Armadillo Aerospace Takes Level 1 Lunar Lander Prize

jedibfa writes "Las Cruces International Airport came alive with applause and cheers yesterday afternoon as John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace took the first place prize for the Level 1 challenge of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, winning $350,000 and bragging rights. Adding to the excitement of the day, shortly before completing their second qualifying flight, Armadillo Aerospace and The Rocket Racing League announced a joint program to develop a sub-orbital tourist vehicle that will fly out of the New Mexico-based Spaceport America and cost less than $100,000 per ticket. On Sunday, the team will have three opportunities to go for the Level 2 challenge that more closely approximates the required performance for a real lunar landing. Good luck, Armadillo Aerospace, both on Sunday and in your new endeavor!" We discussed preparations for the challenge last week. Several other readers have contributed additional coverage, including the Space Fellowship's live blog of the event, the website for Truezer0, another team participating in the challenge, and a VentureBeat article discussing the economic downturn in space exploration, and how the X-prize competitions figure in. Today's Level 2 challenge will be covered live via webcast.

Comments

Don't let Carmack win!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's clear we don't want Carmack's team to win:

He has stated a few times in the past that he really starts liking the whole rocket-thing: Even more so than his coding brilliance.
Therefor I think it's in the best interest of gamers all around the world (or at least admirers of tech-engines ;-) ), that he does not win, or even gets close to winning, any of these contests.

Preferably here would of course be that one of those rockets would be misfired, killing one of the crowd (or killing a father of someone who can then become Carmack's arch nemesis) ; And with some everlasting guilt on his part, we'll be guaranteed that Mr. Carmack's coding abilities will be put towards games.

Re:Don't let Carmack win!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well if he gets really good at the rocket thing, maybe you could live DooM rather than just play it.

Wait maybe that's not such a good thing...

Re:Don't let Carmack win!!!

[YourExperiment]

Did I just hear the sound of a rocket whooshing by overhead?

Re:Don't let Carmack win!!!

[cecom]

he code in Q1-Q3 is your standard stuff, nothing special in there and in fact it's too limited in many areas that could use a little more flexibility (ie. it was a bad design)...Nothing brilliant about that though.

Nonsense. I didn't see you write it. Brilliance means having the vision and persistence to get the job done when it needs to be done. To know what has to be done, to be able to make the right compromises, etc. Carmack really is f*ing brilliant.

Looking at the job that somebody else has done successfully and thinking that you could have done it, now that you have seen it, is ridiculous. Technically I get the same thoughts what I look at Carmack's sources (or at the Linux kernel sources for that matter). But the point is, you or I didn't write those things.

Remember, most brilliant ideas appear obvious in hindsight.

Re:Don't let Carmack win!!!

[Schraegstrichpunkt]

Carmack isn't a particularly brilliant programmer. He's just pragmatic and dedicated to putting in the effort to create something.

The code in Q1-Q3 is your standard stuff, nothing special in there and in fact it's too limited in many areas that could use a little more flexibility (ie. it was a bad design).

The code in Q1-Q3 was "standard stuff" because "standard" in that era was defined as "whatever John Carmack does".

John Carmack had a strength most other programmers lack: reading academic papers and applying them. Hell, in that era, reading RFCs made one an above-average programmer.

If you think John Carmack wasn't brilliant, then you haven't examined the work of his contemporaries. Comparing the code he wrote 10 years ago against code others write today isn't fair.

Alright man!

[cUnNiNg_StUnTs]

Congratulations John way to go dude! Another Bean with Bacon success. =)

Bad news

[YourExperiment]

Just been watching the live feed of the level 2 challenge, and the first launch has been aborted. The engines fired briefly, but then Pixel tipped over onto its side. Luckily the damage doesn't appear to be too serious, there's some speculation they might make a second attempt at launch. Commiserations Armadillo!

Re:Video?

[Anonymous Coward]

the videos are good but sometimes take a while to show up on their website. Found some on youtube though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZBzIGg-ME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UrgoQRnej4

Obama's position on space prizes

[Baldrson]

This winning flight is welcome good news at a time when many have concerns about a down-turn in commercial space and Obama, the likely next President of the United States has recently said of such prizes, "When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn't put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win â" he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project..."

Re:Obama's position on space prizes

[JaredOfEuropa]

Obama, the likely next President of the United States has recently said of such prizes...

To be fair, it was probably just some (lame) election rethoric on Obama's part, even though Obama might be more inclined to go for big state funded programmes rather than offer incentives to private enterprise.

By the way, what is the deal with Obama...? Europe has always been leaning slightly towards Democrat candidates in presidential elections, but it's reached ridiculous levels this time. The media show nothing but Obama, the Dutch national broadcast service sent a team of 8 reporters and tv show people to cover Obama's campain 24/7, then they more or less "forgot" to send anyone to cover McCain at the Republican convention. Palin did get a little press... it's small wonder that as a result over 85% of this country would vote for Obama if given the chance; they don;t even know who the other guy is. It's like those old Soviet Union elections where there's only one candidate.

Re:Obama's position on space prizes

[anethema]

Are you really surprised? I'm Canadian so have a somewhat similar view that many of the Europeans do, in that the rest of the world is REALLY hoping Obama wins. After 8 years of bush threatening to put the USA into another depression and stuck in a war it can't win(and should not have started), it is small wonder the Europeans don't want someone in the white house that shares many of Bush's views and a vice president who makes Bush look like a libertarian. Not to mention the prospect of McCain surviving his entire presidency is a little bleak.

So forgive us if we wish your country well by hoping Obama wins (which looks essentially certain at this point but who knows) rather than having another Bush (or worse if McCain died) in office. We hope your economy thrives rather that drops like a rock taking the world economy down with it.

It is all anecdotal, but I'd say roughly 99 percent of the people I meet and speak to about this issue feels the same way.

Re:Obama's position on space prizes

[YourExperiment]

No, I think he's saying that it's truly incomprehensible that anyone in their right mind would elect someone like McCain at this point in time.

Re:Video?

[BiggerBoat]

Good lord, we're still at the Las Cruces airport packing up as I type this on my iPhone. I'll be putting together the videos when I get back to Dallas.

Matthew Ross
Armadillo Aerospace