posted
I'm happy it's being done, but I'm not happy in the method. SS1 came out of nowhere a couple years ago, and basically left all the much longer-running and public programs sitting in the dust - including the Canadian teams, which were out in front at the time. Some people are saying that the financier is bascially just throwing money at it to get it done first. Articles have revealed that the program has cost $20M, while the X Prize itself is worth $10M.
posted
I heard about this project on NPR last week, I think, and then they had a piece on the successful flight. I guess I don't know enough about the funding methods to have an opinion, though I know the co-founder of Mike Roe Soft is bankrolling it.
I think it's really cool. The description of the flight from the pilot on the radio sounded really really cool.
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Mark: To be fair, they did keep it under wraps for a long time before they went public. And if anyone can do this (and did!), it would be Burt Rutan. As for the prize money, it's been pointed out that these teams aren't in it for the money. If you can't understand why, then you obviously shouldn't be in the competition. For a comparison, I read an article today about the prize Lindbergh collected after crossing the Atlantic. He spent $15K to win a $25K prize, which is the equivalent of spending $163K today to win $271K. He wasn't in it for the money, either.
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: I'm happy it's being done, but I'm not happy in the method. SS1 came out of nowhere a couple years ago, and basically left all the much longer-running and public programs sitting in the dust - including the Canadian teams, which were out in front at the time. Some people are saying that the financier is bascially just throwing money at it to get it done first. Articles have revealed that the program has cost $20M, while the X Prize itself is worth $10M.
Bleh.
Mark
Consider it a $10M kick in the ass to start a real space race.
Companies often spend more on just advertising of a new product with no direct results.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I understand it isn't about the money. What I'm trying to get at is that everyone ELSE was following along the lines of doing it slow, cheaper, and very publically. Then suddenly a new guy comes out of nowhere (at least in the public eye) and does it relatively quickly. I don't think the other guys were looking to spend well over the $10M prize purse in order to do it - wasn't the point of the prize amount to be able to do it for about that amount of money anyway?
Mark <--- was a fan of the Canadian Arrow, at least...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
OK, that sounded way more snarky than I meant it to.
But I guess I'm at a loss. The whole point of the X-Prize was to encourage private sector competition, and that's exactly what happened.
Registered: Mar 1999
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-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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