NASA Office of Exploration Systems Program Overview (Adobe Acrobat format)

NASA Office of Exploration Systems ^ | 3/2/04 | Rear Admiral Craig Steidle (Ret.)

[anymouse]

Overview and Goals for Centennial Challenges

. What Is Centennial Challenges?

- Program of contests in which NASA will establish prize purses to stimulate innovation and competition in technical areas of interest to space exploration and ongoing NASA priorities.

. Program Goals for Centennial Challenges

- Stimulate innovation in ways that standard federal procurements cannot

- Enrich NASA research by reaching new communities

- Help address technology pitfalls

- Achieve returns that outweigh program investment

- Educate, inspire and motivate the public

"Prehistory" of Centennial Challenges

. Long History of Prizes for Technological Innovation

- 18th Century: British Longitude Prize

- 20th Century: Aviation prizes including Orteig Prize (Lindberg)

- Ongoing: X- Prize and DARPA Grand Challenge

. 1999 National Academy of Engineering Workshop

- "Concerning Federally Sponsored Inducement Prizes in Engineering and Science," 1999

- Blue ribbon committee recommended that "Congress encourage federal agencies to experiment more extensively with inducement prize contests in science and technology"

. 2003 NASA Space Architect Study

- X- Prize Foundation assisted

- Interviews at field centers and headquarters generated list of 129 candidate challenges

- Winnowed to 15 candidate challenges based on enterprise interests and other considerations

- Estimated purse sizes and expected time to completion

- Formed basis for Centennial Challenges program formulation

Program Assumptions for Centennial Challenges

. Challenges Will Address NASA Vision With Emphasis on Exploration

- To Improve Life Here

- To Extend Life to There

- To Find Life Beyond

- Lean program with low overhead to preserve funding for challenges

. Program Plan and Individual Challenges To Be Finalized After External Inputs

- Spring workshop to solicit external challenge ideas and refine best candidates

- Website, including listserv and form for submitting challenge ideas

- Press announcement on workshop and website expected shortly

. Challenges Will Be Initiated on Annual Cycles

- FY 2004 cycle limited to existing authority ($ 250K or less purses)

- FY 2005 and later cycles to include larger purses (2005 NASA authorization bill)

- Repeat workshops annually and solicit external ideas Exploration Emphasis

Centennial Challenges Frequently Asked Questions

. What Kinds of Challenges?

- Revolutionary advances in fundamental technologies

- Breakthrough robotic capabilities

- Very low cost space missions

- Final challenges subject to external inputs and internal review and decisions

. Who Can Participate?

- U. S. citizens who are not federal employees (including FFRDCs) unless otherwise specified in challenge rules

- Industry, academia, non- profits, students, individuals

- Contestants will be required to register

. How Can I Help?

- Word of Mouth: Challenges improve with number and quality ofcontestants

- Expertise: Help with rules formulation and judging

[anymouse]

Interesting info. about NASA's new Moon and Mars Program and the commercial Centennial Challenge Prizes.

[anymouse]

Space ping.

[NormsRevenge]

Bump

Thanks!

[CasearianDaoist]

Seems like a great program. They seem to be modeling it along the lines oflarge scale military contract (reminds me of the FCS presentaions I have seen.) Spiral development and all that. Hope they get it implemented.

[msdrby]

ping

[Professional Engineer]

bttt