway) spaceflight within the next couple of years. These might seem like small steps, but they quickly add up to provide the ultimate aim. Also $20m might seem like a drop in the ocean, but it is an added incentive as it helps to reduce the overall costs of attempting to win such a project.
 
Lysander said:
I'm not so sure. OK, so they put $1bn to charity. That's great, very good.

But still, another $20m is a hell of a lot of cash that could - in my opinion - go somewhere far better than a bloody robot. I don't want to come across as the woolly liberal here because for God's sake I'm not, but I don't think it's justified to look at it inasmuch as "they've got loads of money so it's ok - they can give loads more to charity and it doesn't matter if the odd million goes somewhere novel". It's companies like these - and only companies like these - that can make a massive difference to the world. $20m may be a drop in the ocean to them, but to most of us it's an insane amount that could change many peoples' lives. What tangible good will you and I see from $20m being given to someone who puts a robot on the moon?
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well you coudl put the argument, that the faster we get man into space in a cheap affordable way, the better for the planet as a whole.
 
Lysander said:
I'm not so sure. OK, so they put $1bn to charity. That's great, very good.

But still, another $20m is a hell of a lot of cash that could - in my opinion - go somewhere far better than a bloody robot. I don't want to come across as the woolly liberal here because for God's sake I'm not, but I don't think it's justified to look at it inasmuch as "they've got loads of money so it's ok - they can give loads more to charity and it doesn't matter if the odd million goes somewhere novel". It's companies like these - and only companies like these - that can make a massive difference to the world. $20m may be a drop in the ocean to them, but to most of us it's an insane amount that could change many peoples' lives. What tangible good will you and I see from $20m being given to someone who puts a robot on the moon?
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I think to answer the question you need to look back at the 'tangible good' that has come from the initial space race. Just some randoms here: Chordless Power Tools, Running Shoes, Scratch Resistance Glasses, Freeze Dried Food. Lets not forget the very computer that you are working on now is a direct result to the developments made in reaching for the stars.

I'll list some more:
BREAST CANCER DETECTION
ULTRASOUND SKIN DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
SOLAR PANELS
PROGRAMMABLE PACEMAKERS
MEDICAL GAS ANALYZER
MICROLASERS
RADIATION HAZARD DETECTOR
FIREMAN'S AIR TANKS
IMPROVED AIRCRAFT ENGINES
ADVANCED LUBRICANTS
ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS - like flywheels and the such
VOICE ACTIVATED WHEELCHAIRS

There is so much good that comes from striving and in my humble opinion these far outweigh a measily 20Mill outlay. You would not be living the way you are now if it were not for people doing this sort of thing.
 
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