Frontier Channel » Moon

Armadillo Aerospace’s Latest Competition Attempt Fails

Richard Leis, Jr. — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 05:41:49 +0000

With the moon visible overhead, Armadillo Aerospace unsuccessfully attempted to win the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup this weekend at Holloman Air Force Base. The only competitor of nine ready to go for the event, Armadillo Aerospace, led by John Carmack of Doom and Quake fame, experienced both successes and failures during multiple launch attempts. While able to rise 50 meters from the launch pad, move laterally 50 meters, and land after staying aloft at least 90 seconds, the teams vehicle was not able to repeat this feat to return to the launch pad within two and a half hours as required by competition rules. Earlier failures included thrust vectoring problems due to a crack in the vehicle’s engine and an aborted launch soon after liftoff. The team was able to repair some damage rapidly to try again later, but their final attempt on Sunday ended in disaster, with flames engulfing the vehicle immediately after the launch sequence began.

Armadillo Aerospace, a private company started by Doom and Quake game developer John Carmack, has been the leading contender for the prize that is intended to accelerate techniques and innovations for future lunar landers. The other eight registrants were not ready by the time of the event to compete. At stake is $350,000 in prize money for first place in level one of the competition. Level two will award a larger prize but requires 180 seconds aloft over rough terrain. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, explained to the audience that the competition’s return flight requirement is meant to demonstrate reusability of the vehicle within a short amount of time by a small team of technicians. This contrasts with shuttle launches that require many people, several months, and approximately US$1,000,000,000 in costs for turnaround.

The failure by Armadillo Aerospace to walk away with the prize opens up the competition to other teams during the 2008 X PRIZE Cup. According to a representative for the Speed Up team, they only need a few more months to make “Laramie Rose,” their entry vehicle, ready for competition.

Google Lunar X PRIZE Announced

Richard Leis, Jr. — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:12:57 +0000

Image caption: X PRIZE Moon exhibit and logo at WIRED NextFest

A robotic scavenger hunt to the moon is the next big space competition. The X PRIZE Foundation announced at Wired NextFest, along with representatives from Google, NASA, and one of the Apollo 11 astronauts, the Google Lunar X PRIZE. The largest incentive competition in history, US$30 million will go to the first and second privately funded teams to land a rover on the Moon.

US$20 million will be awarded to the first team who makes a soft landing on the surface of the Moon, drives a least 500 meters, and takes two sets of high definition video and images. The second team to accomplish the same tasks will be awarded US$5 million. In addition, $5 million will be awarded for bonus tasks, including finding artifacts from past mission, finding water ice at the lunar south pole, surviving one full lunar night of frigid temperatures, and driving a total of 5 kilometers instead of 500 meters.

On hand for the announcement were Dr. Peter Diamandis, X Prize chairman Robert K. Weiss, Google co-founder Larry Page, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) founder Elon Musk, and NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale. Video messages from Google co-founder Sergey Brin and director James Cameron were shown. All expressed their support for the latest prize.

According to Page, science has a serious marketing problem. Competitions like the Google Lunar X PRIZE can help promote science and engineering, while continuing to push progress and economic growth. Page announced during his comments a new version of Google Moon with improved resolution and panoramas captured by Apollo.

Through video and speech, the X PRIZE Foundation recapped incentive competitions to date, including the 2004 culmination of the first X Prize for a private manned suborbital launch. Since then, several new prizes have been announced, including the Archon Genomics X PRIZE, Automotive X PRIZE, and upcoming educational, life science, and energy prizes. The latest prize is being marketed as “Moon 2.0″, with previous lunar activity through the final Apollo mission in 1972 referred to as Moon 1.0. While Moon 1.0 was a competition between the superpowers, Moon 2.0 is expected to open up the moon as a resource.

X PRIZE’s Weiss listed surface silicon and water ice as important lunar resources to enable manned missions of the Moon and potentially help with resource issues on the Earth, including energy concerns. Diamandis said the Google Lunar X PRIZE will be the first commercial steps to exploiting the resources of the Moon.

SpaceX’s Musk announced they will donate profits they would normally make on space launches to lower the cost of launch of X PRIZE competitors’ entries. Other organizations like SETI will provide services to competitors for reduced or no cost.

The setting for the announcement – Wired NextFest – allowed for a somewhat elaborate stage, including a remote controlled rover that joined Diamandis at one point, a life-sized model of an astronaut and lunar rover, and a huge model of the moon unveiled for the photo-op at the end of the presentations, with Diamandis exclaiming “Let the race begin!”. In additions to participating representatives and media, there were many students, parents, and teachers in attendance for the announcement.

A video dramatization of a private team winning the Google Lunar X PRIZE in the future included depictions of access to data returned by the mission via the Internet on laptops, iPhones, and video billboards. Currently, a new website – http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/ – has been created to host educational videos, tools, and hands-on activities for students.

Image caption: X PRIZE Moon and rover exhibit at the fourth annual WIRED NextFest

Image caption: X PRIZE exhibit of Apollo astronaut and moon rover at the fourth annual WIRED NextFest

SMART-1 Snaps Image of Hadley Rille on the Moon

Richard Leis, Jr. — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 05:09:55 +0000

The European Space Agency’s SMART-1 spacecraft continues to capture images of the Moon in a mission to test new technologies and return new data about our nearest celestial neighbor. In one of the latest images, Hadley Rille, an enormous lava channel over 3.3 billion years old, stretches toward Mount Hadley in the upper right. Geologists believe the formation was created when lava still flowed on the surface of the Moon early in its formation. Because the Moon is so small, it lost much of its internal heat early. Heavy bombardment by meteors and/or comets also likely ended early in its history. Without an atmosphere or lengthy internal heating like the Earth, the Moon’s surface is static and ancient.

Apollo 15 astronauts landed near Hadley Rille in 1971. The United States hopes to return humans to the Moon by 2020. They will make use of data returned by SMART-1 and future lunar orbiters, landers, and rovers to work out requirements for manned missions and eventual outposts and colonies.

More Information

ESA Press Release – “SMART-1 views Hadley Rille near Apollo 15 landing site“
SMART-1 Mission Site
Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE)

SMART-1 Begins Exploration of the Moon

Richard Leis, Jr. — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 03:11:52 +0000

It might seem to be old news, but our own Moon has got a lot left to tell us. The European Space Agency’s probe SMART-1 successfully used its experimental ion drive engine to loop out to the Moon and is now beginning to snap new pictures. One of the mission objectives is to determine whether or not water ice exists in the shadows of deep craters. If the ice is there, humans will likely return to the Moon sooner rather than later.