But no company would ever do it on the hopes for a prize- if they did then lawyers like you would have a lot of business with their stockholders suing them...

The fact is 'prizes' are only public relations... the real money comes from other sources-

This isnt arrogance, Rich, but I do know far more about this than you do... I have lived it and worked with companies, and yes I am quite convincing- not only that but I made a presentation to one company with about 5 other representatives of the scientific community all urging them to take on this project...

The sad thing is what we want has been built, but only by a brilliant team of government funded scientists- we need something that can be supported by a company years from now.... Hell with a few 100 thousand and all my time I could build one myself in a year, but we need to know the parts for replacement will be there so we need a company to build it and support it...

The VAST majority of important research wouldn't be done under your model... I have seen so many esoteric research projects that almost immediately have commercial applications... and once they do the tax payers get their money back by taxes on the new product- new tech is what makes america a superpower...
Quite frankly, our scientists have made the modern world, (Yeah I will get flamed for this, but it does not change the fact that it is true) Look at the publications , yes we are a richer and larger country and thats why we do more... but we are richer and more productive because we invest so much in research...

You often hear about others buying our tech, how often does the US need to rely on the tech of other countries?

The only humans to walk on the moon were americans, and taxpayers paid a lot for that- it was worth it, had Kennedy said "10 billion to the first company to land a human on the moon" we would still be waiting for that first footprint... and the prize would still be unclaimed...

Quite frankly, Rich, you dont have any experience on your topic, and you dont seem bright enough to learn- You made a mistake posting on a site where some people actually understand the subject and its economics... in short you are in way over your head here...