Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award Mystery

As noted before, the X PRIZE Cup will include the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award for high school students that "develop a new, innovative concept to benefit the personal spaceflight industry within the next 50 years".

Here's an excerpt from the X PRIZE Cup site that shows what the Prizes are for the winner. (There are also significant prizes for runners-up).

"A travel stipend - a travel stipend of $1500 (for teams needing to fly to the event) or $500 (for teams within driving range of the event) will be provided to assist with the cost of attending the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup to display their concept to the engineers, scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs who make up the personal spaceflight industry.

A commemorative plaque.

The Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Trophy & Display - This trophy (created by Erik Lindbergh, the grandson of aviator Charles Lindbergh) will not be given to the team to keep, but will travel to museums and science centers around the world with a display of the winning team's concept (including team names, member biographies, etc…).

Desktop Conrad Trophy - The team will receive one desktop version of the trophy designed by Erik Lindbergh. This trophy will be kept by the team to be displayed in their school, or wherever they like.

Handheld Conrad Trophies - Each team member will be given a handheld version of the trophy that is theirs to keep.

Pete Conrad Scroll - Team member names will be added to a scroll that will be flown into space each year after the X PRIZE Cup. This scroll will be on display with the traveling Pete Conrad Trophy.

A $5000 educational grant."

Most mysteriously, though is the following:

"Other Prizes that are out of this world are still in negotiations."

What could these other prizes be??