January 20, 2008
GeekDad Wins NASA Glove Design Challenge
NASA had a $200,000 challenge to design a better spacesuit glove, and this guy won it. He had his 15 year old son take photos and video of it.
"One of the things I wanted to show them is that if you set your mind to something, you can do just about anything," he said. "I didn't know if I was going to win the contest or not, but I wanted them to see me see it through."
That's fantastic. I think the government should open more problems like this up to the public, in the form of challenges. One idea I've had for awhile is based on something I read about solar power--that a solar array of something like one square mile could provide a staggering amount of electricity to the western states. Why don't they offer things like this up as challenges? A US$1B government grant to the plan that would offer the most power. And then sell give the grid to, I don't know, a nonprofit corporation jointly owned and managed by the states that would get power from this thing. Don't you think?
Glove story link via GeekDad.
Posted by dham at January 20, 2008 2:57 PM | TrackBack