Ansari and the X-Prize

I'd like to congratulate Anousheh Ansari and Amir Ansari for joining the fold.

Perhaps, we could encourage the the X-Prize in general to increase the prize which would garner more attention and greater investment in private space travel.

I also think the Ansari family did a good service for the cause of space exploration. They could just have paid US$20 Million like Denis Tito and gone on a holiday spending the same amount that Paul Allen spent getting Scaled's SS1 to the air. (To be fair Tito has also given to the XPrize and plans on spending in private space travel, maybe in the XPrize winner?)

However the X Prize cash can't grow that much. The idea is to atract small innovators and not great corporations. Also the money should also go to the cultural/advocacy activities the XPrize foundation carries out. Once the price is won, it will have to advertise the fact a lot to attract investment and expand the field. Venture capital will think the XPrize is like the world speed record for rocket cars, most people won't even see the investment oportunity. So there's a lot of education to carry out.

In my country (Chile) politicall bickering just destroyed the air force satellite program. Nobody shed a single tear. Space is that underrated. XPrize is global scale advocacy. That's going to cost time and money. So they might save some cash right now.

But yes, the Ansari family saved the X Prize. The money was about gone. So it's right that it carries their name.