YouTube might be best known for videos of cute animals and teens dancing with light sabers. But one nonprofit wants to use it as an idea factory.
The X Prize Foundation, the same organization behind the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize to send private vehicles to the moon, said Tuesday that it has put together an eco challenge for YouTubers called "What's your crazy green idea?" Dream up a world-changing idea to stop global warming, post a two-minute YouTube video about it, and it could be worth $25,000.
That's a paltry sum compared to the $10 million at stake for the X Prize's upcoming Automotive X Prize for energy-efficient vehicles. But the X Prize's goal with the YouTube contest is to drum up ideas from the general public for its next big Energy and Environment Challenge, which would potentially be worth millions to the people who implement the idea. For now, venture firm Prize Capital has staked $25,000 for a concept alone.
The X Prize Foundation is behind the $10 million Archon X Prize for Genomics and the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize to build a moon vehicle that can surf over lunar rocks. The YouTube contest is one of its first smaller-scale contests to seed a larger challenge, but it fits in with a broader investment theme of the environment. The foundation is scouting for breakthroughs in clean fuels, renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, carbon reduction, and sustainable housing.
The video contest was announced Tuesday at a forum with Massachusetts Institute of Technology called "Seeking Radical Breakthroughs in Alternative Energy--What I Would Advise the Next President." The X Prize group teamed with MIT to host a fall lab class for students to come up with ideas on energy and environment challenges. Last semester, the same idea focused on health care resulted in a student idea for a tuberculosis diagnostics X Prize competition to help save 1.6 million lives per year.
But you don't have to attend MIT to think of an environmental prize. For the YouTube contest, people must submit their ideas to the Google-owned site before October 31. The three best will then be posted on the X Prize Web site on November 15, and the public can vote for the most outstanding within two weeks.
The guidelines are to answer three questions: What is the worldwide problem that you are trying to solve?; what is the specific prize idea, with rules and judging criteria?; and how will it benefit humanity?
Maybe the winning video will somehow involve a cute animal with a light saber?
Ten teams are signed up once again to compete in the NASA-sponsored Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, a $2 million contest to simulate a moon flight in the New Mexico desert.
The X Prize Foundation, the event's host, announced the team lineup Tuesday, saying it is confident that this year, after two years of unsuccessful attempts, NASA will award the prize money. However, in a potentially cautionary move, the 2008 event in late October at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base will be closed to the public for the first time. People can watch it live via the Web.
Here is one of Armadillo's two rovers, named Texel, pictured after a crash during a test run in September 2007.
(Credit: Armadillo Aerospace)The NASA challenge, which is designed to spur technology innovation for sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020, asks teams to build a lunar vehicle and then simulate a 90- to 180-second moon flight and landing. In the past two years, only one competitor has been able to lift off and hover properly, but that team, Armadillo Aerospace, failed to complete the required task twice without issue.
Armadillo Aerospace, a Mesquite, Texas-based team led by Doom video game creator John Carmack, is back this year. Nine teams were signed up for the contest last year, but Armadillo was the only one ready to fly. In 2007's contest, Armadillo flew one 91-second flight successfully, but as it was preparing to launch a second time to complete the challenge, the team discovered a crack in its engine.
The 8-year-old Armadillo Aerospace, which in recent months said it plans to participate in the Rocket Racing League's upcoming "vertical drag races," confirmed its participation on its Web site. "We will do a bunch of hover tests, and a practice run in Oklahoma before the event, but that will be about it," according to the company.
Other returning teams include Tarzana, Calif.-based BonNova, whose team leader Allen Newcomb designed the flight software for Ansari X Prize winner SpaceShipOne, and Solana Beach, Calif.-based father and son team Unreasonable Rocket. Paragon Labs, a Denver, Colo.-based team of four engineers; Emeryville, Calf.-based Phoenicia; and Chicago, Ill.-based TrueZer0 are also signed up to compete in the event.
Four other teams requested anonymity.
For the first time this year, the X Prize has separated the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge from the X Prize Cup, it's annual celebration of space innovation. That event will be postponed until 2009.
Ten teams are signed up once again to compete in the NASA-sponsored Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, a $2 million contest to simulate a moon flight in the New Mexico desert.
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