We want to explore the use of prizes, which have been used in the West since the late Seventeenth Century and have had a big impact... We want to explore the use of prizes where, if we have a goal we want to achieve, let's set up a prize and whichever entrepreneur gets there first gets the money.
Ours should be the goal of getting into space as a private citizen, without the need to join the government's astronaut program. During the past twenty years no program has brought us close, now its time to try something new. Prizes effectively opened aviation to the general public; perhaps the right prize can do the same for space travel. That's what the X Prize is all about.
Peter H. Diamandis is chairman of the X Prize Foundation and founder of the International Space University.