In the New York Times, Noah "Defense Tech" Shachtman reports on how NASA is seeking DIY makers (albeit with deep pockets) to inject the space agency with innovative new ideas, not unlike DARPA's goal behind the Grand Challenge. For example, NASA's Centennial Challegnes are open to anyone and could land you $200,000 to $5 million in prize money for building "gear as diverse as solar sails, lunar excavators, and…tiny elevators" to shuttle stuff to and from space, like the one that University of British Columbia student Steve Jones is designing. From the New York Times:
…More important than the cash prizes, contestants and administrators say, is the opportunity to sidestep the traditional ways NASA has done business and bring some fresh faces to its ranks.
"With a regular contract, a small group of students like us wouldn't have a chance," Mr. Jones said. "This way, anyone with a good idea can contribute…"
The competitions offer economic benefits to NASA as well. The contestants, not the space agency, pay for the development. The winner of a big technology prize usually spends three times the purse value, said Carl E. Walz, a former astronaut who works in NASA's exploration systems mission directorate.
"Typically in R. & D., you pay as you go," Mr. Walz said, referring to NASA's outlays for research and development. "You pay for failures and you pay for successes. Here, you don't pay until someone wins."
NASA officials say that some of their contractors are worried that the contests could undermine their work for the space agency. NASA already has companies working on gloves for its space suits; why, then, does it need an Astronaut Glove Challenge? Exactly how good ideas from the competitions will be integrated into the space program isn't entirely clear. "We're still writing the book on this," Mr. Walz said.
