Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman & CEO of X Prize Foundation

I watched the X Prize competition unfold last year on the Discovery channel which chronicled Paul Allen's team led by Burt Rutain as they won the $10 million prize. The man that started it all spoke at Sloan on Thursday as part of the Dean's Innovative Leader Series. This was perhaps the most inspirational talk I've seen in the last year (which is saying a lot).

Peter Diamandis' bio

Notes:

Attended MIT from 1980-1989 (aero/astro)

Two of his favorite quotes:
" Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead
"The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself."

It is a moral imperative to move out into the cosmos

A group of 20 people can now build a spaceship

Why Explore?
- Curiosity. But this is a weak motivation. He believes we'll find life on Mars eventually and thinks life is abundant in space.
- Wealth. The first trillionaires will be made in space.
- Fear. "Back up the biosphere"

Nothing is impossible. JFK said we were going to the moon and we hadn't even put someone in orbit yet. It only took 8 years to do it.

Average age of people that worked on Apollo: 26

They were still too young to think they couldn't do it

20,000 people and $1 billion to launch the Shuttle each time

It costs $20 million for a private individual to go to space

The "energy" cost is about $100 to put someone in space. That means there is lot of opportunity to go from $20M to $100

Suboribtal vehicle will drop to $20,000 in next 8 yrs

With the X Prize, they'd only pay if someone succeeded

"Offer a prize and they will come"

26 teams from 7 nations entered

Most people in class raised hand when asked if they think they'll be able to go to space in their lifetime

Prize modeled after the prize Lindberg won crossing the Atlantic

Several new prizes will be announced soon

X Prize Cup

Timeline:
Zero gravity flights: Now
Suborbital flights: 2008
Orbital flights: 2010
Moon and beyond: 1018

Future prizes: create radical breakthroughs in space and other technologies

Space, energy, automobile (should easily have 300-500 miles per gallon), environmental, nano, genetics, medicine, education, poverty

Cost of going to space has gone up over the last 40 yrs with safety staying the same or decreasing - this is a broken system

Prizes are about changing the world, creating heroes, launching new industries, taking risks

We are killing ourselves in this country by our unwillingness to take risks

"The most critical tool for solving humanities grand challenges is the committed, passionate human mind."

One of his goals is to be the first private citizen to step on the moon

Got a "hole in one" policy to help fund the X Prize

X Prize died a thousand deaths but ultimately succeeded

You will encounter failure over and over and over again

How you handle failure will determine your success

You have to be passionate about what you are working on or you won't accept the failures