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X Prize Foundation Announces Lunar Lander Competitors
Raver32 writes to tell us the X Prize Foundation has announced eight of the nine groups planning to compete in this year's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. "The ninth team requested to remain confidential, lending an air of controversy to the announcement. Space bloggers have surmised the ninth team is Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, but sources told SPACE.com that information was wrong. Their confidentiality period ends 60 days before the start of the competition at which time the X Prize Foundation will announce the team's name."
Pow - Zoom - Right to the moon, Alice!
Most of the stuff on
And my money is on them to win by not just landing on the moon but converting it into an orbiting battle station and calling it a death moon or something like that.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
those guys building one in their garage for under two hundred grand have set a tough task for themselves. the other night on american inventor they had a guy who has put more than that into developing a toy centered around drag racing match box cars.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Fine, I'll make my own Lunar Lander, with Blackjack and hookers!
The mystery ninth team is a group of Mexicans and their landing craft involves a famous Killer Whale. http://www.buddytv.com/articles/south-park/top-10- best-tv-moments-of-2006-2718.aspx
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Making a product (toy car) is very expensive. Moulds for plastic injection moulding can cost $50k+ each. Processes for making 1 off parts cost a lot less.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Imagine what it would be like today if we kept going to the moon through the last four decades. The costs are minor compared to the social programs and the military budget. Why can't some senator earmark a space program, like they do for bridges and museums? It holds about the same priority in the budget.
...the animated corpse of Howard Hughes. He's building the lander out of wood.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Billy Mitchell is pretty good at lots of games, so I'm guessing he could practice up and be a contender on Lunar Lander.
Scott Safran will undoubtedly win the next contest, which I assume to be Asteroids, since it was released next.
After that, BattleZone, Missile Command, Centipede, Tempest, etc.
I think it's pretty cool that these X-Prize guys have taken an interest in classic Atari Coin Op.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
I logged many many hours simulating a Lunar Lander. Hopefully they kept the controls the same.
More Twoson than Cupertino
Competition summary:
The Competition is divided into two levels. Level 1 requires a rocket to take off from a designated launch area, rocket up to 150 feet (50 meters) altitude, then hover for 90 seconds while landing precisely on a landing pad 100 meters away. The flight must then be repeated in reverse--and both flights, along with all of the necessary preparation for each, must take place within a two and a half hour period.
The more difficult course, Level 2, requires the rocket to hover for twice as long before landing precisely on a simulated lunar surface, packed with craters and boulders to mimic actual lunar terrain. The hover times are calculated so that the Level 2 mission closely simulates the power needed to perform the real lunar mission.
It's obvious. The mystery team is Disney. They plan on opening a theme park on the moon. They already have their top fungineers working on the design.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Just not officially, from their latest news;
"Full LLC1 flight
One June 2, we conducted a complete LLC 1 operational profile at the Oklahoma Spaceport. Everything went great. Representatives from AST and the X-Prize Cup were present. This was the first flight under experimental permit rules from a licensed spaceport. Both legs of the flight landed within a meter of the pad center, and our operation time was only an hour and a half."
Read the whole description here. It is full of all manner of technical goodies. In fact I can't wait for their next monthly update.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
It's not Blue Origin. They're known to be using hydrogen peroxide as the fuel for their 'mystery project', which isn't going to get anyone to the moon, considering rockets based on H2O2 are barely enough to get you into a suborbital flight.
I'll bet it's Burt Rattan and Scaled Composites, but this time instead of being backed by Paul Allen, they'll be backed by Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic outfit. They may even be using the Virgin Galactic as the team name. It's just Branson's style to pull something like this.
My other guess, if that doesn't pan out, is Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX. SpaceX may have only barely got a prototype rocket into space, but they have a lot of very smart people on that team. Somehow I doubt it's them, because I don't think hiding the team's name is Musk's style.
My blog
The ninth team requested to remain confidential..... Their confidentiality period ends 60 days before the start of the competition at which time the X Prize Foundation will announce the team's name.
And the winner is.......... _Drumroll_..... NASA!
Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
"One of these days, Laura... I'm gonna punch you in the face!" (ha ha ha!)
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
Lunar lander
Where's my prize?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
OK, this is neat, and a Lunar lander is something we definitely need if we're to go back to the moon. Granted.
But personally, I would be far more excited by advancements in getting things cheaply into orbit. Followed by getting things cheaply out to Lunar orbit. Then followed by getting things down to the lunar surface and back up into Lunar orbit.
So far, we've had success with the X Prize for getting something up into space. Which is a major accomplishment, to be sure, but it's about 7kps in angular velocity away from just being in Terran orbit, and even further away from being in Lunar orbit.
Figuring out both ends is cool, but the middle bit is sort of important, too.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
I don't have the tools to calculate this, but if you can get a lunar lander/command module unit up to the space station (I'd guess it would fit in the shuttle's payload bay), wouldn't a moon landing be a relatively easy next step? I just watched the Pluto mission special on the Science Channel and it made moon orbit in friggin 9 hours! Of course, it's smaller.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Or how about the Family Guy parody: "Pow! Right in the kisser!" "Pow! Right in the kisser!" "Pow! Right in the kisser!"
Slashdot is kind of like Playboy; we aren't here to read the articles.
And where are they going to launch these craft? Not in the USA.... Bob Bigelow had to take his launch to Russia.
until I learned that they didn't actually have to land it to the Moon to win the prize. Durn.
Still, it's obviously not an easy task and is an important step.
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
he cracks me up.
Erwin: Argh! Programming me for Lunar Lander you are!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Just to name a few:
Kevlar
Teflon
Velcro
TANG!
Astronaut Icecream (love it when I'm backpacking)
Plus loads of other things developed for the space program, that are in common use today. And if you think R&D will come up with stuff like this without the fire under their arses - that is the space program - you're mistaken. Few new ideas and revolutionary materials come about without a reason for application. For the most common example: Einstein didn't try to make a bomb - he came up with the idea... once there was an application, then it got built.
ok - we'll quit down ranking your comments. But only 'becuz ur gay'.
xoxo
I think we'll soon be seeing an announcement of Google Lander Beta.
It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
Lol, will be fun watching this one not fly! Someone should let the space.com people know the difference between a mono-propellant and a non-propellant engine.
I just don't wanna see the X-Prize become some reality tv show or something. Anyway, what I want to see out of this stuff is some sort of jump gate network in orbit. Like they gates are magnetic catapults and you just put your ship or whatever payload or something in it and you get tossed to the moon! Or string them up to mars! It would be cool methinks. It could be the answer to making private owned travel cheaper if it is cheaper energy-wise? I dunno cuz I'm not a physicist or engineer, just a guy with fantasies about space travel.
Balderdash!
Why not just use nasa's lunar lander design?
They're using their grammar skills there.
Well I assume getting a lego lunar lander up to an altitude of 150 feet would be pretty easy. ( by just strapping a rocket to it ).
I'm just worried about the hovering for 90 seconds, might be a bit tricky.
Oh. That AND trying to steer it onto landing sites without exploding from impact.
That's just me though.
and it's from EVERETT Washington
Do you love freedom??? Do you love freedom!!! DO YOU LOVE FREEDOM!!!!!!!!
I only hope the ninth team isn't Microsoft
There'll be benefits if every few years citizens could vote for someone to be sent there (one way/return).
;).
American Idol? Survivor?
How about "Vote Em Off The Planet"
But you're right, just orbital would be good enough.