NASA is drawing up plans for six new
Centennial Challenges as part of the agency’s series of contests that offers
cash prizes for technological achievements.

The space agency is seeking comments
from potential competitors and partners on draft rules for each of the proposed
new Centennial Challenges. The contests range from the development of
affordable spacesuits to launching fuel pods into orbit or flying a
controllable vehicle driven by a solar sail.

Prizes for the planned challenges,
which are not yet finalized, could range from $500,000 for the spacesuit
contest to $5 million for the fuel pod contest, according to the draft rules
released by NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate.

“These are some of our first large,
million-dollar and multi-million dollar prizes,” Brant Sponberg,
NASA program manager for the Centennial Challenges effort, told SPACE.com. “I think we’re in the
ballpark with a lot of these prizes, but we’re not on the pitcher’s mound yet.”

The current draft rules for the six
new contests were developed by in-house by NASA personnel, Sponberg
said, adding that before the agency launches the competitions officially,
feedback from those who will compete in them is vital. “The whole idea is to go
out eternally and to have the people competing for this, or whoever, let us
know what needs tweaking.”

While the new challenges are not yet
official, NASA announced a series of contests throughout 2005 that covered a
broad swath of technologies that ranged from better spacesuit gloves to unmanned
vehicles for lunar and planetary exploration. The program has secured $10
million for current contests and hopes for an additional $10 million to support
future competitions, Sponberg said.

The space agency also held its first
competition – the 2005
Beam Power and Tether Centennial Challenges – last year, in which 11 teams
vied for two $50,000 prizes. Both purses went unclaimed, with even larger cash
prizes promised for this year’s contest, NASA officials have said.

Other challenges, such as those
charging entrants to develop suborbital
rockets, lunar
excavators and machines to cull oxygen from
mock lunar regolith, have yet start competition. The
first spacesuit glove competition, a partnership with the Volanz Aerospace
Inc., is set for November 2006, to be followed by the lunar excavation
challenge in late 2006 or early 2007, NASA officials said.

Meanwhile, Centennial Challenge
program officials are seeking new partners for the upcoming contests, Sponberg said. When new partners sign onto to a specific
challenge will determine how soon the contest can begin in earnest, he added.

Here’s a brief description of each
of NASA’s new planned challenges:

• Fuel Depot Challenge: Expected to award a $5
  million prize to the first team to build, launch and demonstrate a
  sub-scale facility that could store or produce liquid oxygen and liquid
  hydrogen – used to fuel spacecraft – in Earth orbit. In November 2005,
  NASA chief Michael Griffin said
  future space missions would rely on privately built fuel stations for resupply.
• Human All-Terrain Vehicle Challenge: With NASA aiming to return
  astronauts to the Moon by 2017, knowing how to move humans from place to
  place will be imperative. This $1 million contest would challenge
  inventors to build human-driven rovers that are agile, easy to stow and
  reliable.
• Low-Cost Space Pressure Suit Challenge: Aimed at increasing the
  industrial base for human spaceflight and jump-starting development for
  commercially available spacesuits, this $500,000 competition would reward
  the first team to build a spacesuit that meets design and test
  requirements – which includes a depressurization test on an instrumented
  mannequin. Teams must also sell a certain number of spacesuits to
  demonstrate cost effectiveness.
• Lunar Night Power Source Challenge: NASA is promoting the
  development of power systems capable of operating for extended periods in
  a harsh environment. To win a $500,000 prize, innovators are expected to
  be the first to demonstrate a rechargeable power source that provides
  power over 14 days – about one lunar night- while meeting volume and heat
  requirements.
• Micro Reentry Vehicle Challenge: Most students have
  encountered the egg-drop in one way or another, but this Centennial
  Challenge would take it to the extreme. The planned contest would task
  entrants to build a vehicle that could deliver at least six of 12 common
  hen eggs to Earth safely – and undamaged – from low-Earth orbit. The first
  to do so would nab a $2 million prize. Such reentry systems could lead to
  a routine sample-return method from orbital space stations, NASA officials
  said.
• Station-Keeping Solar Sail Challenge: Aimed at
  promoting the development of working solar sails and exploiting novel
  spacecraft orbits, this challenge would offer a $2.5 million purse for
  each of two distinct achievements, according to its description. The first
  would challenge a team to be the first to successfully deploy a solar
  sail, demonstrate an acceleration change and fly through a designated
  target. The second contest would challenge competitors maintain a sail’s
  position above or below a target area for 90 days.

Full draft rules for each the six
planned challenges above can be found by clicking here.
All comments
must be submitted by 5:00 EDT (2100 GMT) March 27, 2006, NASA officials said.