NASA announces first two Centennial Challenges

MSNBC, Space.com, and Wired report that NASA, in collaboration with the
non-profit Spaceward Foundation, has announced its first two Centennial
Challenges. The Centennial Challenges, inspired by the Ansari X Prize
and DARPA Grand Challenge, are prize contests seeking to stimulate
private industry development of technologies relevant to space
exploration. One contest is the Tether Challenge, for building the sort
of super-strong tether needed to make a space elevator feasible. The
other is the Beam Power Challenge, for creating a wirelessly-powered
ribbon-climbing robot capable of lifting as large a payload as possible
within a limited timeframe. The initial set of challenges in 2005 will
award $50K to the winners of each contest. A second set of challenges
in 2006 will award first, second, and third place prizes worth $100K,
$40K, and $10K. It's hoped that these contests will further space
elevator technology and help eliminate the 'giggle factor' surrounding
them. Additional contests will be announced in the coming weeks,
although Congress currently restricts NASA from awarding prizes of more
than $250K; the agency is lobbying to try to get this limit raised to
$40 million for future prizes.

Articles:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7280483/
http://www.space.com/news/050323_cen...challenge.html
http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,26...w=wn_tophead_2

More official info:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005...al_prizes.html
http://www.elevator2010.org/site/competition.html
http://www.spaceward.org/