[Hplusroadmap] Fwd: [AR] The N Prize

[Bryan Bishop]

There are a few other space-related mailing lists that I'm not
forwarding this to at the moment (will do this later). Todo: the
asteroid mining list over at yahoogroups, 2themoon, artemis, luf, and
a few others I'm forgetting.

- Bryan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Henry Spencer <henry at zoo.utoronto.ca>
Date: Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Subject: Re: [AR] The N Prize
To: Arocket List <arocket at exrocketry.net>


On Wed, 23 Apr 2008, James Antifaev wrote:
> http://www.newscientist.com/blog/space/2008/04/n-prize-to-spur-ultra-cheap-space.html

Also <www.n-prize.com>.  (It came up earlier today on another mailing list
I belong to.)  The summary, for anyone who doesn't want to go web-surfing:

"The N-Prize is a cash prize of £9,999.99 (nine thousand, nine hundred and
ninety-nine pounds and ninety-nine pence, sterling), which will be awarded
to the first person or group to put into orbit, around the Earth, a
satellite with a mass of between 9.99 and 19.99 grams, and to prove that
it has completed at least 9 orbits. The cost of the launch (but not ground
facilities) must fall within a budget of £999.99."

I think the way to win it would be to build a really cheap launcher with
(say) a 1kg payload, and then worry about separating off a 15g piece of
the payload once you're in orbit.  Trying to scale everything down for a
15g total payload strikes me as a losing game... and going to a slightly
larger vehicle costs nothing but fuel, which probably isn't going to break
the budget unless you use something stupidly expensive.

Building a trackable satellite weighing less than 20g is a bit of a
challenge.  Building a launcher, regardless of size, that can fly for
under £1000 is a much bigger challenge...

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                      henry at zoo.utoronto.ca
                                                      (henry at spsystems.net)

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