Brett Alexander and I spent last week in Hyderabad, India [1], taking part in the 2007 International Astronautical Congress [2]. We went to India mainly to talk to the international space community about the Google Lunar X PRIZE [3]--and hopefully to drum up interest from new potential teams from around the world. It's my first time back at an IAC since attending the 2003 session in Bremen, Germany, and it was a lot of fun.
The reaction to the Google Lunar X PRIZE was incredible at the conference. Hardly a session went by without some mention of the prize, either from the speakers or from people asking questions in the audience. We had a chance to talk to students and professionals from around the world, and to tell them about how they can take part of the prize. I'm confident that several new teams will arise out of conversations we've had this week--hopefully, you'll see some announcements about that soon!
India itself has been wonderful. The Indians we met, both at the conference and around town, were gracious hosts, and eager to learn about the prize and the prospects for them to get involved. As is often the case, the prize seemed particularly inspiring to students; something I've noticed as a general trend whenever I talk about any X PRIZE at a conference. I certainly feel like Indian teams could make quite a splash in the prize program, just as they have in the space industry as a whole with the development of launch vehicles, recoverable capsules, and--soon--even a lunar probe! The whole experience was quite reminiscent of passages from The World is Flat [4]--it's easy to see how the entrepreneurial spirit and an excellent higher education system are allowing India to quickly rise to the level of a world power in a number of technological fields.
The conference was well attended, especially by space professionals and students from Europe and Asia. It can be hard sometimes for us to be sure that we've reached out to those places with our prizes, but I was happy to see that most people talked to had already heard about the prize--and those that hadn't already heard we eager to learn! All in all, a very productive trip. Congratulations to the local hosting committee and to the IAF for another job well done; and here's looking forward to Glasgow, Scotland for IAC 2008!