Mark Whittington has an interesting OSP policy alternative. It needs some tweaking–I’d offer second and third prizes, as well, to reduce risk to contestants, and reduce the turnaround requirement to a week, which would probably keep Boeing and Lockmart from playing.

Which actually raises an interesting question.

If, by some political miracle, the government actually did put out a prize for OSP functionality rather than a cost-plus contract, would they play? They hate to spend their own money on something with no guaranteed return (and much smaller payoff than the current multi-billion program), but if they bow out of the competition, they risk an upstart going after and winning it, and not only cutting them out of that game, but showing the absurdity and waste of the current NASA procurement system, which would be a major blow to their future.

It’s a no-win situation for them. Ergo, expect them to be the strongest voices in lobbying against such an approach.