'A Second Kind of Frontier'

Home , Ansari X Prize, Brian Binnie, Mike Melvill, X Prize Foundation

pedians apparently tend to be comput- Shortly after McHenry’s critical arti- er-savvy, male professionals from the cle appeared online, Wikipedia’s entry U.S. and U.K., and Wikipedia’s content on Hamilton was corrected. One con- is heavily skewed toward technical, cerned Wikipedian has established political, and scientific subjects. This Project CROSSBOW—“The Com- means, as Ethan Zuckerman of mittee Regarding Overcoming Serious Harvard’s Berkman Center for Systemic Bias On Wikipedia”— Internet and Society has put it, that designed to develop strategies to Wikipedia has “more information on increase contributions and improve- Middle Earth than on Central Africa.” ments on topics that don’t usually get But for all of its failings, Wiki- much attention. On the whole, pedians can claim that their online Wikipedia has shown a tremendous project has been failing forward. In ability to self-police its content. But 2002, an IBM research group discov- doing so requires the constant vigi- ered that acts of vandalism on lance of the educated to defend what Wikipedia are corrected on average we know against those who know within five minutes. Factual and gram- nothing. And in a way, this is not a new matical errors, too, are quickly fixed: problem at all. ‘A Second Kind of Frontier’ The X Prize Triumph and the Future of Space Travel

n October 4, 2004, the anniver- uncharted land, unseen depths of sary of the Sputnik launch, the oceans, unexplored space. And then O$10 million Ansari X Prize to there are frontiers of imagination: encourage private spaceflight was won by a frontiers that require us to think a new team that sent a manned rocket ship into way, to have a vision beyond what oth- space twice in five days. Before the end of ers see, to question assumptions about the year, Congress passed the Commercial what is technologically possible. Space Launch Amendments Act, which Today, we honor Mojave Aerospace aimed to protect what could be a fledgling Ventures’ SpaceShipOne, the winner of space tourism industry. The sponsor of that the X Prize, for traversing this second legislation, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of kind of frontier. California, the Republican chairman of the Suborbital space is not a new desti- space subcommittee, spoke on October 6, nation. Brian Binnie and Mike Melvill, 2004, about the X Prize victory. His com- the pilots of SpaceShipOne, did not fly ments, taken from the Congressional higher, farther, or longer than the Record, appear below. astronauts who came before them, yet Mr. Speaker, there are two kind of Brian and Mike, together with frontiers. There are physical frontiers: SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan

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Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. See www.TheNewAtlantis.com for more information. and sponsor Paul Allen, have nonethe- endurance, is a signature of the less crossed a critical frontier. They American experience; that human have accepted and exceeded the X flight into space, we now can say, is no Prize Foundation’s challenge, proving longer the arena only of government that commercial space transportation and only the purview of companies that is viable and that space and its explo- are directly financed by government, ration and utilization will not be the but now is open to private individuals sole arena of government, but is also and private companies and private open to the private sector and to pri- enterprise and individual enterprise. vate individuals and private companies. The X Prize awakens us to this spir- The achievement of Mojave Aero- it with a new generation of explorers. space will no doubt spur more entre- It awakens the spirit in students who preneurial space ventures and inspire will study science and math and engi- other dreamers to become doers. neering, as well as those who have Burt Rutan’s design for SpaceShipOne been inspired toward bold innovations has been said to echo that of the X-15, in other fields.… an experimental Cold War rocket plane Today, we honor the winners of the like SpaceShipOne. It was launched in X Prize for their victory and for com- flight from a larger aircraft. It is not pleting the first privately funded, only Burt Rutan’s elegant design, how- human, suborbital space flight. We ever, that reminds us of another time. also commend the X Prize Foundation The spirit of his team and the X Prize and the 25 other teams who vied for competition recalls the spirit of the early the prize. We look forward to watching years of our nation’s space race. It commercial space transportation con- recalls the Charles Lindbergh transat- tinue to develop, engaging new lantic flight which was also the result of investors and engineers, scientists and a prize that was offered for the … first pilots in the business of exploration. nonstop trip from New York to Paris. This X Prize concept of offering a It also reminds us of Chuck Yeager, reward for an achievement, a techno- and others like Chuck Yeager, who logical achievement, is not a time that broke the records of the sound barrier is past. What we have seen, through and other records in flight. It reminds this accomplishment by Mojave us of these other moments when these Aerospace, is that this may be a vehicle other barriers were broken and new to achieve new goals in space.… opportunities were created in the Hopefully, it will encourage further accomplishment. achievements that will help the United This spirit of exploration, this drive States and all of humankind set new to push the limits of technology and records and push the frontiers.

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