DARPA The Grand Challenge.

Seems to me the DARPA boys are running low on ideas. sO THEY MADE A CONTEST TO SEE IF REAGULAR PEOPLE AND COMPANIES CAN MAKE A ROBOT CAR THAT WOULD RUN FROM CALI TO LAS VEGAS. HERES THE COMPLETE STORY. www.space.com...

sorry about the caps my board is stuck

I think that getting entrepreneurs involved in defense development, especially low-tech projects, breaks DARPA out of some rather stodgy molds.

Perhaps just as important - this move can actually challenge the big boys like Raytheon, Gen. Dynamics, etc - to conduct their projects with similar "out of the box" imagination and cost effectiveness.

Much like this robotic vehicle project is the X-Project for making a commercially reusable space vehicle -

These comparatively smalltime guys like Burt Rutan are doing things that have definitely raised the eyebrows of defense industry movers and shakers.

I was walking down a hallway at an east coast AFB where there are a lot of defense industry execs and I heard some AF colonel talking to an exec from a major aerospace company about the X-project... one of the things overheard was something like...

"They did it how?"... "Daaaamn, we wouldn't have done it that way, but I guess with less money at your disposal that would make sense..."

DARPA will be observing the cost effectiveness of these small businesses and as such will be further enabled to hold the "big boys" more accountable with their spending.

Good move DARPA!



[Edited on 25-2-2004 by intelgurl]

Exactly. I foregot the phrase outta the box. I mean people who work for aerospace or defense dont allways have the answers so they are looking to the regular joe to see what he can do better. Kinda sucks if you make a break throught and dont get any credit. Lets hope that wont happen.

its actually pretty cool what their doing with their darpa project their first warrior is coming out 2010 and will work along side the OICW...i heard that with an unmaned combat system they can just paint the target and blow it up...no need to get the robot tank back...its an ingenius system

I agree - this is a great idea. Just think of how many millions of dollars it will probably save