[SpaceProgram] Very good news from discussion with the DARPA 100YSS program manager tonight

[psytek at alphaonelabs.com]

I'd like the document to be more explicit  about ownership of rights.
I would like to retain ownership of my part of this.  Especially now
that we're opening this up to more potential sponsors.  Thanks.

On Jan 7, 2012, at 4:28 AM, Alex Cureton-Griffiths <alexcg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Myself and James Coombs (another Xinchejian'er, who'll be joining this
> list soon) were discussing contests/prizes, along the lines of a micro
> version of the Ansari Prize. If we had been accepted for 100YSS we
> were thinking about (along with other hackerspaces) putting together a
> technology tree (like in the game Civilisation) detailing the
> technologies needed to get to a starship within 100 years. Prizes
> would be awarded for building the technologies on the tree that are
> needed to achieve the goal, with achievable milestones set along the
> way. Since we're no longer focused on 100YSS we can apply the model to
> other goals, e.g. a human habitat on Mars or whatever.
>
> The above strategy may also have potential to attract sponsorship from
> Ansari X Prize Foundation or similar. On the other hand, I think Ricky
> mentioned that one of the things DARPA liked about the proposal we
> submitted was that it was more about collaboration than competition.
> Perhaps we could do both - give some grants for interesting projects
> that are already furthering the goal, and award prizes for projects
> that "fill in" the holes in the tech tree that aren't being focused
> on.
>
> Agree we should leave out weapons, not just for liability purposes but
> also because they are a dividing factor.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 1:37 PM, cole santos <cksantos85 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Its a little more selective in its space project categories than the
>> 100yss. But instead of pursuing a particular project, it would be nice
>> to just redistribute the money with our own micro grant process for
>> the exact same RFP requirements. So the global hackerspace
>> organization could hold contests on projects related to the RFP and
>> distribute prizes to winners. We could start small with RFI contests
>> with a few 100 bucks or so for the best idea for a particular
>> technology track followed for an RFP to match the winning RFI. We
>> should leave weapons out for liability purposes (explosives and
>> firearms requires federal and state licencing and they should just get
>> their own DARPA grant if they are organized enough to get one of
>> those) unless it is a non leathal weapon (microwave, foam, whatever)
>> or a combat enabling tech such as augmented reality HUD. I think that
>> the platform category should however be included in our global
>> hackerspace consortium challenges with the space stuff. Many makers
>> are already making UAV and FPV aircraft, blimps, balloons, boats,
>> tracked vehicles, and other craft.
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Luke Weston <reindeerflotilla at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> It's worth noting that DARPA contributes to heaps of cutting-edge
>>> fundamental research that has no direct, obvious military value. Heaps
>>> of civilian scientists at universities across the world are happily
>>> involved in valuable civilian basic science and technology research
>>> that attracts funding from DARPA and occasionally other DOD agencies
>>> such as the Army Research Office, and they're certainly not just
>>> building weapons or building better bombs or anything like that.
>>>
>>> Well known examples would include the DARPA Grand Challenge for
>>> autonomous vehicle research, and a lot of quantum computing and
>>> quantum communications research, for example a lot of the research
>>> done by the universities affiliated with the ARC Centre for Quantum
>>> Computer Technology in Australia (http://www.cqc2t.org/), as well as
>>> this for example:
>>> http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2010/11/new-initiative-to-develop-a-system-that-controls-prosthetic-limbs-naturally/
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>  Luke
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