At least that's what I think about NASA's new Centennial Challenge. These Centennial Challenges are prizes modelled after the 10 million dollar X-Prize that was awarded to Burt Rutan for getting 3 people (1 person and the equivalent of 2 other people balast) into orbit twice in two weeks.
The prize will be awarded to the first team that can extract breathable oxygen from simulated lunar soil. The way I look at it if given a choice between spending money on this, or on testing dead frog legs in space or how old men sag in zero-g, I pick the first one.
If someone wins this prize by finding out a way of extracting oxygen from Lunar soil, then we have something we could really use - if we ever really get to the moon that is.
And that's the kicker. Unless some sort of permanent settlement on the moon arises over the next 100 years, it's nice to know that we could live off of moon dirt, but until we do it'll just sit in the dust bins of NASA archives or whatever they have.
That being said this is one of the rare exceptions I can think of where a government is actually spending money on something that is practical and usefull in the general sense. Then again, if we did find a method of cheap transportation and settlement on the moon wouldn't non-governmental bodies have come up with the technology themselves? In which case was this Centennial Challenge really neccessary?
It's a great idea, but I still don't think we needed a government to spur it's creation.
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