New Recreation Center Challenges Students to Greater Heights ...

Mines Competition on the Forefront of Space 2.0as rotating arms that allowed thecraft to lower the pontoons whenentering the water and raise themwhen exiting.Van Laanen said the Mines teamwas in fourth place when the frontfork of its device crumpled. Anticipatingthe design’s weak spot, the teamcame equipped with a spare. But therepair cost them about 30 minutes—the same amount of time between theteam’s finish and that of the overallwinner, Van Laanen noted.Each member of the team was assigneda unique role: Rodgers servedas a judge, Hudish and Stackhousewere the pilots, Germer and Hammeroperated as the pit crew, and Steinhoffand Trostel were photographers.Funding for the annual designchallenge is provided by LockheedMartin and the Thorson Fund, a SeniorDesign endowment.Mines sees the future in “Space2.0”—the expanding business andinvestment opportunities opened upby a new era of space exploration.The Lunar Ventures Student BusinessPlan Competition, developed byMines’ Center for Space Resources,brings new ideas to the field of spacecommerce. The student competitionconsiders business plans, designedby college students from across thecountry, to integrate space technology into the global economy.“Our strong field of finalists exemplifies where space commerce is heading,” saidAngel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at Mines. “Eachteam provides a glimpse of what the coming new era of space business is going tolook like and the very real possibilities for the next wave of development and practicalapplication of existing and emerging technologies.”In the first annual Lunar Ventures competition,held on campus in May, students competed as entrepreneursbefore a national panel of judges withboth technical and business expertise. The judgesselected 10 finalist teams—three of which werefrom Mines—to compete for $25,000 in cash andadditional services to help launch their ventures,including an opportunity for a $100,000 investment.A team from San Diego State University wasdeclared the winner. The team’s venture, OmegaSensors, Inc. (OSI), offers improved accelerometertechnology. Applications range from increasingoil production to improving space vehicle navigationsystems.A team composed of Mines physics graduatestudents Darick Baker, Luke Erikson and WilliamRance, along with Erik Spahr from the College ofWilliam and Mary, placed as one of three runnersup.Their venture, Kronos, develops technologyand commercial markets for collecting meteoriteson the Earth and later on the moon.The Kronos team won a $3,000 prize, plus a chance to present their venture toNASA and to a Silicon Valley investor’s forum on space technologies to be held thisfall. The other runners-up included students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Georgia Institute of Technology, and Emory University.“Each team’s submission offers a unique vision for bringing space resources andtechnology into today’s marketplace,”said Gary Cadenhead, Lunar Venturesdirector. “Many of these ventures, likegrand champion OSI and the threerunners-up, are fundable today.”Mines will host the competitionagain in 2008. For more informationon Lunar Ventures, go towww.8clunarventures.com.Colorado School of Mines 7