The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
In the 1920s a private foundation in the U.S. hit upon a novel way of promoting the idea of trans-Atlantic flight. They decided to hold a contest, with the winner being the first person to fly from North America across the Atlantic Ocean, and land in Europe without re-fueling. Once Charles Lindbergh and his crew began working on this problem, the rest is history. The same idea is being tried again to promote private ventures into space. In 1996, the X Prize contest was launched by a group of private sponsors in the U.S. This $10 million prize will be handed out to the first crew able to launch a manned craft which travels up through the Earth's atmosphere to a height of 100 kms, returns safely to the ground, and then repeats the process within two weeks time. For several years, this contest was looked at as something of a joke and the people who were pursuing it as crackpots. No longer. There are now over two dozen groups from seven nations who have registered and are in the running for the money. Two of these groups are ahead of the others, and one of them is Canadian. The daVinci project is centered out of Toronto and is a group of mostly volunteer engineers, scientists, and a motley group of others. This group has managed to raise several million dollars and will be attempting their launches this summer. Last week they announced that after scouring the country for a proper climate, launch pad, and landing area, that they will be making their historic attempt from a small airfield outside of Kindersley Saskatchewan. The other group currently in the running for the prize is the goliath of the group. Sponsored mainly be Microsoft, SpaceShipOne has over $25 million in sponsorship money behind them. Last week, their launch craft was officially approved by the Federal Aeronautics Agency, (the FAA) and is now lawfully allowed to fly in the U.S. Also last week, this team successfully fired their rocket's engines in a test up to full power successfully for the first time, as well as having a successful test flight of their launch vehicle. The idea behind this competition is to promote the development of private space flight technology, and space tourism. Currently, if you want to travel to space, you have very few choices, and one of them involves traveling to Russia for a period of training and handing over something in the rumoured range of ten million American dollars. Within years of Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis completing their historic flight, trans-Atlantic travel was a regular (if extremely high-priced in the beginning) occurrence. That is the hope the sponsors of the X prize have. Beyond this, many of the teams have developed in-depth websites showcasing their advancements, and many of the teams are also working to promote their projects through lectures, contacts with schools, and live webcasts. The official X Prize website (www.xprize.org) will carry live webcasts of the attempts by each team to reach the 100 km. goal. Look for those attempts to begin this summer. ([email protected])
