Contact: Art Dula, art@dula.com, 713-861-1960

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2009 – Houston, Texas

SMALL STEPS TOWARD GREAT BENEFITS:
Finalists in the Microgravity research competition announced

Past Announcements:
Competition Announced
Proposals Entered

The means to save the Earth? End hunger? Cure diseases? Among the entrants to this competition is the potential to reap enormous benefits all of us on Earth, and for our planet itself.

Three finalists in the Microgravity Research Competition, sponsored by The Heinlein Prize Trust, SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies), and the Rice Alliance have been chosen. This competition gives student researchers an exciting opportunity to advance their projects in the ultimate laboratory—in Low Earth Orbit in the microgravity environment of a private spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon.

Among the finalists’ proposals are the means to vastly improve drug delivery into patients’ systems, and improve particle filtration, extend the shelf life of food products and pharmaceuticals, and may even lead to a cure for the type of staph infection that plagues everyone from children in kindergarten to hospital intensive care patients.

These finalists are:

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston -- Decoupling Diffusive Transport Phenomena

Microgravity allows for analysis of microparticle diffusive transport to investigate molecular diffusion at the nanoscale. A better understanding of nanoscale diffusion will impact drug delivery applications on earth and in space.

Universities Space Research Association -- Low-Gravity Colloidal Engineering

The development and use of colloids – mixtures where one substance is dispersed evenly throughout another – affects everything from practical concerns about product shelf life, to when order arises out of disorder, to the development of advanced carbon-electronics.

Durham VA Medical Center/Duke University -- Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), has become the commonest US infection from kindergarten skin lesions to intensive care unit medicine. Study of Staphylococcus aureus interactions with microscopic worms (nematodes) in space will allow understanding of the molecular mediators of bacterial invasion, and may identify protective strategies from therapeutics to vaccine production.

(Finalists’ proposal summaries at: http://www.labflight.com/html/finalists.html )

Representatives of these three universities will present their proposals to judges on April 17, 2009 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. The winner will be announced at the awards banquet for the 2009 Rice University Business Plan Competition hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, April 18, 2009.

The winning project will receive a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from Low Earth Orbit for the winning experiment aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

“Decades of demonstrations have shown that the microgravity of space provides a unique window on biological and physical processes,” said Art Dula, Trustee of The Heinlein Prize Trust. “Because of substantial recent funding by NASA and the private sector, access to microgravity will soon be more commonplace. This opens an incredibly exciting opportunity for the research community,” Dula said.

Visit www.heinleinprize.com for press release, photos, and logo graphics
Contact: Art Dula, art@dula.com, 713-861-1960

“SpaceX is excited to offer our Dragon spacecraft as a platform for in-space experimentation services to mainstream researchers,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and CTO. "We plan to fly ‘DragonLab’ missions starting in 2010 for this express purpose,” Musk said.

Visit www.labflight.com for full contest information

“We very pleased to participate in this important competition,” said Brad Burke, managing director, Rice Alliance, “because of the important role of commercializing the promising technology research and innovations”.

www.alliance.rice.edu/alliance

About The Heinlein Prize Trust

The Heinlein Prize Trust is a non-profit foundation which promotes the commercial uses of space. It provides financial prizes to commercial space entrepreneurs, enhances public awareness of commercial space, and uses space to inspire students about opportunities of the next frontier. For more information, see www.heinleinprize.com.

“Our race will spread out through space—unlimited room, unlimited energy, unlimited wealth. This is certain.” –Robert A. Heinlein

About SpaceX

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 vehicles, SpaceX offers highly reliable/cost-efficient light, medium and heavy lift capabilities for spacecraft insertion into any orbital altitude and inclination. In addition, the Dragon spacecraft provides Earth to LEO transport of pressurized and unpressurized instruments, cargo, and crew, including resupply to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2010.

SpaceX was recently awarded a Cargo Resupply Services contract by NASA. The $1.6B contract includes 12 flights between 2010 and 2015 with a guaranteed minimum of 20,000 kg to be transported to the ISS.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 650, with corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, California. For more information, please visit www.spacex.com.


About Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship

The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship (Rice Alliance) is Rice University’s flagship initiative devoted to the support of technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and the launch of technology companies.

Since inception, the Rice Alliance has assisted in the launch of more than 230 technology start-ups which have raised more than $500 million in early-stage capital.

The Rice Alliance is host to the Rice Business Plan Competition, the largest and richest business plan competition in world. Thirty-six graduate schools compete for over $700,000 in prizes each year.

HEINLEIN PRIZE HOME | HEINLEIN ARCHIVES | MISSION STATEMENT | PRIZE DETAILS | NOMINATIONS | NEWS | BIOGRAPHIES | HEINLEIN'S WRITINGS | ON SPACE TRAVEL | THIS I BELIEVE | HEINLEIN SOCIETY | CONTACT US