Armadillo Aerospace's Pixel lifts off on Day One of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge on October 25.
(Credit: Video: X Prize Foundation; Screenshot: Jennifer Guevin/CNET News)Armadillo Aerospace, a team led by Doom video game creator John Carmack, has won $350,000 in prize money in a contest to improve lunar flight.
The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is a $2 million contest that challenges teams to build a lunar vehicle and then simulate a 90- to 180-second moon flight and landing. The event is hosted by the X Prize Foundation and sponsored by NASA. And the end goal is to open the door for developing a fleet of lunar ferries that could carry people and payloads between lunar orbit and the moon's surface.
The contest, in its third year, was held at the Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico over the weekend. On Saturday, Mesquite, Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace successfully won Level One of the challenge, which requires a rocket to take off from a launch area, ascend to an altitude of 150 feet, hover for 90 seconds, then touch down safely at a landing pad 150 feet away. The team then had to repeat the flight in reverse within two and a half hours.
To win Level Two, teams have to double the hover time and land on a simulated lunar surface dotted with craters and boulders. Armadillo attempted to pass that feat on Sunday, but wasn't able to pull it off. So $1.65 million worth of prize money is still on the table for teams to claim.
There are nine teams registered for the competition. Armadillo has been the most successful team so far. In 2006, a landing gear malfunction kept it from winning Level One. Last year, it missed the time limit by 7 seconds.
Here's video of a wrap-up of Day One of the competition, which shows Armadillo's successful flight.
Here's video of Day Two's activity, in which John Carmack explains what went wrong with their Level Two attempt.
Ten teams are signed up once again to compete in the NASA-sponsored Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, a $2 million contest to simulate a moon flight in the New Mexico desert.
The X Prize Foundation, the event's host, announced the team lineup Tuesday, saying it is confident that this year, after two years of unsuccessful attempts, NASA will award the prize money. However, in a potentially cautionary move, the 2008 event in late October at New Mexico's Holloman Air Force Base will be closed to the public for the first time. People can watch it live via the Web.
Here is one of Armadillo's two rovers, named Texel, pictured after a crash during a test run in September 2007.
(Credit: Armadillo Aerospace)The NASA challenge, which is designed to spur technology innovation for sending astronauts back to the moon by 2020, asks teams to build a lunar vehicle and then simulate a 90- to 180-second moon flight and landing. In the past two years, only one competitor has been able to lift off and hover properly, but that team, Armadillo Aerospace, failed to complete the required task twice without issue.
Armadillo Aerospace, a Mesquite, Texas-based team led by Doom video game creator John Carmack, is back this year. Nine teams were signed up for the contest last year, but Armadillo was the only one ready to fly. In 2007's contest, Armadillo flew one 91-second flight successfully, but as it was preparing to launch a second time to complete the challenge, the team discovered a crack in its engine.
The 8-year-old Armadillo Aerospace, which in recent months said it plans to participate in the Rocket Racing League's upcoming "vertical drag races," confirmed its participation on its Web site. "We will do a bunch of hover tests, and a practice run in Oklahoma before the event, but that will be about it," according to the company.
Other returning teams include Tarzana, Calif.-based BonNova, whose team leader Allen Newcomb designed the flight software for Ansari X Prize winner SpaceShipOne, and Solana Beach, Calif.-based father and son team Unreasonable Rocket. Paragon Labs, a Denver, Colo.-based team of four engineers; Emeryville, Calf.-based Phoenicia; and Chicago, Ill.-based TrueZer0 are also signed up to compete in the event.
Four other teams requested anonymity.
For the first time this year, the X Prize has separated the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge from the X Prize Cup, it's annual celebration of space innovation. That event will be postponed until 2009.
Ten teams are signed up once again to compete in the NASA-sponsored Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, a $2 million contest to simulate a moon flight in the New Mexico desert.
This story was inadvertently double-posted. For the full story, click here.
- prev
- 1
- next
