Why?Is this simply funding for Planetary Resources, or are there other potential competitors out there?
The presentation was broadcasted on NASA TV today and should be available on YouTube in a few hours. http://www.youtube.com/NASAtelevision
I was just curious why NASA would make this announcement when there are already groups working the problem.
Why? Because prizes (if that's the approach chosen) are a very excellent way of getting a high return on investment for the one funding them. The ratio of private to prize money spent is rather high, far better than even just paying a company outright to produce the data. And you are insulated from failure by not even having to pay if no one succeeds (versus the usual of trying to pour more money into it and ending up canceling anyway). And it allows the best plan to succeed.Great idea. It'll get folks like Planetary resources and B612 to put up or shut up, which I think everyone can get behind... And really, the barriers to entry for characterizing the asteroid threat are probably lower than for anything interplanetary, so this should be able to support other applicants.I really don't get why people get their hackles up when anything related to asteroids comes up.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 06/18/2013 08:23 pmWhy? Because prizes (if that's the approach chosen) are a very excellent way of getting a high return on investment for the one funding them. The ratio of private to prize money spent is rather high, far better than even just paying a company outright to produce the data. And you are insulated from failure by not even having to pay if no one succeeds (versus the usual of trying to pour more money into it and ending up canceling anyway). And it allows the best plan to succeed.Great idea. It'll get folks like Planetary resources and B612 to put up or shut up, which I think everyone can get behind... And really, the barriers to entry for characterizing the asteroid threat are probably lower than for anything interplanetary, so this should be able to support other applicants.I really don't get why people get their hackles up when anything related to asteroids comes up.B612 is Venus-like orbit.Cheers, Martin
Broad Agency Announcement for alternate capture systems concepts, rendezvous sensor systems, secondary payloads, and commercial and international partnership opportunities