2 years, 2 months ago
What is the Lunar Lander Challenge to the moon?
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M$1 Answer
...or the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize Challenge, which is a competition funded by NASA's Centennial Challenges program. The competition offers a series of prizes for teams capable of launching a vertical takeoff/vertical landing (VTVL) rocket, necessary to achieve the velocity needed for a lunar vehicle to move between the surface of the Moon and its orbit.
The first Lunar Lander Challenge was staged in 2006 at Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico, with four registered teams at the challenge. Unfortunately, only one of them got the final permit by the FAA to continue. It was Armadillo Aerospace, which entered two vehicles, Pixel and Texel. After two initial hazardous landings and a third unsuccessful by Pixel on the target pad, Armadillo was left without any prize money, but the craft made the first successful flight of a private vehicle under the new FAA Experimental Permit. During 2010, the challenge will be staging its 5th consecutive annual competition.
The competition is divided into two levels:
Level 1 require a team to demonstrate control of their vehicle by flying at an altitude of 50 meters, fly laterally for 100 meters and land on a pad, with a required minimum flight time of 90 seconds. If completed, teams will get a first place prize purse of $350.000 and a $150.000 purse for second place.
Level 2 is more difficult, again, it require a team to demonstrate control of their vehicle by flying at an altitude of 50 meters, fly laterally for 100 meters, but this time by landing in a simulated lunar surface pad, full of craters and boulders, with a required minimum flight time of 180 seconds. If completed, teams will get a first place prize purse of $1 million and a $500.000 purse for second place.
The Centennial Challenges program focuses in the research and development of aerospace technology important to NASA, which encourages the participation of independent teams of inventors, students and private companies by finding, through competition and cooperation, many innovative solutions to technical challenges.
Successful flight on October 30, 2009, by Masten Space Systems own Xoie rocket which qualified for Level 2 of Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X PRIZE Challenge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcys-t2thk8&feature=player_embedded
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M$
...glitch!