By Hans Nilsson / Published on Mon, 2007-04-16 07:00
When the deep pockets consider what humanity needs for the future, they come up with the idea of procuring a spaceship! They then launch a procedure not unlike the Technology Procurement (TP) to tickle supplier competition for a huge price-sum. It is called X-prize. It has a high component of celebrities and stresses publicity as a driving force, at least to find the donors.
Now they have come up with a more down-to-earth project (no pun intended) for transportation. The idea is basically the same: a specification of what should be produced (just as TP), a huge reward (a little bit like TP) and a business plan are required (where TP provided real customers).
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By Hans Nilsson / Published on Tue, 2007-02-27 08:00
In 1714 the British Parliament offered £20.000 to anyone who could develop a device that enabled ships to determine their position (in terms of longitude). This was to save lives and fortunes in the cargoes and probably also to make the kings navy more influential in the oceans.
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