NASA has just announced their own version of the X-Prize: Centential Challenges. Seems they will earmark $20 million "for revolutionary, breakthrough accomplishments that advance exploration of the solar system and beyond and other NASA goals" in the fiscal 2005 budget.
Seems NASA is finally starting to pay attention to some of Robert Zubrin’s arguments in The Case for Mars
It’s about time too. We need something other than president Bush’s empty promises about a new direction for the space program. Quite frankly, if you plan farther ahead than a decade (which Bush has done) you probably won’t make your goals. This is primarily because of the whims of changing presidential administrations
As an example, President Nixon squashed our interest in going to Mars soon after he got into office. This was coming off the success of the moon landings that Kennedy initiated. New administration, new plans. Nixon felt we were better off in low earth orbit with a space shuttle he could use as a political weapon against the Russians (they actually thought we would use it to bomb them from space).
Had President Kennedy’s original plans been followed we might have been on Mars in 1986.