The XPrize Foundation May Just Be The Catalyst To Our Next Evolutionary Leap

Commentary by ANN Correspondent Juan Jiménez

How do you communicate something that you know the recipient of the information will not understand unless it is personally experienced? That's the challenge I face as I sit here and try to translate into words the experiences of the last two days at the XPrize Cup in Las Cruces Spaceport, New Mexico.

To put it into perspective, you would have to accompany me on a time-travel adventure, back to the year 1485, to the royal court of Portugal. A young man by the name of Christopher Columbus is trying to convince the king to provide him with funding to prove his theory that the planet has more land than commonly thought by the thinkers of the time.

Having failed, he moves to Spain and makes his case in front of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. They too refuse his initial request, but to keep him from taking his ideas elsewhere they put him on the payroll for seven years.

When the Queen runs out of patience with him, Ferdinand convinces her to grant his request. A mixture of sources of venture capital was put together, a contract was granted based on an expectation that he would perhaps never return... and the rest is history.

Little is known of Columbus the Man, but clearly Columbus the Explorer was driven by a faith in his inspiration to explore. The point of the trip, however, is not to examine Columbus. What I want to show you is the people who learned of Columbus' plans, who saw his passion and who knew that this man would do something that could change the history of homo sapiens forevermore.

During these two days I saw and experienced some extraordinary things. I cannot remember the last time I attended an activity like this one, along with thousands of schoolchildren of all ages, and could not find a single one who appeared to bored or disinterested.

Struck by the uniqueness of the situation, it ocurred to me I should ask the adults who were participating in, sponsoring and organizing the event what their reasons were for their actions, and see if I could find a common factor to tie them all together.

It didn't take long to uncover it. Wes Oleszewski, creator of Klyde Morris the aviation ant and Dr. Zooch's Rockets put it into words early on when he said "Space flight is as much about inspiration as it is about exploration."

Around the corner from the modest booth where Oleszweski was drawing kids of all ages to his model rocket kits, Northrop Grumman had erected one of their fancy displays, including the requisite plasma TV's with flashy videos, and a model of the Apollo Lunar Lander.

Three members of the Northrop Grumman marketing and PR organization were gathered around a table -- Alan Ladwig, Richard Bent and John Vosilla -- so I asked them about their presence at the XPrize Cup. Northrop is a major sponsor for the XPrize Foundation, and their funding provides the Foundation with the means to organize activities such as the NASA challenges.

After talking about the benefits of funding private innovation through these activites and contests, I asked them about the children. It was as if I had flicked a switch -- all three's eyes grew wide and I could see I had struck a chord.

"XPrize directly engages the public," said Ludwig. Northrop Grumman's presence at the activity is about more than just money and sponsorship, or even about the opportunity to perhaps acquire some useful new technology, he added. "It's about increasing knowledge through inspiration."

The theme of inspiration, I discovered, was more than just talk. Everyone I talked to clearly understood that some of those children visiting the Spaceport on a Friday morning would become the future rocket and space scientists of the future. Sure, the teams vying for the prizes associated with the challenges would bring new ideas, but the real value was in putting the seed of the idea of space travel into the minds of the visiting students.

Something else made a big impression on me. XPrize did a wonderful job of using empty cargo containers into giant displays covering just about every aspect of space exploration, including its history. As I walked by a display of the moon and the Apollo 11 mission, one child turned to his dad and said "We've been to the moon??!!"

Columbus got his money and left on his trip, but it took years of work and perseverance to  achieve his goals. Even after all that work, what he is best remembered for is not even what he thought he had set out to accomplish. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done, but I believe this weekend, somewhere in the Las Cruces Airport, we just produced a new crop of explorers of the caliber of Columbus.

FMI: www.xprizecup.com