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Science Friday > Archives > 2003 > May
> May 30, 2003:
Hour One: Development
of Private Space Vehicles
| You DO have to be a rocket scientist to vie for the 10 million
dollar X-Prize. The challenge is straightforward, but difficult:
send a privately built rocket, with a passenger, into space. Then
do it again -- the same vehicle must launch twice within fourteen
days. So far, more than 20 teams have joined the competition.
In this hour of Science Friday, we'll take a look at the private
space race. Plus, taking a trip on a solar sail. |
'SpaceShipOne,' part of the X-Prize entry of the
Scaled Composites team. (image courtesy X-Prize Foundation)
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What does it take to send a rocket in to space? Is this the first
step to a space tourism industry? Call in with your questions
and comments at 1-800-989-8255, and share your opinions online in
our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).
Guests:
Peter H. Diamandis
Chairman and President
X-Prize Foundation
St. Louis, Missouri
Edward Hudgins
Editor, "Space:
The Free-Market Frontier" (Cato Institute, 2002)
Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute
Washington Director, The
Objectivist Center
Washington, DC
Neil Milburn
Federal Liaison
Armadillo
Aerospace
Mesquite, Texas
Ann Druyan
CEO, Cosmos Studios
Program Director, Planetary
Society Solar Sail Project
Ithaca, New York
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
X
PRIZE
X
P R I Z E - teams list
The
New Space Race | The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The
Space Review: Rutan aims for space: A look at SpaceShipOne
The
New Commercial Space Companies
Spaceflight
Now | Breaking News | NASA tests future flight vehicle concepts
Space
Vehicles - Vehicle Designs
The
Next 20 Years: Building a Safer, Better Shuttle
NASA
Space Launch Initiative (SLI) News Home
Popular
Science | Two More Steps to Space
This segment produced by Annette
Heist
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