# Wish Me Luck, I'm Pitching an Idea to NASA **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 15, 2007, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762 "2007-10-15T06:14:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762/21 "2007-10-16T18:48:00Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] ok. I just didn’t have all the details from your submission. c’mon link to it. [/QUOTE] Post #6. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762/22 "2007-10-16T20:02:45Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] \ One of their categories in their [Create the Future Contest](http://www.createthefuturecontest.com/index.html) is for “Transportation.” Given that the top prize is $20K, I figured that it couldn’t hurt to enter my idea for a steam car (especially since I and my “minions” are busily working on a proposal for a Google grant in vehicle-to-grid designs). If they accept my entry and publish it on their site, I’ll post the link so you folks can point to it and laugh ;). And if anyone has any pointers after looking it over, please let me know. —— Now, I’m going to pour myself a drink and get blotto’d if you don’t mind. [/QUOTE] Congratulations! (On getting your proposal accepted and published to the site, not on getting blotto.) I hesitate to comment, because you obviously did a lot of work and most of it is beyond my scope of criticism. If what I have to offer is less than helpful, please feel free to dismiss it out of hand. I think the written explanation of your idea could use some fine tuning. > [@](#): > > One solution avoids all of those problems as well has the adaptability to be used no matter what, if any, fuel becomes dominant, but on as wide a variety of vehicles and devices as the internal combustion engine is now. e.g. I do understand the word limit and other constraints, but a lot of it seems clunky to me. I mean this as a useful critique, although I must admit I am consumed with jealously. My idea for a car powered solely by my sense of self-satisfaction was rejected. ---
**Author:** ![Kuboydal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecb155/32.png) [@Kuboydal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuboydal)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762/23 "2007-10-16T20:06:08Z")
Isaac Asimov space ship engines were often, basically, steam engines. It must be quite fun to have any sort of interaction with NASA. I would be quite proud. (I bet you if you had data cassette programming for your car they would pay particular attention) ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762/24 "2007-10-16T20:39:59Z")
[QUOTE=SiXSwordS] Congratulations! (On getting your proposal accepted and published to the site, not on getting blotto.) I hesitate to comment, because you obviously did a lot of work and most of it is beyond my scope of criticism. If what I have to offer is less than helpful, please feel free to dismiss it out of hand. I think the written explanation of your idea could use some fine tuning. e.g. I do understand the word limit and other constraints, but a lot of it seems clunky to me. I mean this as a useful critique, although I must admit I am consumed with jealously. My idea for a car powered solely by my sense of self-satisfaction was rejected. [/QUOTE] You’re right, it is clunky. I missed it because I was having to trim so much to meet the length requirements. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762/25 "2007-10-16T22:35:56Z")
No Orbital Goat Cannon? \< **Bosda** gets teary-eyed\> ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2007, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762/26 "2007-10-17T09:48:55Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] No Orbital Goat Cannon? \< **Bosda** gets teary-eyed\> [/QUOTE] Considering what happened to [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Bull) who tried to build an orbital cannon, I think I’ll pass on trying to develop the idea, thank you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wish-me-luck-im-pitching-an-idea-to-nasa/422762.md?page=1)