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[Moderator] With that it's my pleasure to introduce Andy Petro of our Centennial Challenges program Andy.
[applause]
[silence]
[Andy Petro] Okay it might be time for some technical assistance.
There we go. Okay.
[silence]
That's it thanks. Okay, I will begin of presentation today on the Centennial Challenges program.
I'm Andrew Petro. The Centennial Challenges program is an ongoing program that
will now be part of the Office of Chief Technologist in the Early Stage and
Innovation division and it is an example of a program where we are dealing with a
different group of people as well as technologies and this is part of a pipeline not only
of innovations and new ideas that we can bring into NASA's programs but also a
source of talent a way to identify and recognize new talent and create new partners
and new vendors not only for NASA for the commercial space and aviation world.
This is a participatory research development. The program began in 2003 and the title
comes from the Centennial of the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903. And the
Wright brothers are a model for the kind of innovators that we are looking for to
engage with this program. The goal is to tap into American ingenuity and then to turn
it loose on problems of interest to NASA and the nation. And though we've had a
wide variety of people that have participated small businesses , entrepreneurs,
students and individual inventors. An example of that you see on the left a picture of
Brian Turner from the Kansas City Space Pirates Power Banding Team. You see him there
working in his garage at night. This is a photo from the New York Times magazine
article on the program and then you see on the right Brian and his Kansas City Space Pirates
team at the 2009 Power Beaming Challenge out at Edwards Dry Lake Bed.
And this team began using mirrors to reflect sunlight as their power beaming source
at the beginning and by 2009 were using a 8 Kilowatt laser and an automatic tracking
system of their own design. This is a kind of progression we've seen the kind of thing
where were hoping to encourage. The prizes were authorized by Congress in 2005,
NASA's one of the few agencies with the prize authority currently and we in this
program only provide the prize money the competitions are administered by
non-profit allied Organizations partners with us and of the allied organizations need to
seek sponsors for their operating funds so it's it's a very low cost program for the
government and very good investment for the taxpayers. and it also has sponsors
external sponsors and the prize money that hasn't happened yet but that would be a
very positive development. We did have ten million appropriated back in 2005 and
that's been the basis of all of the challenges we've done to date but in 2010 we had an
additional four million appropriated and that's what will allow us to begin three new
challenges this year for the first time. And these funds do not expire which is very
important factor in being able to run a multi year program like this. The competitors
can't be supported by government funding and they can only be US citizens or US
entities that's a bit or a restriction but on the other hand it's really generally open to
anyone and an important factor is that the competitors maintain the ownership of their
intellectual property so that that's an inducement for them and something is very
important as part of this prize competition. I wanted it also highlight the five allied
organizations that we have worked with over the over the past years of their
dedication and passion for this is as important in their essential to making this
program work. Since 2005, we've had nineteen competitions and six challenge areas
four and a half million dollars has been awarded to thirteen different teams. So far
we have completed three of the challenges of Regolith Excavation, Lunar Lander
and Astronaut Glove and we still have ongoing the Strong Tether challenge, Power
Beaming and the Green Flight challenge. And for 2010, we will have three new
challenges with five million dollars available and we will be talking about those today.
The success we have had so far has been recognized by the new
administration they are very interested in prizes and competitions. In a memo they
send out to all of the agencies of the federal government encouraging development of
prizes and competitions. They have recognized what we were able to do.
The photos just show you the range people involved in each of these competitions
aviation, the power beaming, lunar lander and astronaut glove. And you see a photo
on the right of Peter Homer whi is somewhat of a legend now and the Centennial
Challenges and you see him working on his first gloves on his now famous dining room table.
I'll talk a little bit about the benefits of these challenges in connection with some of
the highlights to follow. I did want to mention in the photograph you see a lunar
lander built by the team consisting of only a father and son out in Mojave, California.
They were only the third team to ever fly a vehicle from one pad to another.
And along with all the benefits that there is an important part of educating an
inspiring and motivating the public and it's also motivating to NASA people to watch this.
These challenges take science and technology out of the textbook an out of the
PowerPoint charts and into the real world and these competitions really do involve
the kind of drama and emotions that you would expect from any competition.
I know there's exhilaration there's heartbreak there's a lot of excitement and fun and a
whole lot of learning that takes place. And just a few of the highlights from this past
year which it was a very good year for the program on the left you see some photos
related to the Lunar Lander Challenge and in that challenges this year we had two
winners Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace. Masten and Armadillo
and among some others were recognized by Aviation Week magazine as persons of
the year that the space entrepreneurs and Dave Masten appeared on the cover.
So that is a really high level of recognition for a small company just getting started in the
space business but both teams do have ongoing work to do as an enterprises to build
the space industry from what they began with this program and one important
development is that NASA has actually purchased one of the lunar lander vehicles
that Armadillo built for the competition and is using that now as test bed for the
technologies related to propulsion and control of vehicle. So that's the kind of
transformative development that we hoped it would come out a program like this and
we've seen that happen and it's a very good thing. Up on the upper right you see
some photos from the Regolith Excavation Challenge. We had this year twenty three
teams so that's twenty three working prototypes of lunar excavation devices that
NASA has a chance to observe working we're not working and of course to learn as
much from what doesn't work is with what does. The team called Paul Robotics is
actually a team of college students from Wooster Poly Tech came in first won half a
million dollars immediately started their own company and that's again thats the kind
of success story we like to see in this program. In the lower right you see Ted
Southern and Peter Homer displaying the gloves that they used to win prizes in the
Astronaut Glove Challenge this year and they were both invited to the Johnson Space
Center to exhibit their innovations and in spacesuit gloves to the space suit engineers
at the Johnson Space Center so again that's another kind of development and we hope
to encourage. And um back in the middle bottom is a
photo of the Laser Motive team they were the winners this year for the Power
Beaming Challenge. And I'd mentioned the Kansas City Space Pirates earlier they
were there they got within fifty meters of the top but to but didn't quite make it there.
And the Laser Motive Team climbed to one kilometer using laser powered beam from
the ground. Quite a great accomplishment both teams will be back this year for the
next round of that competition. Okay so in this coming year as we mentioned it's it's
an ongoing program we're preparing for a Strong Tether, Power Beaming, and Green
Flight challenges. We have three new challenges selected and will be announcing
those today. Will also be selecting new allied organizations to run each of those
challenges and of and of course as I mentioned the programs received a lot of positive
attention from the new administration um in terms of promoting prize challenges for
all federal agencies. And we are interested as well and in partnerships with other
agencies that if that becomes possible as well. For 2011, as part of the Office of
Chief Technologist we will have a level two Program Office established at the
Marshall Space Flight Center and that I think will greatly enhance our ability to
encourage partnership opportunities in technology infusion. And of our budget
request for this coming year is ten million and that's for each year through 2015, so
that's it's a big increase over what we've been able to do in the past it should enable us
to have more challenges of course the possibility of challenges with much larger prizes.
Just to go through the challenges we have coming on August 13, we have Strong
Tether Challenge it's a two million dollar prize for a material that is 50% stronger
than any commercially available material. Success in this challenge would be a major
step forward in technologies that would be of value in many many different fields.
So far no one has has been successful but we do have some teams coming this year
and we expect some interesting results. Power Beaming will have the next round of
that. The team did win last year for climbing to one kilometer, this year the to get
the level two prize 1.1 million, they have to climb to one kilometer exceeding the
speed of five meters per second. We have the Green Flight Challenge currently
there are nine registered teams working toward this the actual competition will not be
until next summer and the goal or the requirement is to build an aircraft that can go
two hundred miles in less than two hours and use the energy equivalent of less than
one gallon of gasoline per occupant. A very ambitious challenge but one that I think
will be very valuable not only for general aviation but for aeronautics and an energy
systems as well. And the prize for that is 1.5 million and there is an additional prize
for the best bio-fueled aircraft. Okay so today we're going to be announcing three new
prize challenges. These are the first new ones since 2005 with a total prize purse of
five million. We also intend to have student level competitions in each area each
year this competitions and will be announcing with this announcement today we will
be releasing an announcement of partnership opportunities for new allied
organizations. And the proposals for those will be due September 13th. We hope to
have selected new allied organizations of for these challenges by October. At that
point they will work on the rules we would intend to have public comment on the
rules and then we proceed with registration and competitions soon after that.
We also have a request for information out for potential sponsors. These are companies
or organizations that would be interested in sponsoring one of the allied organizations
in conducting the challenge and so we hope people will take notice of that as well and
you can watch for updates related all of this at our website the NASA.gov/challenges.
So the first challenge takes Centennial Challenges into space for the first time.
It is the NANO-Satellite Launch Challenge. To place small satellite into Earth orbit
twice in one week. And the prize purse is two million. This is to stimulate
innovation in launch technology and also encourage creation of commercial Nano-Sat
delivery services. The second one takes on the challenge of energy storage.
It is the Night Rover Challenge. To demonstrate a solar powered exploration
vehicle that can operate in darkness using its own stored energy. The prize first is
1.5 million and this is to stimulate innovation in energy storage technologies is of
value in extreme Space environments like the surface of the Moon. And then for
electric vehicles and renewable energy systems on Earth as well. And the final one
it is a Sample Return Robot Challenge to demonstrate a robot that can locate and
retrieve geologic samples from a wide and varied terrain without human control.
Prize purse is 1.5 million and this is to encourage innovations in robotic navigation
and sample manipulation technologies.
So we think that we have an opportunity for participatory research and development
open to competitors to allied organizations and to sponsors for the allied
organizations and teams. So we hope that there's a lot of interest in this, There has
been tremendous interest in our program so far we expect bigger and better things as
we go forward. So I think we can now take any questions if there are any.
[Audience Member] [inaudible]
[Andy Petro] Okay, of course we are going to conclude the challenge we have and I think at
that point we will take a look across the board in all of the possible ways that power
beaming might be used. So I cannot guarantee that we would we would pursue
another power beaming challenge but we do have a great interest and that in
connection with perhaps powering a rover, powering an aerial vehicle um going to
higher altitudes and powering a launch system as well so there is a variety of
applications for power beaming that might lead to lots of differing interesting challenges
We will be considering those in connection with all of the possibilities in the future.
And I should mention that for 2011, really beginning next week will
begin the process of collecting ideas from the public and from within the industry and
NASA for the challenges that we would propose for the coming year and years beyond.
[Audience Member] So there are two companies that are spinoffs from this
competition that are pursuing power beaming UAVs. Obviously Laser Motive is one
of them and Lighthouse. The second, I am standing in for Michael Laine from
Liftport and he is pursuing the idea of a lunar based space elevator and I wonder if
there was any Centennial Challenge or anything out of the IPP office that would consider that idea?
[Andy Petro] Well again that's an interesting application. When we look at challenges we
have to consider the practicality of how they would be conducted um as I mentioned
we are were really going into space for the first time with a challenge of this year um
as we get into larger and more ambitious challenges with perhaps larger prize
amounts we can consider more ambitious types of challenges like that.
[Audience Member] Thank you very much.
[Andy Petro] Okay any other questions. Okay if not we can conclude this.
And I think we are going to a break after this. Do you have anything to say? Okay thanks.
[applause]