The Prix Guzman was a 100,000 franc prize announced on December 17, 1900 by the French Académie des Sciences to "the person of whatever nation who will find the means within the next ten years of communicating with a star and of receiving a response." It was sponsored by Clara Gouget Guzman in honor of her son Pierre. Pierre Guzman had been interested in the work of Camille Flammarion

Camille Flammarion

Nicolas Camille Flammarion was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and several works about Spiritism and related topics. He also published the magazine...

, the author of La planète Mars et ses conditions d'habitabilité (The Planet Mars and Its Conditions of Habitability, 1892). Communication with Mars was specifically exempted as many people believed that Mars was inhabited at the time and communication with that planet would not be a difficult enough challenge. Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...

claimed in 1937 that he should receive the prize for "his discovery relating to the interstellar transmission of energy." The prize was awarded to the crew of Apollo 11 in 1969.