The Launch Pad

Looking Back at the Lunar Lander Challenge

2009-11-07T04:46:00.000-08:00

With all of the recent space prize activity, I've been barely able to keep up, let alone post on all of the events. I just went through over 100 notifications in my email about prize news articles, blog posts, and so on. Whew! That takes a while, and it's only 1 information path.

My advice is to check sites like RLV News. You can see news on the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge events, the awards ceremony for the winners, and how some of the teams are continuing after the prize. If you follow this blog, you'll know some of the other sites to check, too. I'm not going to duplicate all of that, but I do have a few items I thought were interesting:

Masten Space Systems Wins NGLLC LII - Donna's Journey

Parting thoughts as the NGLLC fades to black - TrueZer0

Did Ask for a Photo? - Team Phoenicia
New Photo - Team Phoenicia

@unrocket - Starting Clean up from LLC my entropy maximization efforts got out of control. Started with my Primary computer,new 1Tb Hdrive, $69.00!

Here's a well-deserved vacation:

@wikkit: I saw two oceans and a gulf in one day. My new record. Wandered around Miami Beach a bit, tomorrow is more exploration here.

I made a couple canned twitter searches for the Lunar Lander Challenge (yes, uh, just in time). Actually, I think the teams will continue to be active in some way, so there will still be content there after the Challenge. The searches are at the top right of Space Prizes blog. There are 2 because Twitter seems to take its 140 character limit idea to its searches, too:

Lunar Lander Challenge Accounts
More Lunar Lander (Masten)

Friday Fun Day #FFD - Fond Memories of NGLLCXPC

2009-11-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday!

Wow, what an amazing past couple of weeks it has been here at X PRIZE.

The X PRIZE space team has just stepped back into the office after a trip to Washington DC for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge awards ceremony. The ceremony was great – a lot of smiles and great speeches from NASA, House Representatives, Teams Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace, and Peter Diamandis. There are a couple of summaries on the web of yesterday's events from some of the attendees:

- X PRIZE NGLLC09 Twitter account and photos from Twitpic
- Notes from Clark Lindsey, HobbySpace
- Chuck Divine's notes from the ceremony

I have many more thoughts about the conclusion of NGLLXPC, but will keep it short for now by saying that the results of this competition have proven to be very positive, and the success of these prizes bodes extremely well for possible funding of future space prizes.

Many, many thanks are in order. There are countless people who have been involved over the years with the NGLLXPC and contributed to it’s success. So today, for Friday Fun Day, we want to celebrate all of the people who have been interested in and supportive of this competition.

For the FFD activity, we would love to see photos or hear about memories that you all have had over the years from NGLLXPC. Did you attend the X PRIZE Cup and watch Armadillo’s “Pixel” fly? See TrueZer0’s debut into the competition? Hear Will singing on this year’s webcast?

Send us photos or tell us about your favorite NGLLC moments!

You can post them here, send via Twitter (@glxp), or post to the GLXP Facebook page.

To get you started, here are a couple of photos that I dug up from my computer...

October 2008, Armadillo wins Level I, First Place at Las Cruces International Airport, NM. Peter Diamandis congratulating John Carmack after the team successfully returned to the starting line.

The Armadillo "Pixel" vehicle at X PRIZE Cup 2006:

Happy Friday Fun Day!

_______________________________________________________________________________________
From @cariann:

"One of my fav NGLLC memories: When I asked @revrev (Mike Fabio) to string some cable because I had just painted my nails. HA! (He did it!)"

The XPF Space Team!!

2009-11-05T14:57:00.001-08:00

Making History

2009-11-05T14:54:00.001-08:00

Let's Explore the Moon!!

2009-11-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

X PRIZE Space Team Field Trip

2009-11-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

NGLLXPC Awards Ceremony

2009-11-04T22:55:00.000-08:00

The official press release for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge was released yesterday. The official standings were as follows:

The Awards Ceremony will be taking place on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at the Rayburn House in Washington, D.C. starting at 11:45am EST/16:45 UTC. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Director of NASA Centennial Challenges, Doug Comstock, will be speaking at the event. Representatives of Team Masten Space Systems and Team Armadillo Aerospace will be in attendance to accept the awards.

Live updates from the event will be posted on Twitter: @ngllc09 or search for hashtag #ngllc.

Space Elevator Games Setup - Part 2

2009-11-03T18:34:00.000-08:00

In addition to the canned twitter search I mentioned earlier today, hashtags are also useful. However, not everyone uses them - they may not know about them or remember them at the right time. In the case of the Space Elevator Games, it looks like the following 2 hashtags are being used by some (but not all) accounts participating in, or following, the Games:

#TPNASA
#segames

Some twitter accounts using these:

EENugent (related to Tom? I don't know)
MKKare (related to Jordan? I don't know)
b0yle (Alan Boyle, MSNBC.com science editor)
spaceelevator (Space Elevator Reference)

As a result, I made another Space Elevator Games twitter search with these tags:

Space Elevator Games Accounts and Tags

This search is also at the top right of the Space Prizes blog. At the moment the search gives 5 or 6 pages of tweets from the last 24 hours, and the main event hasn't started yet. Here's one that gives background on the games and some ways to follow them:

b0yle: Another $2 million NASA-backed contest ramping up, this one for laser-powered, cable-climbing robots: http://bit.ly/3NKgkI (expand) ... #segames

The Space Elevator Blog had some posts today, too, in spite of what I'm sure is a lot of other work to get ready for the Games. In addition to the status of the setup, there's a lot of information in these posts on how to follow the games:

Status - doing a dry run…
Dry run; so far, so good
No more video today
Re-installing rotor blades on a helicopter

Power Beaming/Climber Competition Setup

2009-11-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

The setup for the 2009 Space Elevator Games Climber/Beam Power competition is already happening, with the main event starting tomorrow.

Payload... - The Space Elevator Blog

Current Status (11/1) from Space Elevator Games: Completed first day of setup at Dryden, and all is well. First games day is Wednesday, though a potential schedule change might prompt us to squeeze in a few climbs on Tuesday. Putting finishing touches on live coverage screen (above) - stay tuned!

Happy Halloween - The Space Elevator Blog - This one is obviously a few days old. Among other things, it gives a twitter account for @USST, one of the 3 remaining teams this year.

Speaking of twitter, I'm in the process of setting up some canned twitter searches for various space prizes, prize organizations, and more. Right now they're at the top right of the Space Prizes blog, although I might eventually move them to the Space Prizes twitter pseudo-blog. There's a canned search for Space Elevator Games Twitter Accounts at the top of the list - that's one of the (hopefully) finished ones. At any rate, it includes tweets from the Space Elevator Games twitter accounts I know about. It's easy enough to adjust the search using Twitter's search engine once you click on the canned search (eg: if you want to search for more than just those accounts, or tweets based on messages "to:" those accounts, or the string "power beaming challenge"). Here are some recent Space Elevator Games tweets from yesterday:

NASAPrize: Preparations underway for Power Beaming Challenge this week! Competition scheduled for Nov 4 & 5

LaserMotive: Lunch on the lakebed. http://yfrog.com/emfy6j

SEGames: status: Horizontal laser test now occurring. KCSP first up, then LaserMotive and then USST.

LaserMotive: Current temp and humidity. http://yfrog.com/dyp5gj

USST: We've made arrangments to hopefully pickup a new antennae from the factory in LA today. Hopefully we can get back in time with traffic.

SEGames: Go to http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org for latest pix.

NGLLXPC 2009: Unreasonable Update

2009-10-31T11:47:00.000-07:00

November 1, 2009:

2:00PM PT/22:00 UTC: Unreasonable Rocket had a difficult morning as they battled a control problem that caused oscillations during the tether test. On the fourth and final test, the oscillation caused the vehicle to swing around the crane, severing the tether and causing the vehicle to land on it's side. The peroxide tank was punctured by one of the legs, leaving no opportunity for repair of the vehicle today.

We are so impressed by the effort of the Breeds, and congratulate the team on an impressive showing at their first NGLLC attempt. As mentioned before, they are only the third team to successfully fly the flight profile of the competition, so they have much to be proud of.

This concludes the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge. We will have another summary post for you tomorrow, along with more videos within the next two days. The awards ceremony will take place in Washington D.C. this Thursday, November 5, 2009.

11:00AM PT/17:00 UTC: The Unreasonable Rocket "Blue" vehicle became the 3rd vehicle in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge to complete the Level I flight profile. Congratulations to the father-son team, Paul Breed Jr. and Paul Breed Sr., for successfully achieving this challenging feat.

The Blue vehicle shot up into the air from Pad A, translated to over Pad B, but ran out of propellant about 5 meters above the pad. The vehicle sustained some damage to the legs and some other equipment, preventing the vehicle from making the return flight to Pad A and ending Unreasonable Rocket's attempt at the remaining Level I prize.

(Photo credit: Andrew Jones, NASA)

By the end of the day, Unreasonable Rocket had their Silver vehicle on the pad and tethered to a crane, ready for it's 45 second qualification test. Those tests are taking place this morning, although UR is experiencing some control issues after about 10 seconds of tethered flight. Representatives from Team Masten are here and helping them troubleshoot. Once the test is complete, the Silver vehicle will be ready to make it's Level II attempt at the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge this afternoon.

As for all other attempts this week, we will webcast the event at http://bit.ly/ngllc09, and post updates at http://www.twitter.com/ngllc09.

October 31, 2009: Today the X PRIZE crew is out at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) site in Cantil, CA. It is about a 45 minute drive from Masten's site, on some rough dirt roads. The remote site is perfect for testing rockets, however.

The Breeds, the father-son team that makes up Unreasonable Rocket, have built a blue Level I, monopropellant (peroxide) vehicle and a slightly larger silver rocket for Level II. After some issues with an old catalyst pack yesterday, the Breeds worked overnight to repair the vehicle, then replaced the catalyst pack this morning. Some low-pressure tests were run to "warm up" the new cat pack, but unfortunately the results of those tests were not satisfactory. Currently, the team suspects that the peroxide was not warm enough this morning and that was the cause of the poor performance. The peroxide tanks are covered in black blankets and are lying out in the sun to warm up while the UR team works on their Silver vehicle. We expect that the team will be ready to test the Blue vehicle again early this afternoon, perhaps by 1PM PT.

We are live broadcasting at Ustream: http://bit.ly/ngllc09. Or you can follow updates on Twitter at @ngllc09.

Online video chat by Ustream

Masten Qualifies for $1 Million Prize; Unreasonable Rocket Completes 1st Attempt

2009-10-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

October 30, 2009 - Team Masten Space Systems made their second official attempt at Level II of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge today, after fixing several issues on their Xoie vehicle overnight. We at X PRIZE are extremely pleased to announce that they were successful in both flights today, and have qualified for the $1 million dollar prize purse.

In a great example of the camaraderie between teams in this competition, members from rival teams pitched in to help Masten complete their repairs last night so that they could fly their final attempt today. As Randall Clague of XCOR commented on Twitter, "Community is AMAZING. [Masten Space System] rivals repaired Xoie. When she qualified, 1/2 of Masten went to cheer on Unreasonable Rocket."

Masten completed two beautiful flights with good landing accuracy, although maintained nail-biting levels of anticipation as they came up against the clock at the end of the attempt (2 hours and 15 min are allotted for each attempt). Here are a few photos:

These are the spray paint marks made around the feet after landing. Look at the repeatability:

After the Masten qualifying flight, the X PRIZE crew, FAA, NASA, and some Masten folks left immediately for the Friends of Amateur Rocketry site to watch Unreasonable Rocket make their debut in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge. They made a fantastic first attempt with the "Blue Ball" vehicle, flying for Level I.

While they were not successful today due to some hardware issues, everyone can agree that the speed with which this father and son team can turnaround their rocket and have it ready to fly is quite impressive. The team also finished repairs to their vehicle this evening and will have it ready to fly tomorrow, Saturday, October 31st. The team expects to open the window at about 9AM PT/16:00 UTC. We will be webcasting the event at http://bit.ly/ngllc09.

Congratulations again to Masten and Unreasonable Rocket today! The excitement is not over yet!

NGLLXPC 2009: Masten Webcast

2009-10-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

Friday, October 30, 2009: Masten Space Systems is making their final attempt at the $1 Million NGLLXPC Level II prize this morning. They've made the necessary repairs to the propellant tanks, lines, and sensor cables overnight. They expect to start the clock at about 9am PT/16:00 UTC. We wish them the best and are streaming the event live on Ustream.tv!

Follow us on Twitter for live updates: http://www.twitter.com/ngllc09

Streaming live video by Ustream

Thursday, October 29, 2009: Masten Space Systems has identified and resolved the technical issue that arose during yesterday's attempt. Testing revealed a faulty electronics board which was constantly driving an actuator; this, in turn, was draining the battery. The drained battery was consequently affecting the communications system, the issue first observed in the field during yesterday's attempt. The faulty board has been replaced, and Masten is optimistic for a successful attempt today.

Masten currently expects to start the clock at about 9am PST/16:00 UTC. We plan to set up an internet link in the field again today and provide a webcast of the event. Catch it at http://bit.ly/ngllc09 (also has chat available with GLXP and a Masten Space representative), or stream it below.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009: Masten's attempt today was no-go, but they will be trying again tomorrow. The schedule will be similar to today's: 6:30am Pacific start time, 9:00am start to the webcast and the competition window, and a first flight somewhere around 9:50am. The webcast will be rolling again, so please be sure to tune in to http://bit.ly/ngllc09!

Masten Has One More Window, Unreasonable Rocket to Fly Friday Afternoon

2009-10-29T22:27:00.000-07:00

Through a unanimous decision of the Official Judges of the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge competition, Masten Space Systems will be able to make another launch attempt tomorrow morning using their remaining Time Period. Unreasonable Rocket will then be on deck to make their first flight attempt in the afternoon.

This scheduling adjustment has been made by the Official Judges in keeping with the letter and spirit of the rules and in the interests of the fairness of the competition.

Masten will begin their final attempt on Friday, October 30, 2009 at approximately 9am PT/16:00 UTC. Webcast will be up and running again at Ustream: http://bit.ly/ngllc09.

In the afternoon, a new team will be attempting Level I of the challenge: Unreasonable Rocket. They are scheduled to start their window at 1pm PT/20:00 UTC. We will try to webcast that attempt as well.

We wish Masten luck for their attempt tomorrow, and look forward to seeing the Unreasonable Rocket Blue Ball vehicle in action!

The X PRIZE on The Moon Pad

2009-10-28T08:18:00.001-07:00

Team Masten Arriving at the Test Site

2009-10-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

Team Masten on route to the test site

2009-10-28T07:41:00.001-07:00

Prize Roundup: 2009 Lunar Lander Challenge and Space Elevator Games Even Closer, GLXP Variety, X PRIZE Meeting, Regolith Reviews, New Mexico News

2009-10-28T04:33:00.000-07:00

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

@nasaprize - on the way to california for the final lunar lander attempts of 2009

@dmasten - We have been testing so much our Pad A looks worse than the lunar pad. http://twitpic.com/n5mjn

I think we are ready for #ngllc level 2. All tests are done. Last was a nice stable hover of 195sec in 30+ knot winds.

@mojaverocketguy - In at the shop, bright and surly. At least not 4:50am like last Tuesday.

Bad news: Missed seeing the flight because I someone had to stay for the UPS delivery. Good news: Xoie's fine and I heard it from the shop.

Doing concrete work in 50mph wind gusts--not fun. Good thing I got myself a college edjumacation so I wouldn't have to do jobs like that...

@ngllc09 - #NGLLC news update on The Launch Pad: http://bit.ly/lLWxm

NGLLC 2009: And Here They Come Down the Final Stretch! New post on The Launch Pad: http://bit.ly/I3QSI #ngllc

Tune in tmrw for webcast of Masten Lvl 2 #NGLLC attempt starting at 9am PST/16:00 UTC: http://bit.ly/ngllc09

Unreasonable update - RLV News

BonNova recap - RLV News

Briefs: Speed Up hybrid test; Source of rocket grade H2O2 - RLV News

I'm posting these Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge updates on Wednesday morning:
Unreasonable ups and downs - RLV News

Masten Space Level II attempt - Oct..28.09 - viewing info - RLV News - Using the #ngllc twitter search on this page, you can already see a lot of tweets on the event as people get ready to go, like these:

alias_amanda: Only for a rocket launch could I be up at 4am and be somewhat happy about it #ngllc

ikluft: I'll be tweeting from Mojave today for the @mastenspace flight in Level 2 of the Lunar Lander Challenge #ngllc

Pomerantz: Made it to Mojave (& gave #NGLLC team SpeedUp's Bob Steinke a ride on the way up). Excited for tmrw's @mastenspace flights! Godspeed, Xoie

Space Elevator Games: Power Beaming/Tether Climber

@lasermotive - The designing, building and testing is finally done. Today the packing begins. We are ready.

@segames - Very good - just organized a commentary team for the live cast. (Live video has a lot of boring moments, and while we have some B-roll+ ... material, there's nothing like play-by-play descriptions.)

NASA Centennial Power Beaming Challenge to Feature Three Teams - The Space Elevator Reference

Games updates - The Space Elevator Blog

Briefs: Power Beaming Challenge; Regolith scraper - RLV News

Regolith Excavation Challenge

@doug_comstock - Check out cool Gigapan images (a nasa spinoff http://tinyurl.com/bm3pl6) from the Regolith Excavation Challenge: http://tinyurl.com/yk45lmf

@paulsrobotics - WPI Reception for the team is currently scheduled for Wednesday at 2PM in HL005 (we think). Feel free to stop by... http://bit.ly/1Y75C

Also see the RLV News link in the previous section for another Regolith Excavation Challenge article.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@team_selenokhod - The first Selenokhod mockup rollout: http://selenokhod.com/en/node/44

The first Russian private-built-rover at Mission Control Center: http://selenokhod.com/en/node/45 That was amazing!

@nextgiantleap - Nice day for a drive to Louisville, CO, but looks like snow for the way home. ... Looking forward to meetings at SNC tomorrow!

@omegaenvoy - With our rover naming contest coming to an end, will you be the one to break the tie? http://bit.ly/POiyi #GLXP

Notice the new name (with an underscore) on the twitter address for this next one:

@Odyssey_Moon - Odyssey Moon Chief Scientist Dr. Paul Spudis on lunar lava tubes: http://bit.ly/19GDbc

@arcaspace - Octomber 23, 2009 - CONSTANTA The first launch attempt of Helen vehicle will take place starting with October 29... http://bit.ly/2NEU5n

Other Prizes

Economy, rule change ground X Prize plans - Las Cruces Sun: Landeene said the X Prize Cup does spur interest in aerospace among students.

"Ultimately, what I'd like to do is have X Prize-like events at the spaceport and surrounding community," he said.

Spaceport Visitor Center Approved - - KRWG TV: The Board of Directors of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has voted to establish a welcome center for Spaceport America in downtown Truth or Consequences... A welcome center is also planned for the village of Hatch which is on the southern approach to Spaceport America.

@fineri (N-Prize team) - http://twitpic.com/mzn62 - Plumbing all done, cone needs finishing, electronics and engine need integrating.

@peterdiamandis - Great X Prize Trustees dinner at Elon Musk's home... great crowd, Sergey Brin, Ansari Family, Beyster's, Mike Boustridge, Jim Gianopulos... great to also host Esther Dyson, Peter Bloom, Rob McEwen, Erik Lindbergh and Peter Ferrel

i am searching for a strong Director/Chief of Staff to work with me as CEO of X Prize, MBA desired. LA base @ XPF HQ

NGLLXPC 2009: And Here They Come Down the Final Stretch...

2009-10-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

It's a high-stakes horse race to the finish line of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge this week, and the winner will claim $1,000,000 in prize winnings.

Armadillo Aerospace successfully flew their Scorpius vehicle in September to become the sole qualifier of the coveted Level II 1st Place Prize purse: $1,000,000. The Level II challenge requires two 180 second flights and landing on a lunar-like pad complete with craters and rocks.

Masten Space Systems flew their Xombie vehicle on October 7th to successfully qualify for the 2nd Place Level I prize purse of $150,000. Level I requires two flights of 90 seconds.

Wednesday, October 28 at approximately 9am PST/16:00 UTC, Masten Space Systems will make their attempt at the Level II prize with their new vehicle, Xoie. The team has successfully flown a 195 second test flight with the vehicle and will be challenging the accuracy of the Armadillo landings (avg. accuracy = .89m). If they succeed, they will overtake Armadillo as the first place qualifiers of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge Level II. Note that if two teams qualify for the Level II prize, the second place winner of Level II will still claim a hefty $500,000.

Another challenger will fly on October 30-31 -- Team Unreasonable Rocket. They will be challenging Masten Space Systems for the Level I purse that they qualified for (with 0.16m avg accuracy), and are working toward a Level II flight on Saturday as well.

Want to watch?

We are going to webcast at Ustream (http://bit.ly/ngllc09) or Qik (http://www.qik.com/ngllc), depending on which connection provides the best video on location at the Mojave. Start time tomorrow (Oct. 28) will be at approximately 9am PST/16:00 UTC.

We will be on Twitter for real-time updates: @ngllc09, @mastenspace, @unrocket

Your "To Do" List for the Week

2009-10-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Take note:

NGLLC 09: BonNova Out, Masten and Unreasonable Coming Up

2009-10-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

Those of you active on Twitter over the weekend may have already heard this piece of news: Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge team BonNova has had to surrender their chance at winning any prize money this year. Team Leader Allen Newcomb and the rest of the team put in a fantastic amount of effort this year, including a truly incredibly push for the finish line within the last few weeks. However, their testing program is not as advanced as it needs to be, so the team will need to wait and see if any prize money remains after this week.

Al and the rest of team BonNova should be very proud of their work to date. In a competition where everyone is pushing the limits of rocket efficiency, BonNova's rocket stood out as the lightest-weight and smallest vehicle we've seen to date. We at the X PRIZE Foundation have little doubt that once BonNova is up and running, they will find a good amount of demand for their services. We fully suspect that that will happen soon--but it will not be this week.

This development underscores the difficulty of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. This is not an easy competition.

For now, attention will turn to Masten and Unreasonable Rocket, who both have attempts scheduled for later this week. Masten, as you'll all recall, performed the Level One job admirably just a few short weeks ago, putting the team in position to claim the $150,000 Level One, Second Place prize purse unless their performance is matched or exceeded by Unreasonable on Friday or Saturday of this week. Masten's accuracy score makes it so that Unreasonable would need a mean landing accuracy in the single-digit centimeters in order to bump Masten down to a (no-cash-prize) Third Place slot. Masten won't be wasting much bandwidth worrying about that for the next few days, though, as they are only a few days away from their Level Two attempt. Testing of their brand-new Level Two vehicle, Xoie, has been going smoothly, and the team seems confident. Masten's attempts are scheduled to kick off on Wednesday morning with a 6:30am safety briefing, a scheduled 9:00am NGLLC window start, and a first flight around 9:50am or so (all times are local to Masten's test site in Mojave, CA. Their flight window should begin around 16:00 UTC.) Masten has reserved both Wednesday and Thursday, so they have a second day available for flights if necessary.

Just after Masten's attempts, Unreasonable Rocket will make their first ever attempt to claim part of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. The two Paul Breeds are scheduled to fly the Level One mission on Friday and the Level Two mission on Saturday--Halloween, the final day of the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Challenge window. Of his odds, the senior Paul Breed writes: "Our [tests] say we have a chance to tie Masten in the 90 sec contest, but beating them outright would require some significant luck. Our 180 Second vehicle is going to go down to the last minute. ... If we can fly for 180 seconds we can beat Armadillos accuracy, so it becomes a risk reward game.... IE On Saturday morning if we have a vehicle that would cost 50K to reproduce that has a 10% chance of success and a 90 % chance of destruction do we make the attempt? (0.9 * -$50K) vs (0.1 *$1M ) The calculus changes a little bit depending on Masten's result."

Also, it's worth noting that the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge has received some good press lately, notably pieces from New Scientist and the Economist!

Please join us in wishing the best of luck to Masten and Unreasonable, and in congratulating BonNova for their progress this year!

2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Approaches

2009-10-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Unreasonable progress - RLV News

Briefs: Unreasonable progress; NGLLC in The Economist - RLV News

@NGLLC09 - Two Moon related prizes - the @NGLLC09 and the @Regolith_Chal - get write-up in the Economist! http://bit.ly/2o9Xii

Briefs: Masten propellant tanks; BonNova on NGLLC stage - RLV News

From Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation (PDF) (i.e. the Augustine Committee's final report):

All three variants [of the Committee's Flexible Path option] also include a hybrid lunar lander that is smaller than the Altair. (See Figure 6.2.2-2.) The ascent stage is developed by NASA, but the descent stage is assumed to be commercially developed, building on the growing industrial capability pursuing NASA’s Lunar Lander Challenge and the Google Lunar X-Prize.

@wikkit - This year it didn't rain before the wind picked up, so we worked in a dust storm for most of the day. Going to be a gray shower tonight.

@mastenspace - RT @rbranly: Designing educational payloads to fly aboard Masten Space Vehicles.

Preview of final week of NGLLC 2009 - RLV News shows a press release from the X PRIZE Foundation on the week of events.

Update (Sunday evening):

Armadillo flies higher - RLV News

NGLLC: BonNova bows out; Unreasonable update; Masten update - RLV News

@nasaprize - No Lunar Lander Challenge attempts on Mon or Tuesday but Masten and Unreasonable Rocket are still on for Wed-Saturday attempts

Update (Monday morning):

@wikkit - If you're interested in coming to our LLC flights this week or other tests, send me an email at ben@masten-space.com .

@mastenspace - RT @rbranly: The MSS payload capsule demonstrator project includes a multispectral imager as a flight option.Aiming 4 imager mass of 500g

2009 Beam Power/Climber Competition Approaches

2009-10-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

Power Beaming Challenge ready to shine - RLV News - This has a lot of essential links for the games, including links to the teams. It also gives an overview of what the status is for the games.
LaserMotive is doing a countdown ... note that this one was from Oct 22:

@lasermotive - T minus 9 days until we leave town for Dryden.

Pre-competition update from the Kansas City Space Pirates - The Space Elevator Blog shows some of the testing the KC Space Pirates are doing.

Space Elevator Games - Current Status (10/24) - The "Current Status" is in box on the right side of this site; the link I've given is to the overall site. Here's the currrent status:

One week to go... Everything on schedule so far. Flying to Washington to prep the helicopter on Thursday, then driving to Dryden to meet the teams on Sunday. Setup begins Monday morning.

Moonpies: A Worldwide Phenomenon

2009-10-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Will brought me a present today from his recent travels (thanks Will!):

That's right ladies and gents: premium Moonpies from South Korea! Mmmm. This makes me wonder where else around the world we could find these tasty treats (read: Moonpie scouts needed).

On another Moonpie-related note, I received this "Thank you" from one of our younger fans today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6thlf7lGlh8. A future moon explorer in the making, wouldn't you agree?

Friday Fun Day #FFD - Space Exploration: There's an App for That.

2009-10-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday!

I had a funny space photo caption post for you guys this week, but I have to admit that I've been quite distracted by the new NASA iPhone/iTouch app this morning. Info about the new app on the NASA website is here, and the download link is here.

I've only played with the app for about 10 minutes or so, but I can tell you that the folks at NASA have done a pretty good job. I know that not everyone has an iPhone or iTouch, so I've included a few screenshots here...

The home screen is the current missions:

I clicked Constellation. A program overview appears, and a countdown clock to the Ares I-X launch is at the bottom. That's pretty cool.

The top nav bar takes you to mission Twitter feeds, imagery, and video. I like the image collage for each mission:

Back on the homescreen of the app, you can also view the NASA Image of the Day and Astronomy Image of the Day, NASA YouTube videos, or NASA Twitter feeds.

One final feature that is really nice -- the ability to share mission info that you find on the app via email. Just click the email button in the upper right, and an email with info about the mission appears, ready to send. Oh yes, spamming your friends and family with space info just got that much easier ;)

Regarding future development on other platforms, NASA Ames tweeted this morning: "NASA is committed to developing additional apps for a range of mobile devices to better disseminate NASA’s knowledge, activities and results".

As for the funny space captions for Friday Fun Day... I couldn't resist and posted a few photos over at Facebook. Head on over there and add ur capshunz to the mix! Here's one of the images (there are two more on Facebook):

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

After the 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge, Getting Ready for Big Lunar Lander Challenge Week, Automotive X PRIZE Downselect, More

2009-10-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Regolith Excavation Challenge

@regolith_chal - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden talks about how @regolith_chal winners help to inspire the next generation: http://moourl.com/irp75

@doug_comstock - It looks like all 3 prizes for Regolith Excavation Challenge will be awarded!! See pictures of the competition: http://tinyurl.com/yh37a3f

@paulsrobotics - We won! Special thanks to our sponsors: WPI, Barnstorm Cycles, Hydro-cutter, AIAA New England, and Hacker Dojo! #WPI http://bit.ly/5x5Rp

article on msnbc http://bit.ly/26MLCR great photo of the team with the #WPI flag

This article includes a video of us excavating from the New Scientist http://bit.ly/C0aEm

Big Win - $750,000 in Prize Money for Lunar Excavators - The Launch Pad

From Regolith Excavation Challenge 2009:

Photos by Jamie Foster are here: Regolith-Media.
Many more photos by Jamie Foster are here: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

(I've already pointed out some of the other links there to Regolith Excavation Challenge photos, videos, news, and more.)

@pkhomer - ... We were allowed a demo run in the sandbox after the final presentations. Our bot delivered JSC-1A at a rate of over 2 kilos per second!

... We didn't, and the teams that did put it all together won fair & square. One thing we got very right is the digger...

Will post video & details in a few days when i get home.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@teamfrednet - Some of our members are working on a high altitude balloon to be launched soon. Here is a video showing some tests: http://bit.ly/27hRNP

@arcaspace - ARCA message in the World Kids Stories E-book no 3, after the Obama family introduction http://bit.ly/4a6LAL

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

Unreasonable update - RLV News

Briefs: Unreasonable update; NGLLC schedule. - RLV News

@unrocket - On site at 630

@wikkit - http://twitpic.com/mdfno - MSS Strategic Helium Repository, or the source of Talk Like a Tween Tuesday.

http://twitpic.com/mdkld - I sent a bit of text to the AV press, and they ran a nice article.

Progressive Automotive X PRIZE

@progautoxp - Auto X Prize cuts green-car contest pool in half http://ow.ly/vhQ1

Check out this multimedia news release for details, videos, slideshow and more http://ow.ly/vhXW

ThinkWrap, Auto X Prize partner for "near-real time" race vehicle monitoring - Autoblog Green

Students build green cars for $7.5M in prizes - Today Show (link from X PRIZE Foundation)

Design Judging Complete: Over Half of All Entries Eliminated - Progressive Automotive X PRIZE blog

Space Elevator Games - Power Beaming/Climbing

@lasermotive - Autumnal illnesses are striking many of us. I hope we're all healthy for the competition!

Power beam climbing at the local REI store - RLV News

Other prizes

Cheap Contest II - Selenian Boondocks

@glxp - Calling all coders! @_TopCoder_ announces NASA challenge to benefit human spaceflight: http://bit.ly/20zcQ4 (thx @spaceguy)

@pomerantz - RT @tim846: NASA FIRST Robotics Grants Available - applications due Nov. 2! More info at http://bit.ly/Bz83i (via @defygravity0G)

NASA Chief Praises Commercial Spaceflight, Suborbital Science, & Innovation Prizes in Speech - Commercial Spaceflight Federation