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Revision as of 16:17, 17 October 2011

X PRIZE Foundation
Founded1995[1]
FocusPublic competitions
Location
Key people
Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO
Robert K. Weiss, President and Vice Chair
WebsiteX PRIZE Foundation website

The X PRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind.

The X PRIZE Foundation mission is to bring about “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity” through incentivized competition. It fosters high-profile competitions that motivate individuals, companies and organizations across all disciplines to develop innovative ideas and technologies that help solve the grand challenges that restrict humanity’s progress.

The most high-profile X PRIZE to date was the Ansari X PRIZE relating to spacecraft development awarded in 2004. This prize was intended to inspire research and development into technology for space exploration.

Background

The first, titled the Ansari X Prize, was presented on November 6, 2004.

The first X PRIZE – the Ansari X PRIZE – was inspired by the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 prize offered in 1919 by French hotelier Raymond Orteig for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. In 1927, underdog Charles Lindbergh won the prize in a modified single-engine Ryan aircraft called the Spirit of St. Louis. In total, nine teams spent $400,000 in pursuit of the Orteig Prize.

In 1996, entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offered a $10 million prize to the first privately financed team that could build and fly a three-passenger vehicle 100 kilometers into space twice within two weeks. The contest, later titled the Ansari X PRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight, motivated 26 teams from seven nations to invest more than $100 million in pursuit of the $10 million purse. On October 4, 2004, the Ansari X PRIZE was won by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, who successfully completed the contest in their spacecraft SpaceShipOne. The prize was awarded in a ceremony at the Saint Louis Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri.[2] As of 2011, the Science Center maintains numerous exhibits about the X Prize.

X PRIZES

X PRIZES are monetary rewards to incentivize three primary goals:

  • Attract investment from outside the sector that takes new approaches to difficult problems.
  • Create significant results that are real and meaningful. Competitions have measurable goals, and are created to promote adoption of the innovation.
  • Cross national and disciplinary boundaries to encourage teams around the world to invest the intellectual and financial capital required to solve difficult challenges.

Other organizations such as the Nobel Prize committee award prizes and financial rewards to individuals or organizations that produce novel advances in science, medicine and technology. One difference between the X PRIZES and other similar organizations is awarding prizes based on the first to achieve objective 'finish line' requirements rather than a selection committee discussing the relative merits of different endeavors. For instance, the Archon Genomics X PRIZE target is to sequence 100 human genomes in 10 days or less, with less than one error per 100,000 DNA base pair, covering 98% of the genome and costing less than $10,000 per genome.

The prize can increase attention to endeavors that otherwise might not receive much publicity. For example, attempts in the recent Lunar Lander competition have been well publicized in the media, increasing visibility of both the foundation and the participants.

With the Ansari X PRIZE, the X PRIZE Foundation established a model in which offering a prize for achieving a specific goal can stimulate entrepreneurial investment. Since then, new challenges have expanded into a range of other fields. The Foundation is developing new prizes in Exploration (Space and Oceans), Life Sciences, Energy & Environment, Education and Global Development. Some hope the prizes will help improve lives, create equity of opportunity and stimulate new, important discoveries.

Prizes and events overseen

Past contests

Ansari X PRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight

Main article: Ansari X PRIZE
Astronaut Mike Melvill after his award-winning September 29, 2004 spaceflight

The Ansari X PRIZE for Suborbital Spaceflight was the first prize from the foundation. It successfully challenged teams to build private spaceships to open the space frontier. The first part of the Ansari X PRIZE requirements was fulfilled by Mike Melvill on September 29, 2004 in the Burt Rutan designed, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen financed spacecraft SpaceShipOne when Melvill broke the 100-kilometer (62.5 mi) mark, internationally recognized as the boundary of outer space. Brian Binnie completed the second part of the requirements on 4 October 2004. As a result, $10 million was awarded to the winner, but more than $100 million was invested in new technologies in pursuit of the prize. Today, Sir Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and others are actively creating a personal spaceflight industry.

Awarding this first prize gave the X PRIZE Foundation as much publicity as the winners themselves. After the 2004 success there was ample media coverage to afford both Scaled Composites and the X PRIZE Foundation additional support for them to expand and continue to pursue their aims. Following this early success several other X PRIZES were announced that have yet to be awarded despite various attempts to meet the requirements.

The Ansari X PRIZE won the Space Foundation's Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award in 2005. The award is given annually to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness of space programs.[3]

Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE

Main article: Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE

The goal of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE is to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient automobiles that offer more choices for consumers. $10 million in prizes will be awarded to the teams that win a stage competition for clean, production-capable cars that can go beyond 100 miles per gallon or energy equivalent (MPGe).

Active contests

Archon Genomics X PRIZE

Main article: Archon Genomics X PRIZE

The Archon Genomics X PRIZE, the second X PRIZE to be offered by the foundation, was announced 4 October 2006. The goal of the Archon Genomics X PRIZE is to greatly reduce the cost and increase the speed of human genome sequencing to create a new era of personalized, predictive and preventive medicine, eventually transforming medical care from reactive to proactive. The $10 million prize purse will be awarded to the first team that can build a device and use it to sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days or less, with an accuracy of no more than one error in every 100,000 bases sequenced, with sequences accurately covering at least 98% of the genome, and at a recurring cost of no more than $10,000 per genome.

If more than one team attempts the competition at the same time, and more than one team fulfills all the criteria, then teams will be ranked according to the time of completion. No more than three teams will be ranked and will share the purse in the following manner: $7.5 million to the winner and $2.5 million to the second place team if two teams are successful, or $7 million, $2 million and $1 million if three teams are successful.

Actual competition events will take place twice a year with all eligible teams given the opportunity to make an attempt, starting at precisely the same time as the other teams.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

Main article: Google Lunar X PRIZE

The Google Lunar X PRIZE was introduced on 13 September 2007. The goal of the prize is similar to that of the Ansari X PRIZE, to inspire a new generation of private investment in space exploration and technology. The challenge calls for teams to compete in successfully launching, landing, and operating a rover on the lunar surface. The prize awards $20 million to the first team to land a rover on the moon that successfully roves more than 500 meters and transmits back high definition images and video. There is a $5 million second prize, as well as $5 million in potential bonus prizes for extra features such as roving long distances (greater than 5,000 meters) capturing images of man-made objects on the moon, or surviving a lunar night.

Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE

Main article: Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE

The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE was introduced on 29 July 2010. The $1 million prize has a goal to inspire a new generation of innovative solutions that will speed the pace of cleaning up seawater surface oil resulting from spillage from ocean platforms, tankers, and other sources. Competition begins 1 August 2010, ends summer of 2011 with head-to-head competitive demonstrations.

Future contests

Tricorder X PRIZE

Main article: Tricorder X PRIZE

The Tricorder X PRIZE was announced on 10 May 2011 and is sponsored by Qualcomm. It is planned to be launched in early 2012. The $ 10 million prize is awarded for creating a mobile device that can "diagnose patients better than or equal to a panel of board certified physicians".[4] The name is taken from the tricorder device in Star Trek which can be used to instantly diagnose ailments.[5]

Future X PRIZES

The X Prize Foundation has partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a prize for a better tuberculosis diagnostic tool. Other potential prize ideas include: preserving biodiversity, mapping the oceans, developing clean aviation fuels, energy storage, sustainable housing and carbon sequestration.

People of Note

Board of Trustees

The Foundation is run by a board of trustees, of which the members are:

Donor Spotlight

The foundation makes a point of spotlighting supporters that made a significant contribution to further their goals.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.xprize.org/about/the-x-prize-heritage
  2. ^ Boyle, Alan. "Spaceship team gets its $10 million prize". MSNBC. Retrieved June 16, 2011.
  3. ^ http://www.nationalspacesymposium.org/symposium-awards
  4. ^ "The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Join Forces to Develop a Competition to Enhance Integrated Digital Health". X PRIZE Foundation. May 10, 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Zehn Millionen Dollar für den "Star Trek"-Trikorder" (in German). Der Spiegel. 14 may 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

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