Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, has introduced a bill offering prizes for amateur asteroid sightings. It's done in honor of astronaut Pete Conrad (who was also a space entrepreneur, having founded Universal Space Lines, though the article doesn't mention it).

I was confused about the prize, however:

The first category is an award for the amateur astronomer who discovers the largest asteroid crossing in near-Earth orbit...

How will they know when someone has won? There's no way to tell that a larger one isn't out there somewhere still awaiting discovery. There would have to be some kind of time limit on it (say, an annual award for the largest object found in a calendar year) for this to make any sense.

What I really like about this is that it sets a precedent for government-sponsored prizes, which could have a much larger impact on improving access to space than any number of NASA's technology programs, if properly deployed.

This sounds like something I once proposed. Instead of a prize, though, I suggested that anyone discovering an Earth approaching asteroid receive full ownership of the asteroid, with a clause strickly limiting liability if the rock actually hit the Earth, but spared any lawyers.

One of the things that I've wondered about is theabsence of prizes for space developments. In the early days of aircraft, there were a huge variety of prizes for what were, at the time, considered enormous achievements, including distance, speed, crossing the English Channel, flying to Paris, etc. IIRC, they were an enormous impetus for Curtiss, Bleriot, Wright, Seversky, and the other early pioneers of flight. Why are there not similar prizes for space-flight?

I've wondered about this for a while. In the early days of flight, there were a variety of prizes offered, which seemed to have spurred technological innovation. This included things like (iirc) first plane to cross the Channel, first plane to reach X height or Y speed, to do a particular course in a set time, etc. These prizes (and the glory, more than the money) spurred folks like Bleriot, Curtiss, Seversky, etc. One would think prizes (adn the attendant glory) would be a draw today?