X PRIZE Cup Underway

The Wirefly X PRIZE Cup competition has begun in Las Cruces New Mexico! Prizes totaling 2.5 million dollars are being sought by teams of space engineers and rocket men. The event runs from this morning until tomorrow afternoon, and for those of us that cant be out in New Mexico, SPACE.com is providing a live video feed for the duration.

Three potentially historic contests will be taking place over the next two days. Two of the competitions will focus on new lunar and planetary landing technology. Both the Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and the Vertical Rocket Challenge involve the take off, landing and return of prototype lander vehicles. Decendents of this technology may some day carry us to the moon and other worlds beyond. The favorite for the Lunar Lander prize is Armadillo Aerospace, founded by John Carmak, the millionaire creator of both Doom and Quake.

The third contest may have the most long term ramifications. It is Spaceward Foundation's Space Elevator Games. A contest in two parts, the Space Elevator Games hope to spur the development of a material strong enough to act as a tether into space, as well as new ways of beaming power to tether climbing robots. These students, enthusiasts and engineers are laying the ground work for a highway to the stars. "Up is good", as X PRIZErs are fond of saying.

In addition to the contests, there will be a slew of special events and exhibits. Including prototype engine test firings, sounding rocket launches, and amateur rocketry events. "Rocketman" Dan Schlund will fly around Las Cruces with a rocket belt (jetpack). The Rocket Racing League's new X-Racer will be unveiled to the public as well. A T-38 astronaut training jet will fly over the competition, and the X PRIZE Cup event planners have also promised "other surprises".

For anyone who is even remotely interested in the future of space flight, these next two days should be very exciting. The upstarts of space travel are all gathering in one place to compare notes and field their inventions. And the best thing is that they are not the result of a billion dollar space program, not NASA starched shirt types or foreign government space program representatives. They have talent, big aspirations and know how. But they are regular folks. They are us... Reaching for the stars on their own terms.


"I could have gone on flying through space forever." - Yuri Gagarin

A Future Without Flats

Early last year at the North American International Auto Show, Michelin gave us a glimpse into the future of where the rubber meets the road. They unveiled a high tech replacement for the classic 60 year old radial tire. It's a tire-wheel hybrid they have unfortunately named the Tweel. Michelin's radial tire concept which debuted in 1946, has kept the world rolling for over half a century. But it has many drawbacks that we over the years have had to learn to deal with. Flats, blow outs, pressure checks, air pumps, and other problems are facts of life with the industry standard radials. But with the advent of the tweel, all of those things may become artifacts of a pneumatic past.

Tweels are airless. They consist of a semi deformable central wheel, which behaves some what like a conventional car wheel. Branching off from the wheel are flexible spokes that act as shock absorbers. Around the ring of spokes is the actual tread of the tire on a thin band. The tweels are all one piece and provide many advantages over classic radials. First and foremost is their lack of a pressure system. The spokes of the tweel do the job that a pneumatic cushion would, without the dangers of a flat or blow out. Secondly, because of the nature of the tweel, engineers now have have the freedom to focus on both comfort and performance.

With a typical tire, there are two types of rigidity. To increase the handling of a car, you want a tire that is stiff laterally. But for a comfortable ride, you want a vertically stiff tire. With a conventional radial tire that relies on air pressure, there is a limit to the amount of one that you can have without sacrificing the other. But with the tweel, you can optimize both the lateral and vertical stiffness of the spokes and hub independently. Thus without loosing the slightest bit of comfort, you can drastically improve a cars handling. This is the real reason why engineers at Michelin are giving the tweel a spin. In the long run, it stands to completely out perform radials.

For now the tweel is still in the design and testing phases. Michelin has approved the tweel for use in low weight low speed vehicles, such as Dean Kamen's tall standing stair climbing wheelchair, the iBot. They are also experimenting with military applications. Vehicles equipped with tweels are much less likely to be immobilized by explosives or other damage than vehicles with pneumatic tires. Further down the list are heavy equipment and construction vehicles that could benefit from improved performance. But the endgame sees the tweel much closer to home.

Michelin has outfitted an Audi A4 with prototype tweels. Eventualy, they would like to see tweels on passenger vehicles and beyond. But there are issues that must be overcome. At high speeds, tweels suffer from both excess vibration and unacceptable noise. Michelin engineers have been working diligently to solve those problems in the year since the tweel's debut. Already the tweel has been noted "one of the most amazing inventions of 2005" by Time magazine, and "Best of Whats New" in Automotive Technology by Popular Science. Earlier this year the tweel earned a gold medal for innovation at Intermat 2006 in Paris.

Have a look at this promotional video of tweeled vehicles in action. Once these airless wonders are ready for prime time, I can see them catching on quickly. No doubt they'll cost a premium for their performance, at first being the domain of auto enthusiasts. But eventually a robust tweel technology could become the new standard, leaving radial tires in the dust. Either way, true innovation is a rare gem in the automotive industry. We have been doing a lot of the same things the same way since the time of our grandparents. It's good to see that in a field dominated by convention and the status quo, some one has the wherewithal to reinvent the wheel. [via WallStreetFighter]


"One sees them all about—men who do not know that yesterday is past, and who woke up this morning with their last years ideas [...] there is a subtle danger in a man thinking that he is ‘fixed’ for life. It indicates that the next jolt of the wheel of progress is going to fling him off." - Henry Ford

X PRIZE for Genomics

The X PRIZE foundation is at it once more. Two years ago Space Ship One rose to the occasion and collected the first X PRIZE. A ten million dollar bounty was awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the heroes of private spaceflight, as they returned from their second 100 kilometer trip into the heavens. The Ansari X PRIZE has stimulated a storm of growth and progress in the commercial space flight industry. And the fun didn't stop in October of 2004. Rival teams continue to compete in an annual X PRIZE Cup event for millions in awards. This year the X PRIZE Cup is being held in New Mexico, and includes contests for lander module technology and space elevator development. A few million in fame and fortune put out by the X PRIZE foundation has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in research and technological advancement.

With the marked success of the Ansari X PRIZE , it's no surprise that the foundation has decided to explore other avenues of science. Today, on the second anniversary of the Space Ship One flight, the X PRIZE Foundation announced the creation of the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics. This prize of $10 million will be awarded to the first group that can successfully meet the Archon challenge. That is, to sequence no less than 100 human genomes in no more than ten days. Keep in mind, that the original Human Genome Project to map a single human genome took more than a decade, and $3 billion in funds. For some one to claim the Archon X PRIZE, they must do a hundred times the work of the HGP and all in a tiny fraction of the time.

If the Archon prize is half as successful as it's space faring brother, this will mean a leap forward in genomics so drastic, the rules of the game will change. With the technology to sequence 10 genomes in a single day, personalized medicine could become common place. Fore knowledge of genetic maladies, drug susceptibilities and biological tendencies could have an effect on medicine greater than the invention of the microscope. And that is just the beginning. The more genomes that are mapped, the greater our collective understanding of of who we are. With a thousand genomes to compare and contrast, we'll learn a little more about ourselves. With a million, whole new fields of bioinformatics will form. And with the knowledge gained from a billion sequenced human genomes, the foundation would be laid for real human genetic engineering.

When the Ansari X PRIZE was offered up, rocket men from all over the country took notice. Enthusiasts, wide eyed millionaires, dedicated engineers, mavericks, and geniuses huddled around blueprints and scale models and tanks of liquid oxygen in an attempt to reach the stars. And ultimately, they went above and beyond and are still moving forward. The effect of the original X PRIZE has been nothing short of amazing. Now the same carrot is being dangled in front of geneticists. Three teams have already entered the running in the brief time since the Archon X PRIZE has been announced. Winning the Archon will require a breakthrough idea that will change the way we look at the very building blocks of life. Already dozens of scientists are clamoring to find it. That, my friends, is the real prize.


MEMEPUNKS UPDATE: After doing some further research I found an article that lends a bit more depth to the story. First, there is a follow up reward for the winners of the Archon X PRIZE if they decide to claim it. 100 additional volunteers have signed up to have thier DNA sequenced. If the winning team choses ot map the genomes of the "Genome 100", they will net themselves another cool million. The volunteers will be a mix disease sufferers nominated by charities, and high profile celebrities. The charities believe that by decoding the genomes of patients, insight will be gained about the nature of the disease. The X PRIZE foundation hopes that big name celebreties will increase awareness of the event and make it more relavent to everyone. Names already on the list include Paul Allen, Larry Page, and Stephen Hawking.

Also, the source of the $10 million prize money is notable. A Canadian geologist named Stewart Blusson is funding Archon. Dr. Blusson used advanced geology and surveying techniques to locate gold and diamond mines in the northern hemisphere. He has a stated love for science and out of the box thinking. In 1998 he donated $50 million to his Alma Mater the University of British Columbia, specifically for reaserch and academic excellence. [via Slashdot]


"We've discovered the secret of life". - Francis Crick