NASA Centennial Challenge prizes

NASA is proposing a lunar soft lander as a Centennial Challenge
prize opportunity. That is actually rather a difficult thing to
do from a cold start.

Therefore, prior to that I would propose one or two other precursor
prizes as well.

First, a prize for lunar or asteroidal science data.

For example, a prize to the first organization who obtains an image
of any 1 km square area within 100 km of the lunar south pole (or
north pole) at a resolution of better than 20 meters.

I would think this capability would be of great interest to lunar
mission planners and geologists who would like to soft land in that
very interesting region of the Moon, which hitherto has not been
mapped in any detail.

Secondly, I heard NASA briefly mention lunar penetrators, and this
is another type of mission which could be done more cheaply than a
soft lander, and well worth a prize.

Let me a toss out a few more ideas and questions about how it might
evolve.

An SSI type focus might be promoting prizes which facilitate
commercial and human development of the moon.

Is anybody here interested to make preparations to respond to future
RFIs/RFPs which NASA will publish in the coming weeks relating to
the Centennial Challenge rpizes ?

It is a lot of work writing the verbiage for a government agency, so
we would need to start doing it right now.

What will we propose to NASA ?

Sponsor, or Alliance Partner/Administrator, or both ?
(Can we propose both ?)

Questions to consider (I invite your responses):

To Propose as Sponsor:
What promises will we make as a Sponsor ?
How will we back up those promises ?
What capabilities do we have (or can obtain) as a Sponsor ?
How will we market our capabilities as a Sponsor ?
What is our financial plan ?

To Propose as Alliance Partner/Administrator:
What promises will we make as an Propose as Alliance
Partner/Administrator?
How will we back up those promises ?
What capabilities do we have (or can obtain) as Alliance
Partner/Administrator ?
How will we market our capabilities as an Propose as Alliance
Partner/Administrator ?
What is our financial plan ?

Also, even if we does not plan to directly bid on a contract, we
could simply lobby NASA to consider certain types of prizes.

So, I would invite all readers of this list to post their ideas for
prizes.

What do YOU think would be a good prize idea, where the winner would
have made a significant step towards achieving our goal of lunar or
asteroidal development ? Why do you think it is a good idea ?

We need to compile a list of those ideas, and the arguments as to
why they would help NASA and the USA (not just ourselves), to
achieve the Centennial Challenge goals.

I look forwards to hearing your ideas.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to move this process
forwards.

Sincerely,

Charles F. Radley