NASA's 20-20-20 Airship Program Requests Your Input
Alina Kiessling Jet Propulstion Laboratory
NASA is considering a stratospheric airship challenge to incentivize the demonstration of a long-duration scientific platform for the Earth and space sciences. In 2013 a Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) study ("Airships: A New Horizon for Science") demonstrated significant interest from the academic community and potential industrial partners in airships as science platforms. The final study report can be found at http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/airship/final-report.pdf.
The Request for Information (RFI) issued by NASA Headquarters in conjunction with a possible NASA Centennial Challenge to build a stratospheric airship as a platform for Earth science and astrophysics can be viewed at http://go.usa.gov/7hfS
The full RFI text and response templates are linked on the right side of the page under "All Files" and are linked below under RESOURCES. Comments must be submitted no later than 5:00 pm Eastern Time on 1 December 2014 to Sam Ortega at [email protected]. Please put "202020 Challenge" in the subject line.
If the proposed Airships 20-20-20 Challenge is selected to proceed, there will be a two-stage challenge: first, to build an airship that flies with a small (20 kg) payload for 20 hours at 20 km; and second, to fly a 200 kg payload for 200 hours at 20 km. This would put us well on the path toward creating a transformative capability for Earth and space science. There is an anticipated $2 million to $3 million prize purse associated with this challenge.
One of the criteria NASA will use in deciding whether to proceed with the Challenge will be interest among the community. This includes interest both in participating in the Challenge and in seeing stratospheric airships as a viable science platform. Please consider sending a response to the RFI indicating your interest in seeding the development of airships, and feel free to comment on the proposed structure of the Challenge as well, if you have ideas for how it can be improved.
Please contact Alina A. Kiessling with any questions.