So, it should come as no surprise to you all that I really like the idea of the X-Prize. I'm a small government guy, and something about the private sector funding a prize that rewards incredibly creative solutions to seemingly impossible tasks just makes me giggle with joy. So I was really happy to see that Google will be funding the next X-Prize.
The first event in the X-Prize vein was the Orteig Prize, a $25,000 reward offered to the first person who could fly solo across the Atlantic. That prize was won in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh. The Ansari X-Prize was won in 2004 - $10M awarded to Burt Rutan for his SpaceshipOne, which flew into space twice in a two-week period. Rutan, financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, spent over $100M in new technologies for the project, proving that it's often just the prestige of winning an X-Prize that motivates these inventors to new heights.
Now, Google is offering $30M to fund the Google Lunar X-Prize. The rules are simple: be the first to
create autonomous rovers that could land on the moon, travel at least three-tenths of a mile (500 meters) and send video, images and data back to Earth.
Anyone want to give it a shot? ;)
I was just on MSNBC and they had a report about the recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis. There has been a lot of talk about how bad that bridge is - it turns out only 4% of the country's bridges are in worse shape. So, I decided to check out what other bridges ranked worse.
Yeah, a ton of them are in Pittsburgh. Here's a list.
Rick and I had been talking for a few years about how cool this would be: feed trash into one end of a machine, use some kind of high-energy gasification process, and separate out the useful elements for resale. Not only would it get rid of trash, but it would break it back down into something that could be recycled.
Well, now there's a group that's producing machines to do just that. A company called Startech Environmental Corporation is producing machines that can handle pretty much any type of trash. It essentially passes the trash through an arc-welder, which turns it into plasma and converts it into two by-products: a gas that can be processed into a clean fuel, and a type of glass that can be used to make roads, foundation, tile and countertop.
In New York City, it costs $90 a ton to process trash. With these machines, Startech says, the same job could be done for $36. Sell off the syngas and excess electricity, and that $36 cost becomes a $15 profit - all before charging the city for your services.
You know what the scientists in the background are thinking: Please don't let the President blow us up . . . please don't let him blow us up . . .
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