Knappster: Bigelow gears up to unveil $50 mil. space research prize

By George Knapp

Las Vegas businessman Bob Bigelow is about to send a jolt through the space industry. Bigelow is preparing to announce the creation of a $50 million prize for the first team that can develop a new generation of re-usable space vehicles.

Bigelow revealed details about his proposed American Space Prize to Knappster a few months ago on the condition that nothing would be printed until everything was finalized. That moment is almost here.

This week in the Southern California desert, the first attempt will be made to claim the "Ansari X Prize," an award of $10 million to the first team that can build a reusable, sub-orbital spacecraft. That competition has spurred the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars into space designs by private interests all over the planet. Bigelow believes his proposed award of $50 million will provide a much larger jumpstart to the private commercial space industry and could usher in a new space race.

"I would estimate that it will generate at least 10 times as much investiment as the size of the award," Bigelow told the Mercury this week. "It will mean at least $500 million will be spent by teams to pursue the prize, but more likely the total amount will be closer to a billion dollars in new investment."

It's not entirely altruistic on his part. Bigelow has put up a huge portion of his own fortune for the development and construction of a new generation of space habitats at his sprawling plant in North Las Vegas. (Readers of the Mercury are familiar with his Nautilus and Genesis designs, the first of which is due to be launched into space a little more than a year from now.) For his plans to ultimately succeed, Bigelow says, he and the world will need a reliable, reusable spacecraft.

Whoever wins the $50 million will have to go far beyond what the X Prize winners accomplish. The winner of the American Space Prize will need to design a craft that can dock at well more than 100 miles altitude, carry a crew of five and can survive a re-entry while traveling at 17,500 mph. The company must be based in the United States and won't be allowed to put any government money into the project. Foreign investment is allowed, as long as it comes from private sources and is funneled through an American host company.

Bigelow hoped to make his announcement this week during the Ansari X Prize proceedings in Mojave, but he is not quite ready to make it official. He has committed to putting up half of the $50 million, but doesn't know for certain yet where the other half will come from. NASA reportedly expressed initial interest in ponying up the other $25 million but has developed the bureaucratic equivalent of cold feet over the past few days. Bigelow is confident he will be able to convince NASA and/or other private interests to come up with the rest of the cash. "I expect to be able to make an announcement by Thanksgiving," he told Knappster.

As noted on these pages in the past, Bigelow's huge personal gamble on new space habitats could result in astounding changes in how governments and corporations view the commercialization of space. Now the $50 American Space Prize could mean that taxpayers will no longer have to foot all the bills for getting people and equipment up there into the wild blue. It's simply amazing that such profound events are unfolding here in our own back yard.

This week's Monorail Moment

As we all await the results of the intensive, ongoing inspection of the troubled Las Vegas Monorail, alert reader Jim C. asks a pertinent question. He wonders why this monorail has had so many mechanical problems, while the smaller, cheaper systems operated for years by the Mandalay and MGM properties ran just fine? We don't recall hearing any stories about tires falling off or doors opening of their own accord during all of the tens of thousands of trips made by those lesser monorails.

The MGM's monorail, since absorbed into the Las Vegas Monorail system, featured trains that were originally purchased from Disney. That's right. MGM bought used Disney technology and it worked just fine. It would seem that the inexperience of LVM's well-connected juice merchants is starting to show. If they wanted to build a pie-in-the-sky fantasy train, they probably should have consulted with the experts in all things make-believe.

Keeper of the Flame

Descending from the heights of mystical Mount Journalismo this week, the keeper of the Binion flame was gracious enough to pass out a few tips to lesser scribes. When he isn't cavorting in the heavens with other immortals, the Keeper seems to spend much of his time as the public relations mouthpiece and cheerleader for the Binion/Behnen families. Woe to any other wretched writer who dares to mention the sacred family names.

This time, the Keeper wants his flock to know that former City

Councilman Steve Miller is not to be trusted, especially on all matters related to the holiest of scriptures--the Binion murder trial transcripts. See, Miller filed an ethics complaint back in April 2002 alleging that Judge Joe Bonaventure, the jurist who presided over the first Ted Binion murder trial, was out of line when he attended a book-signing party at Binion's Horseshoe. The book in question was written by none other than the Keeper himself. It's not surprising that the event would be held at the Horseshoe, which was owned back then by the generous families whose bidding the Keeper has done for many years.

Those critics who felt the book was a bit one-sided in favor of the prosecution and the Binion/Behnen families were surprised to see the presiding judge show up and autograph copies of the book in the presence of the prosecutors, the Binion family and the Keeper himself. It struck some as being a bit too chummy. And since Judge Bonaventure still had jurisdiction over the case and would be the recipient of any post-conviction motions, some wondered whether he was really impartial.

Steve Miller filed a complaint with Nevada's Judicial Discipline Commission, alleging that the judge had crossed the line by creating at least an appearance of bias. The Keeper notes that Miller is not an expert about the Holy Binion Scriptures and thus is not to be believed. He also points out that both the prosecution and the defense seem happy to have Bonaventure preside over the retrial in the Binion case. (The murder verdicts against Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish were tossed out by a higher court after it was determined the judge made mistakes in the first trial, an event that truly must have tested the Keeper's grip on reality.)

It's true that Miller is no expert on trial matters, but he is a citizen of this state, which gives him an absolute right to file an ethics complaint. It's also true that he isn't the only person to file an ethics complaint against the judge. A second complaint was filed on the same grounds. Yet 28 months later, the Judicial Discipline Commission hasn't even held a hearing on the complaints. Six times, the commission has scheduled the matter, and six times it has voted to allow more time to "investigate." Its most recent decision to delay the matter further means that Judge Bonaventure will be allowed to preside over the re-trial without any review of his impartiality. This isn't the Enron case. It's not all that complicated. Why does it take more than two years to decided whether the judge was out of bounds when he attended the Keeper's little party? It's not fair to the judge to leave this hanging over his head for so long.

That was the point made by the media outlets that covered the story last week. The commission, which operates in total secrecy, will not answer questions about this or any other complaint. It will not acknowledge whether such complaints were even filed, and it sure as hell won't explain why it takes more than 28 months to make up its mind about a question that is pretty simple. The fact that the Keeper would rise to defend the judge and the commission, even though the whole thing was set into motion because of the Keeper's own book party, suggests that those mortal scribes who live down here below the clouds don't really need any lessons in ethics or standards from the gods above.

Names and faces

The word is out about those prolific Norwegian roof rats that have now spread to neighborhoods east of the Strip. The rats are belived to have arrived hidden in palm trees that were imported by the Prince of Brunei, who owns a home in Spanish Trail. The rats quickly mulitipled and nearly overran Spanish Trail, then spread to the Scotch 80s neighborhood miles to the east. And now they've been seen east of the Strip in older downtown neighborhoods. A word of advice about dealing with rats--if you put out traps or poison, you have a pretty good chance of killing or maiming the cats and dogs in your neighborhood. A better idea might be to go the the Lied Animal Shelter and adopt the biggest, meanest outdoor cat you can find, and let him loose in your yard. The cats from the shelter are all fixed and have their shots, so letting them run loose to catch rats will be of no harm to anyone...except Mr. Rat himself. ... Also on the animal beat, if you have a sick pet and live in the North Rancho area, you might consider the services of the Cheyenne Tonopah Animal Hospital. I offer this shameless plug because the two veterinarians who operate the hospital, Drs. J.C. Wilson and Stewart Vanderlinden, donate a huge chunk of their time and expertise to taking care of sick animals from the shelter. They don't get paid, get no public slaps on the back, but they give their all to helping animals that would otherwise have no chance of survival. ... One of the primary contenders for the abovementioned X Prize is expected to be a Canadian group known as the Da Vinci Team. It turns out that the primary sponsor of the Da Vinci effort is a casino--the Golden Palace Online Casino, founded in 1997 in the Mohawk terriroty of Canada. ... Say, did the IRS really serve search warrants recently on a local used car dealer, seeking evidence of whether the dealer has been funneling money to the Hamas terror organization? If anyone has further information, I'm ready when you are.