[extropy-chat] NASA Launches Startups for Ships

[Neil H.]

Wired has an excellent article on NASA's new Innovative Programs
office. The office is (or will be) concerned with purchasing
commercial spaceflight services to the ISS, the Centennial Challenges
program of cash prizes, and various other "nontraditional" approaches
aimed at getting away from the current model of cost-plus contracts:

http://wired.com/news/space/0,2697,68528,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

They've also got some neat photos and video of t/Space's test-drop and
water landing of their full-scale mockup of the CXV space capsule,
which they did with the $6 million in paper-study funding they were
given by NASA. There's some additional related media here:

http://www.transformspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=projects.viewalbum&workid=EE0A866A-F1C1-C18B-7D3CB327BCAF3542&albumid=5FB3254F-0A63-EBC3-06D4D74EED740A08

Back in July at the Return to the Moon conference, the head of the
office, Brant Sponberg, showed a slide giving an overview of potential
activities for the program:

http://www.rocketforge.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=385

Jon Goff of the excellent Selenian Boondocks blog has some comments
about how the office may lead to a rather nasty meme battle at NASA:

http://selenianboondocks.blogspot.com/2005/08/battle-of-memes.html

Hopefully the Innovative Programs office won't end up being silently killed off.

-- Neil