For this week’s issue of The Space Review I provide a summary of the just-completed X Prize Cup, with a particular emphasis on Armadillo’s attempt to win the Lunar Lander Challenge. If you’ve been reading this blog then you’re familar with most of the details in this article. However, I do try to put the events of the last few days in perspective:
Both the overall Cup and Armadillo’s efforts in the Lunar Lander Challenge illustrated one thing: the entrepreneurial “NewSpace” industry is in a particularly demanding phase of its development. The public’s expectations–and those of some in the industry–have risen because of past successes, like SpaceShipOne. Yes, most companies are still in the earliest phases of developing vehicles and related technologies, a phase prone to failures as new technologies and approaches are tried and often discarded. It’s a steep part of the learning curve, and even more difficult when it’s on public display.
Here’s a video from Armadillo Aerospace’s Saturday morning flight of Pixel at the X Prize Cup, when they landed partially off the pad. The video is a little crude and jumpy, but you can see most of the flight until Pixel disappears behind a tent shortly before landing.
The Space Elevator Games, comprised of the tether and beamed power competitions, was scheduled to end Saturday afternoon as the X Prize Cup wound down. However, because of scheduling and logistical issues, the event has been extended. The tether competition took place Saturday night at the county fairgrounds, where the climber qualifications took place earlier in the week; none of the four competitors won any prize money. This morning two teams that use microwaves to power their climbers will make a shot at winning the beamed power competition. They could not make their attempts at the airport during the Cup since their microwave rectennas were prohibited from the airport grounds.
I’ve posted on Flickr a set of images from day 2 of the X Prize Cup. Some of the photos have been featured in previous posts, while others illustrate the assortment of other events and activities at the Cup. Not to mention a giant space panda.
The 2006 Wirefly X Prize Cup is now history (or officially will be in 15 minutes although there are no more events planned.) Armadillo carted their vehicle back to the staging area around 3 pm MDT. The leg that broke off was covered with frozen dirt (from the chill of the LOX tank that the leg was attached to) and one of the seams of the tank may be damaged. John Carmack said it’s unlikely that the vehicle will fly again. Despite failing to win the Lunar Lander Challenge, everyone on the Armadillo team remained very upbeat and optimistic about the future.
I’ll have some additional posts tonight and tomorrow with more photos and notes from the event, but that’s it for today. Especially since they’re shutting down the Internet connection in the media center shortly.
The initial report on Pixel’s crash: Challenge rules prevented Armadillo from repairing the broken leg on the vehicle, so they instead “propped up” the leg and resecured one of the competition-mandated weights on it. However, when the rocket started to lift off the vehicle tilted again; the flight system detected this and initiated an auto shutdown, causing the vehicle to tip over and fall.
Armadillo Aerospace’s Pixel vehicle lifted off on its return trip for the level 1 Lunar Lander Challenge at about 1:35 pm MDT. However, the vehicle lost attitude control just seconds after liftoff and flipped on its side, crashing back to the pad at about a 90-degree angle. That’s it for Pixel and the Lunar Lander Challenge this year, unfortunately.
The X Prize Cup organizers just had one of the prize officials on the big screens here being interviewed. He was explaining about how Pixel landed right near the end of the pad (about 15-20 cm away from the edge, at it turned out), and had just started to discuss an issue with one of the vehicle’s leg–when the PA announcer interrupted to tell attendees that Anousheh Ansari would be available to sign autographs in another tent. (The PA announcer was almost drowned out by the groans of those of us in the media tent.)
An X Prize official did come in a moment later to state that one of the legs had snapped off on landing, but that the leg could be repaired and Pixel would fly again to compete the Level 1 challenge.
Armadillo Aerospace flew Pixel again just after 12:40 pm MDT, staying in the air for approximately 95 seconds. It appeared to land upright but right on the edge of the pad; while there was some initial concern regarding whether all the legs made it onto the pad, one official reports that all the legs are indeed on the pad. If so, this would appear to be a successful first leg of the competition.
A new window for an Armadillo Aerospace Lunar Lander Challenge level 1 attempt opened at 11:45 am MDT (about one hour earlier than previously reported). They’re towing Pixel to the starting pad right now and we should see a launch attempt probably within an hour so.
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