Fund an X-Prize!

[Cutlass]

Let's assume you suddenly have a lot of money to dispose of. You want to use a bunch of it for some charitable purpose. But you also want to leverage it for the greatest impact. So you decide to fund X-Prizes to stimulate some innovation.

What are your goals and conditions and why?

 

[classical_hero]

What is an X-Prize?

 

[Samez]

The Ansari X-Prize was $10 Million for the first private industry sub space flight.
I probably would ask for solar modules with a high efficiency factor combined with a high life time and low cost.
Also some kind of high efficiency energy storage device would be cool.
Both would help to reduce the dependency on fuels (might it be oil, coal, uranium or deuterium).
It might also help to reduce the energy oligopoly of the few big energy companies.
This might also be a good way to supply the energy demand of the third world countries.

Long term X Prize could be for something like a self sustainable (living) system. (autonomous city/village). The conditions would vary with the date it has to be achieved.
Semi self sustainable systems will be relevant on earth due to the limited amount of resources and also if you consider long term space missions.

 

[Synobun]

I'd rather blow my money on a better charity.

 

[GoodGame]

I'd probably go for developing a renewable biomass fuel for internal combustion engines, that is not based on government-subsidy nor a staple crop (at least not the edible part). But I'd exclude corn stover or any aspect of agriculture that is better left in the ground.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Something cheap and effective for developing countries such as that water filtration straw or that $100 laptop.

 

[El_Machinae]

I'd drop a bunch into the MPrize, which is a prize that rewards researchers for interventions that significantly increase the lifespan of lab mice. The goal is to make headway in mice, that will then encourage funding into anti-aging research for humans. The end desire is to cure aging in humans.

As well, I'd like to fund escalating prizes for the Space Elevator competition. They'd be significant prizes that increase each year. They'd fund both tether-strength and climber-efficiency competitions. The first prizes would reward groups for just showing up. Later on, the prizes would be actual money that would be worth working for.

 

[Winner]

1) Competitive heavy-lift space launch vehicle
-> Target achievement: launch at least 100 tonnes of cargo to low Earth orbit in single launch. Overall cost per kilogram of payload must not exceed $1000.
-> Reward: €1 billion
-> Bonus 1: if the overall cost per kilogram to orbit doesn't exceed $500, additional €1 billion will be awarded
-> Bonus 2: if the vehicle's payload capacity is higher than 160 tonnes, additonal €1 billion will be awarded
-> Maximum reward: €3 billion

2) Reusable Single-Stage-to-Orbit launch vehicle
-> Target achievement: Launch a single-staged, fully reusable vehicle that delivers at least 10 tonnes of cargo to low Earth orbit, lands safely and is able to repeat the flight in 7 days
-> Reward: €3 billion
-> Bonus 1: if crew of at least 6 people can be launched to space in this vehicles, supported there for two weeks and landed safely on Earth, additional €1 billion will be awarded
-> Bonus 2: if the vehicle's download mass exceeds 90% of the mass of the payload at launch, additional €1 billion will be awarded
-> Maximum reward: €5 billion.

3) Mars sample return
-> Target achievement: Bring at least 1 kg of material from Martian surface back to Earth (uncontaminated)
-> Reward: €2 billion
-> Bonus 1: if ISRU is used to produce fuel for the return trip, additional €500 million will be awarded
-> Bonus 2: if at least 10 kg of core sample is returned, additional €500 million will be awarded
-> Bonus 3: if samples from at least 3 locations separated by at least 30 km distance from each other are returned, additional €500 million will be awarded.
-> Maximum reward: €3.5 billion

(following sample returns will be motivated by offering a price of €1 million for every kilogram of Mars delivered to Earth (uncontaminated). Each mission's source location must be separated by at least 1000 km distance from the others. This will remain in effect until the total of 2,000 kilograms of samples (from all missions) is delivered to Earth, then the reward per kilogram will be reduced to €100,000 until further notice)

4) Lunar base
-> Target achievement: Establish an outpost on the Moon with permanent presence of at least 6 humans (at least 36 month-long stay on the surface for each crew).
-> Reward: €4 billion
-> Bonus 1: if at least 99% of all water used by the crew comes from local sources, additional €1 billion will be awarded
-> Bonus 2: if at least 90% of food consumed by the crew is produced on the Moon, additional €1 billion will be awarded
-> Bonus 3: if the number of humans in the crew rises to at least 30 by the end of the 36-month period, additonal €2 billion will be awarded
-> Maximum reward: €8 billion


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My goal is obvious - to kick-start human expansion in the solar system by promoting private investment in technologies I consider vital for achieving this goal.