| X Prize Cup Day 2 - Lunar Lander Challenge; Elevator Games |
[Oct. 22nd, 2006|10:24 am] |
Saturday was the final day of 2006 X Prize Cup activities, held at the Las Cruces (New Mexico) International Airport.
Northrup Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge
The only competitor in this year's challenge, Armadillo Aerospace, was back out and trying to claim the $350,000 Level 1 prize on Saturday after making repairs to their entrant, Pixel. Pixel became damaged yesterday in the first attempt for the Level 1 prize.
In Level 1, the rocket must take off vertically from a launch pad (Point A) using rocket power to a minimum altitude of 50 meters. While maintaining that minimum altitude of 50 meters, the rocket must translate horizontally 100 meters to Point B (a landing pad). The rocket then lands vertically and has to land on Point B with accuracy (within a 10-meter diameter circle centered around Point B). A refueling opportunity is given before the rocket lifts off using rocket power from Point B, translates horizontally back to Point A, and lands with accuracy on the Point A landing pad in order to claim the prize. Each flight for Level 1 must last 90 seconds or longer.
If anyone competes for Level 2, the rules are basically the same except the flight must last 180 seconds or more and the landing spot consists of simulated lunar terrain. The first one to successfully meet the Level 2 challenge wins $1 million dollars.
In Armadillo Aerospace's first attempt today, Pixel launched and translated fine but landed inaccurately (two legs were on the 10-meter diameter pad, while two legs were off the pad). The inaccurate landing led to a disqualification of that attempt.
In the second attempt, Pixel flew the first segment (from Point A to Point B) fine and landed on the pad successfully with a flight time greater than 90 seconds. The only issue was that one of the four legs broke off. After a refueling break, Pixel launched and quickly tipped and appeared to crash to the Earth on its side near the Point B launch pad. Armadillo Aerospace said Pixel appeared to be damaged to the point that it may not fly again. It is estimated $250,000 was spent over the last six months to develop Pixel for the Northrup Grumman Lunar Landing Challenge.
It seems the next opportunity to claim the prize (either Level 1 and/or Level 2 prize) will be at next year's X Prize Cup.
Space Elevator Games
Several teams competed in the $200,000 Power Beam Challenge.
The challenge is to construct a climber powered by a beam sent from the ground to the climber. The climber must move up a 50 meter ribbon within a certain amount of time.
A climber designed by the University of Saskatchewan climbed the 50 meter ribbon in 58 seconds. Judges are going over the attempt to see if all rules for the Challenge were met before officially awarding the prize. As I type this, the final decision has not been made.
Once the technology is developed/refined, the ultimate goal of the space elevator is to build a 22,000-mile or more long ribbon (3-feet wide and paper thin) -- connected to an "Oil Rig" type platform in an ocean on Earth and secured by a counterweight in space. The theory is the ribbon will stay taut, using the same principal as swinging a ball on a string around and how the string stays taut if it is spun with enough force. Climbers will carry payloads into space using laser beams that are received and converted to electricity aboard the climber in order to power motors that move the climber up the ribbon. Once at a given altitude, the payload can be placed into orbit if needed. The ribbon can avoid space debris by having the "Oil Rig" part move to a different area just enough to move the ribbon out of the way of debris. If the ribbon happens to break, the part of the ribbon left tied to the "Oil Rig" part will just lightly fall to the Earth in a fairly uniform 3-foot wide swath. The portion tied to the counterweight will fling away, just as if you were to let go of the ball with string attached while in the middle of twirling it around.
Space Elevator positives are supposed to be reliability (don't have to hope chemical rockets can successfully get a payload into space) and the cost per unit (pound, kilogram, etc) to get a payload to space.
Other events
There were high-power Solid Rocket motor-based sounding rocket launches by the Tripoli Rocketry Association, static motor firings to demonstrate how rocket motors are tested, F-117 Stealth and FA-18 fly-by's, and a Rocket Racing League demonstration using a Lear jet as the aircraft and showing the crowd on big-screen displays what the pilot's virtual racecourse display looks like and also what it would look like to fans who watch RRL events on television (the camera view with the virtual racecourse superimposed, in a fashion such as the first-down line superimposed on the camera view of a football game). |
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