Questions for Peter Diamandis

A. PERSONAL
[BROCK]
In academic circles, Ph.D.s are often called "doctor," but you are
actually a medical doctor, an M.D., and you also have a degree in
aerospace engineering.

(a) How did you go from aerospace to medicine and back to aerospace
again?  And what stirred your interest in space, particularly in space
transportation and tourism, and in founding ZERO-G?

[CHRIS] 
(b) You have been very involved in education, as co-founder, first
managing director, and trustee of the International Space University,
and as founder and chairman of Students for the Exploration and
Development of Space (SEDS), the world's largest student space
organization. How did you become interested in space education, and
what role do you see for students today in the exploration and
development of space?


B. X-PRIZE FOUNDATION

B1. MONEY MATTERS

[MATT/RICARDO] 
The X-Prize is an ingenious incentive for getting private parties
involved in reducing the cost of space transportation. However, the
cost to design and build an X-plane will likely exceed $10 million. By
comparison, NASA's Space Launch Initiative is providing $45 million to
potential candidates just to design an Orbital Space Plane System.

[RICARDO]
(a) What development costs are we potentially talking about for the
X-Prize contestants?  Do you think that the $10 million prize will
substantially amortize their investments?

(b) How much money have you raised so far?

[MATT]
(c) Has your organization considered increasing the prize amount?

[RICARDO]
(d) What would be the role of the X-prize Foundation once the prize is
won?  Is the winning team expected to share potential economical
benefits with the Foundation?


B2. THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT

[MATT] 
The cost of launching payloads into space is currently very high
(about $10,000 per lb.).  What if it is proves impossible to lower
this cost significantly without some massive, perhaps even global,
investment of capital, incomparable to all prior evolutions of
transportation?

(a) Would not government funding then be the only means to make space
affordable to mankind?

(b) Why has your organization chosen to discourage government-funded
researchers from competing for this prize?

[KYLE]
(c) Although the purposes of X-Prize are very important and welcomed
by NASA and other space agencies, do you think that NASA and the US
government will attempt to take over the project if it sees promise in
the products?

[MICHAEL]
(d) What is the status of the regulatory hurdles needed to be overcome to
allow the demonstrated technology from the X-prize contest to be
commercially viable?


C.  DESIGNS

[ANDREW] 
We have been thinking a lot about the space industry during this
semester, and we have from time to time talked about better/faster/
cheaper methods to get into space.

(a) What fundamental changes do you expect to see in the vehicle that
wins the prize as compared to the Space Shuttle or Soviet Boran
vehicles?

[JENN]
(b) Which design concept do you think has the best chance of winning
the X-Prize?

[KYLE]
(c) With the limited funding that many of the X-Prize teams receive
and the extreme costs required, don't you speculate that the best
designs/working models will end up being the most well-funded, thus
canceling out the prize money involved?

D. TIMELINES

[ANDREW]
The big question that we all have is: "When will the prize be won?"
I'm sure there are as many different answers as there are teams, but
what is your feeling on the matter?

(a) Have you seen anything in particular that gives you hope that it
will be sooner rather than later?

[MICHAEL]
(b) How robust do you see the commercial applications of X-planes
becoming?  (jobs/revenue in 10/20 years?)

E. SPACE TOURISM

[KYLE]
(a) There is a small but growing number of space tourism companies,
including Space Adventures, which you co-founded, that offer
high-altitude flights flown out of Russia that let customers
experience low-gravity and see the edge of space. How well do you
think space tourism companies will do once X-planes become a reality?

(b) Will there ever be a space tourism market for the average-income
person or will space forever remain the playground of the rich?

[MICHAEL]
(c) What timeline do you see for space tourisim to be in permanent
orbit or around the moon?


F. COLUMBIA DISASTER

[ANDREW]
(a) Since the Columbia disaster, have there been any changes in the
support for the X-Prize? What are the predominant questions being
asked about the prize?

[JENN]
(b) Has the Columbia disaster created a greater emphasis on safety in
X-plane designs?