Author Topic: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize  (Read 12558 times)

Offline Ludus

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Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« on: 06/27/2016 07:56 pm »
http://www.heinleinprize.com/2016/06/jeff-bezos-named-heinlein-prize-receipient/

He's the third recipient after Elon Musk and Peter Diamandis (XPrize founder).

Now Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos both have Lady Vivamus swords to use in a third act duel, presumably in ZeroG using jetpacks.
« Last Edit: 06/27/2016 07:59 pm by Ludus »

Offline sanman

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #1 on: 07/02/2016 02:32 am »
Ah, ninja'd - just read about it, and came here to find the news already posted.

I emailed the Heinlein Trust foundation back on November 25 of last year, in the hopes that they might give an award to Mr Jeff Bezos. Glad to see Mr Bezos has earned their acclaim, as likewise Mr Elon Musk already has.

Quote
Subject: Suggestion of Heinlein Prize for Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin

Dear Heinlein Prize Trust,

I would like to suggest Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin for your consideration to award them the Heinlein Prize.

Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin have been the first to achieve the feat of sending a rocket to space and return it back with a tail-first powered landing -- the very kind of space travel which has been a hallmark of Robert Heinlein's science fiction vision of the future.

In the interest of a multi-competitive playing field for advancement of access to space for humankind, I would urge you to see Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin as worthy candidates for recognition by your foundation.

Sincerely,

...
(a fan of space, and fan of of RAH fiction since childhood)

Offline philw1776

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #2 on: 07/05/2016 11:57 am »
With winners being Musk & Bezos they might consider renaming it the D. D. Harriman prize.
FULL SEND!!!!

Offline AncientU

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #3 on: 07/05/2016 07:02 pm »
Competition is a wonderful thing.
Congratulations Mr. Bezos and the Blue Origins Team!
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Offline Ludus

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #4 on: 09/04/2016 04:04 pm »
https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/09/02/jeff-bezos-receive-250000-prize/

Bezos to be presented with the Heinlein Prize on September 14th at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Article also links to Video of Elon Musk playing around with the sword that comes with the $250,000 prize.

The prize money is noted to be about 0.0003 % of Bezos current net worth as the third richest person on the planet.

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=AL3 Here's the sword.
« Last Edit: 09/04/2016 04:13 pm by Ludus »

Offline Ludus

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #5 on: 09/13/2016 05:19 am »
When Jeff Bezo's accepts the prize tomorrow, there will likely be a lot more interest in case he puts out additional information about New Glenn.

Offline leaflion

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Offline Steven Pietrobon

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #7 on: 09/15/2016 08:43 am »
For the record. :-)

@TheRealBuzz
"Congrats @JeffBezos on the Heinlein prize. Who knew you'd end up knighting me with your Heinlein sword."

@TheRealBuzz
I have much respect for what @blueorigin has accomplished and I applaud them on their next step. #NewGlenn
Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline AncientU

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #8 on: 09/15/2016 10:37 am »
Game on!!
Grab the popcorn.
"If we shared everything [we are working on] people would think we are insane!"
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Offline Ludus

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Offline Lar

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #10 on: 09/15/2016 06:23 pm »
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/15/jeff-bezos-on-nuclear-reactors-in-space-the-lack-of-bacon-on-mars-and-humanitys-destiny-in-the-solar-system/

Washington Post on Bezos acceptance speech.
Sadly paywalled for me (in the sense that I can't see it unless I turn off my ad blocker, which I'm not going to do on random sites, since ads can be a source of malware, although it's off here.)
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline eric z

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #11 on: 09/15/2016 08:01 pm »
  Who would win an Arthur C. Clarke Award? Or the Isaac Asimov Award? :)

Offline sanman

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #12 on: 09/15/2016 09:49 pm »
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/15/jeff-bezos-on-nuclear-reactors-in-space-the-lack-of-bacon-on-mars-and-humanitys-destiny-in-the-solar-system/

Washington Post on Bezos acceptance speech.

Bezos says:

Quote
On what new technologies are needed for deep space travel:

“I think NASA should work on a space-rated nuclear reactor. If you had a nuclear reactor in space-- especially if you want to go anywhere beyond Mars, you really need nuclear power. Solar power just gets progressively difficult as you get further way from the sun. And that’s a completely doable thing to have a safe, space-qualified nuclear reactor.”

I wonder if there's any private sector company out there that might partner with Bezos to develop and offer up a space-based nuclear reactor? Bezos could then use that to power his moonbase first. Can the same reactor model be rated for both Moon and Mars?

Offline leaflion

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #13 on: 09/16/2016 01:24 am »
Quote
On living on Mars:

“Sometimes my friends say, 'Would you move to Mars?' Not in the near term. Think about it: no whiskey, no bacon, no swimming pools, no oceans, no hiking, no urban centers. Eventually Mars might be amazing. But that’s a long way in the future. This planet is incredible. There are waterfalls and beaches and palm tress and fantastic cities and restaurants and parties and events like this. And you’re not going to get that anywhere but Earth for a really, really long time.”

On competing against Musk and other commercial companies:

“Competition is super healthy...Great industries are never made by single companies. And space is really big. There is room for a lot of winners...At Blue Origin, our biggest opponent is gravity. The physics of this problem are challenging enough..Gravity is not watching us and saying, ‘Uh-oh those Blue Origin guys are getting really good, I’m going to have increase my gravitational constant.' Gravity doesn’t care about us at all. ”

Offline sanman

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #14 on: 09/16/2016 05:56 am »
  Who would win an Arthur C. Clarke Award? Or the Isaac Asimov Award? :)

There is an Arthur C Clarke Award - but it's an award for best science fiction novel in the UK:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke_Award


There have also been 4 different awards issued in the name of Isaac Asimov - but again they're mainly related to writing and philosophical work:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov_Awards




Offline savuporo

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #15 on: 09/16/2016 06:54 am »
Bezos says:

Quote
On what new technologies are needed for deep space travel:

“I think NASA should work on a space-rated nuclear reactor. If you had a nuclear reactor in space-- especially if you want to go anywhere beyond Mars, you really need nuclear power. Solar power just gets progressively difficult as you get further way from the sun. And that’s a completely doable thing to have a safe, space-qualified nuclear reactor.”
Big kudos to Bezos for saying that. That's exactly what should be happening - these are the hard problems that industry cannot tackle.
Orion - the first and only manned not-too-deep-space craft

Offline rocx

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #16 on: 09/16/2016 08:20 am »
Quote from: Jeff Bezos
On competing against Musk and other commercial companies:

“Competition is super healthy...Great industries are never made by single companies. And space is really big. There is room for a lot of winners...At Blue Origin, our biggest opponent is gravity. The physics of this problem are challenging enough..Gravity is not watching us and saying, ‘Uh-oh those Blue Origin guys are getting really good, I’m going to have increase my gravitational constant.' Gravity doesn’t care about us at all. ”

I really like this quote. May there be many winners in space. Also, I consider gravity my personal nemesis, always dropping my things from tables and making me sweat on stairs. It's time we overcome it.
Any day with a rocket landing is a fantastic day.

Offline sanman

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #17 on: 09/16/2016 09:06 am »
I agree - space shouldn't be about man against man - it should be about Man vs the Elements or forces of nature.

I'd imagine that a spirit of cooperation over competition will be essential for human colonization of outer space.

Offline AncientU

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #18 on: 09/16/2016 11:11 am »
I agree - space shouldn't be about man against man - it should be about Man vs the Elements or forces of nature.

I'd imagine that a spirit of cooperation over competition will be essential for human colonization of outer space.

I suspect the opposite... or at least equal measures of both.  As much as idealists want humanity to be different, we are highly motivated by competition and individual achievement.  All mankind sharing equally in the benefits/resources of "Outer Space" sounds great but really isn't viable for humanity as it pragmatically (really) exists.  Who sticks it out there if achievements (profits, glory, whatever) are going to be equally distributed among the planet's 5B people?
« Last Edit: 09/16/2016 11:12 am by AncientU »
"If we shared everything [we are working on] people would think we are insane!"
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Offline sanman

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #19 on: 09/17/2016 12:44 am »
I suspect the opposite... or at least equal measures of both.  As much as idealists want humanity to be different, we are highly motivated by competition and individual achievement.  All mankind sharing equally in the benefits/resources of "Outer Space" sounds great but really isn't viable for humanity as it pragmatically (really) exists.  Who sticks it out there if achievements (profits, glory, whatever) are going to be equally distributed among the planet's 5B people?

Alright, but there's going to have to be a higher standard of ethics out in space - because what if you came across someone stranded out in space and had to make a choice between saving them versus saving your payload or completing your mission? Hopefully outer space won't become dog-eat-dog, because there's enough threat from the environment itself.

Offline savuporo

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #20 on: 09/17/2016 01:43 am »
  Who would win an Arthur C. Clarke Award? Or the Isaac Asimov Award? :)

A well deserving Arthur C. Clarke award should have gone to Dr. Harold Rosen

Isaac Asimov would probably still be pending, but Rodney Allen Brooks is a good candidate. Or maybe Joseph Frederick Engelberger
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Offline Lar

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #21 on: 09/17/2016 03:04 am »
Man against Nature. Cooperation. Yes, some competition too, but only compete on executing with excellence, and on efficiency. No cronyism. That's my hope. We'll see. But the inspirational vid that WashPo ran is actually really good. Perfect short bit to convince the mundanes that space is a game changer. Once it goes commercial.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline sanman

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #22 on: 09/17/2016 08:01 am »
Hopefully competition will be more along technological lines and in the form of technical innovation, which all can benefit from. For instance, imagine if SpaceX and Blue Origin get into an "arms race" on building bigger and more capable rockets - it could lead to radical improvements on space launch capability and on the cost of access to space.

There was a popular videogame series called "Red Faction" which was about Martian miners rebelling against greedy corporate mining overlords from Earth. Hopefully, competition won't lead us towards that kind of unpleasant future - exactly the kind that Heinlein would have written about:



Heinlein sometimes depicted a harsher view of existence in outer space, analogous to previous human endeavors like the colonization of the Americas. Stories of his I remember reading as a child were: Starship Troopers, The Moon is  a Harsh Mistress, Rocketship Galileo, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Puppet Masters, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Starman Jones, The Starbeast, Between Planets, Time for the Stars, Podkayne of Mars, Space Cadet.

Hopefully, space industry innovation won't just be in launch vehicles, but all the other areas related to maintaining quality of life - particularly in robotics, which will be our essential workforce in space - and probably increasingly on Earth as well.

Offline sdsds

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #23 on: 09/17/2016 08:33 am »
Two things.

1. Bezos gave the 250,000 dollars to SEDS.

2. Show me the google search (with lmgtfy or whatever) that yields the image of jeff kneeling with the sword in front of a half-dozen people. I assert Google just won't give that image as the result of any query.

(Angels? Envy? Nah!)
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Offline AncientU

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Re: Jeff Bezos wins Heinlein Prize
« Reply #24 on: 09/17/2016 03:14 pm »
I suspect the opposite... or at least equal measures of both.  As much as idealists want humanity to be different, we are highly motivated by competition and individual achievement.  All mankind sharing equally in the benefits/resources of "Outer Space" sounds great but really isn't viable for humanity as it pragmatically (really) exists.  Who sticks it out there if achievements (profits, glory, whatever) are going to be equally distributed among the planet's 5B people?

Alright, but there's going to have to be a higher standard of ethics out in space - because what if you came across someone stranded out in space and had to make a choice between saving them versus saving your payload or completing your mission? Hopefully outer space won't become dog-eat-dog, because there's enough threat from the environment itself.

The high seas are like this already... plenty competition, winners and losers, and the benefits are an 'opportunity' for all humanity (equality of opportunity and all that) but when airmen or sailors are in need at sea, it is all hands to the rescue -- regardless of nation of origin or registry.  I recall one night on watch when one of our P-3 patrol planes ditched in the North Pacific (closest point of land was reported as Petropovalovsk) -- the Russian (Soviet at the time) response was immediate and unquestioning.  Their merchantman rescued the half of the crew that survived the ditching and exposure to the elements.

Competition and cooperation can co-exist. 
I just don't believe we'll ever get there to find out if we rely on idealism alone.
« Last Edit: 09/17/2016 03:18 pm by AncientU »
"If we shared everything [we are working on] people would think we are insane!"
-- SpaceX friend of mlindner

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