15 July 2008
The X Prize Foundation – which memorably offered the reward for the first private space flight, won by <a href=’http://www.flyer.co.uk/news/newsfeed.php?artnum=134′ target=’_blank’>Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne</a> – is soon to offer another prize: for the development of an alternative jet fuel.
The move is being partly funded by the US government. US Secretary of Transportation Mary E Peters said at a conference last week “The race to refuel American aviation is on and our hope is that the X Prize will jump-start investment and spur innovation.” The government is putting in $500,000 and it is hoped that the prize fund will eventually reach $10m.
According to the X Prize website, over the next 14 months, it “will consult with industry experts to develop a strategy to bring together the best minds in the aviation and science communities to solve the technical challenges and speed up the development and implementation of cost-effective renewable aviation fuels and technologies that have an environmental life-cycle benefit and do not present potentially negative side effects, such as the displacement of food production or the inducement of land use changes that lead to additional greenhouse gas emissions.”
Among the other X Prize initiatives currently active is one to send a private (unmanned) misson to the moon.
