Even if I had an idea that might win a prize a few years down the road, I have bills to pay NOW. That is why a steady job is better than prizes, I would have even more incentive to work on the problem every day! Unfortunately I am also Canadian, so I doubt I'd get a job at NASA, and the CSA doesn't hire people AFAIK -- they just deal with PhDs micro-anal-izing micro-problems already employed by big companies or universities. And they've got to prove the usefulness of their work before they get NSERC funding. And they've got to have a PhD and a job before that.
People like myself never get anywhere unless they are willing to let Lock-Mart patent their ideas and reap all the rewards, while getting only a middle-class wage in return (optimistic).