Somehow appropriately, given the character of the run-up to the 2016 elections, poop has literally gone viral on the web. Google search NASA Poop and in about .30 seconds, you’ll have 140,000 perspectives on a final frontier few think much about when experiencing the grace of space to the Blue Danube Waltz—defecation. The sudden interest isn’t just a fecal matter. It’s the $30,000 prize for the innovator who gives NASA a practical solution for dispensing with human space waste.
And that’s where Hero X comes in.
RADICAL INNOVATION
Forward-looking tech industry leaders—mostly millennials—have changed not only the way we think about what’s possible, but also the way we tap into human spirit and ingenuity to achieve the impossible. Any kid with a big mind can tackle problems the likes of which even NASA can’t solve. Suddenly things like degrees, resumes, references, work experience, what to wear to an interview lose all meaning. Race, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, disabilities . . . none of that matters in the world of innovation competition. The only thing that matters is a real solution to a real problem.
Twelve years ago, Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne won XPrize Foundation’s first challenge—getting a privately built craft to space. The Sealed Composites team won $10 million. That was a huge challenge requiring huge investments and huge risks. It was fun to watch that unfold, but participation beyond a small minority of those on the inside was pretty inaccessible.
The new problem for radical innovation was how to bring the brain power of the rest of the world to bear. And that’s what HeroX does—taps into what it calls a “community of problem solvers.” HeroX is “a means to democratize the innovation model of XPRIZE,” HeroX explains. According to the HeroX partners XPrize and City Light Capital, HeroX means “to harness the collective mind power of a community to innovate upon any problem or opportunity.” It’s crowdfunding on steroids. It’s the catalyst to bring people and their perspectives and smarts from around the world together, laser focused on a single problem. Suddenly, the impossible isn’t so impossible anymore.
HeroX argues in that optimistic millennial style that may make more senior, old-think, old-world, staples-in-the-top-left-corner-of-the-document industry leaders cringe, “Anyone can change the world.”
MORE THAN SPACE
While some might hear about the NASA funded HeroX meadow muffin challenge and stop and say, “That’s for me” and look no further, there are hundreds of ways to help change the world. Education problems, human rights challenges, municipal development problems—from solving traffic problems in Cairo to bringing bio-conversion to Vietnam, the opportunities are as varied as they are intriguing.
And as far as space fertilizer goes, the community of more than 10,000 problem solvers has about twenty days left to devise “a system that routes and collects human waste away from the body, hands-free, for fully suited astronauts.”
Good luck.
