Brock
2012-01-28 14:30:12
This. NASA could take the 10% of its budget dedicated to prize money each year and place it with a custodial bank, such as State Street or Bank of New York. Interest would be paid to NASA while the cash was held with the bank, and the bank would either pay out the prize when a review board determined the conditions to be met, or it would return the cash to NASA upon the expiration of X years.
Using this approach NASA could pre-fund dozens of prizes in the $100 – $200 million range every fiscal year, with time limits as long as you like. A future Congress can’t un-spend that money.
