One of the coolest things NASA has done is to set up the Centennial Challenges. These are a series of challenges to excite and inspire private industry to develop technology that NASA needs. For example, there’s one to develop a good spacesuit glove, and another to create a car for the Space Elevator.
A big challenge is to develop a vehicle capable of landing on the Moon and taking off again… and again and again. It was done once before… but we can do better now. The Lunar Lander Challenge set up by NASA is formidable:
The complete Lunar Lander Challenge purse of $2,000,000 is divided into two levels: Level One, worth a total of $500,000, and Level Two, worth a total of $1,500,000. To win prize money in either level, a rocket-propelled vehicle with an assigned payload must take-off vertically, climb to a defined altitude, fly for a pre-determined amount of time, then land vertically on a target that is a fixed distance from the take-off point. After remaining at this location for a period of time, the vehicle must take-off, fly for the same amount of time, and land again on its original launch pad.
There are different teams competing for this prize, but one, Armadillo Aerospace, is ahead of the pack. They have already accomplished the challenge task! They haven’t actually won yet, because the official contest will be held at a specific time (later this year), but on June 2 the company successfully tested their lander, named Widget.
You must check out their video of it!
Totally cool.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:54 am
sweetness and light! I love it when a plan comes together – even better when somebody else fixes a problem before it’s a problem!
Now they can get to work on light weight habitats!
I’m curious about the ‘car for a space elevator’ – that strikes me as a difficult task when (as far as I know) there is no set design for the elevator itself. I AM assuming that the motive system is part of the car.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Just run a rope between a really tall tower at the South pole and the center of the Lunar near side. Remember to leave enough slack for worst case apogee and libration.
Where do I collect my $2 mil?
June 5th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Interesting factoid: armadillo areospace is a pet project of John Carmack (also known for being the programmer for the Doom, Quake series of games at Id Software). I happened to notice an Nvidia logo on the craft as well. Nvidia makes graphics cards. I wonder if Carmack got them on-board to sponsor some of the work.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
a minor nit.
Widget is the name of the mascot: Widget the armadillo
Pixel is the name of the craft.
June 5th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Neat! where can I buy one?
I wouldn’t have thought this was very hard though. What about those jet packs that have already been invented? I would have thought since we already have the technology to use one of those, it would have been a piece of cake. Were there some cost restrictions or something?
June 5th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Existing jet packs use hydrogen peroxide combinging with silver to generate the thrust that allows them to fly. This system has a low exhaust velocity and low specific impulse, which means it is a poor performer for thrust vs weight. It has the advantage of lower exhaust temps so it is safer for a human to wear, but it is not very ideal for something to achieve enough thrust to escape the Moon’s gravity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack
June 5th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
That’s one against those HBers who claim you need a gantry and whatnot to launch from the lunar surface… (*cough*DerVoron*cough*)
Totally cool, though I noticed they had the ground crew do some maintenance between the two flights. But perhaps they only checked it for damage.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
This is awesome, I’ve been following Carmack’s blogs for years now and their progress is amazing.
Someone asked if Carmack had made deal with nVidia and yes I believe they made some sort of deal a while back. I remember reading something about that.
A good video, summarizing their goals and intentions with Armadillo Aerospace and detailing in video their progress from the beginning was posted in the last blog, check it here: http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/misc/sas07_high.mpg
June 5th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Excellent. One moment it’s a post that makes me want to delete the BA RSS feed, then it’s something like this and I so I don’t.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
AstroSmurf -
Not they didn’t just check it for damage – they refueled it as well. The rules allow for refueling the craft bewteen legs of the flight. Had there been damage to the craft they would not be allowed by the rules to repair it between the 2 legs of the flight. I assume because it would be unlikely that you’d be able to repair the craft quickly on the moon but it is expected that you will be able to supply fuel. Basically all they did though was refuel it and make sure everything was still in flying condition – then they stepped back and sent it on it’s merry way!
June 5th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I can almost hear it… “The Eagle.. er, Armadillo has landed.”
June 5th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
This is too cool. They need to play this video for all the congress critters that do not want to fund space flight.
June 5th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Anyone know what Pixel’s mass and maximum thrust is?
June 5th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Poking around….
Width: ~75 inches
Height: ~75 inches
(Tanks are 36 inches in diameter)
Dry weight: 650 pounds
GLOW: ~1500 pounds
Propellant: ~360 pounds ethanol, ~500 pounds LOX
Engines: 1 (+ 4 cold gas attitude jets)
Thrust (sl): ~3000 pounds
Isp: ~ 140-200
Burn time: >180 seconds
For the longer level 2 prize they double the propellant available
June 5th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Hear that little “squeak!” at the end when the rocket shuts off? That sounds just like my BBQ when I turn off the gas at the tank!
OK, enough of the lightweight humor. Pretty slick.
June 5th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I notce they hover for a few seconds at what appears to be about 10-20 feet after they take off. Is this so they can make sure the engines, pumps, etc. are all working properly while they are still low enough that a crash landing would be survivable?
Is it flying or is it falling with style?
June 5th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Very impressive. Gary Hudson demonstrated this over 10 years ago (1996?) with the DC-X technology demonstrator at Mcdonnell-Douglas. When they lost the X-33 contract to Lockheed, he quit MD and formed Rotary Rockets, which also had a rocket powered hovering demonstrator, although this one used helicopter blades with small rocket motors at the tips. That one was even piloted!
Just recently, the “New Shepard” (can’t recall the company, but it’s funded by Jeff “amazon.com” Bezos) just did a demonstration flight using a cold gas engine.
The thing that impressed me the most, though, was how quickly the ground crew was able to do the inspection and re-fueling. No, I don’t mean the time lapsed photography! I mean estimating the real time it took to be less than half an hour. The other vehicles mentioned above would have taken days.
- Jack
June 6th, 2007 at 6:34 am
ISP of 140 to 200? Not bad but,,,is that enough for a lunar launch with a significant payload?
Their site is now in my space folder,,,anticipating more such success.
Gary 7
June 6th, 2007 at 6:40 am
Jack Hagerty writes:
“Gary Hudson demonstrated this over 10 years ago (1996?) with the DC-X technology demonstrator at Mcdonnell-Douglas.”
I attended one of the DC-X flights in the summer of 1993, and knew people working on the project. This is the first I have heard that Gary Hudson was involved in that project. Could you be mistaken?
Certainly the vehicle resembles ideas Gary Hudson was championing for a long time. But I didn’t think he had been working for McDonnell-Douglas to build the DC-X or its (hypothetical) successors.
June 6th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Pixel is the name of the craft.
but can it walk through walls?
(RAH reference)
J/P=?
June 6th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Anyone know what it was that appeared to fall off of the armadillo at the time of the second take off. I am at work so I had to watch the video without sound, maybe that would have told me. It landed OK, so it must not have been anything too important.
June 6th, 2007 at 10:00 am
Congratulations to Armadillo Aerospace and ME! 2nd June was my 20th birthday.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I’m just wondering what happened to my post after 07:18am. Even this had been a second attempt as I had accidently clicked off the previous attempt as I had been checking in Wikipedia to confirm information. Concerned “Flying Bedstead” development in the 50s etc., plus other observations.
Have there been some hang-ups with the account?
Ivan.
June 6th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Although I do trust some scientists, I don’t trust my government, and I don’t want it (or any other country) to spend any more money on sending humans anywhere but earth orbit. And I trust “private enterprise” even less than I trust governments, and definitely do not want any private mucking about in space authorized for many centuries to come.
There are lots of terrific things going on in space exploration, without humans on board, that don’t cost so much and work very well. As a taxpayer and voter that’s what I intend to support. As for those trillions of dollars that moon and Mars missions would cost, I’d rather spend them on improving elementary school education worldwide, so that reason can begin to prevail and famine and violence are greatly reduced.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Lucky for us, and for Carmack and friends, no government money has or will be spent on Armadillo’s efforts. Private funding is, well, private. So if they take humans into space, to the moon or beyond, only their investors and/or paying customers will have anything to say about it. Your earthbound tax dollars are safe. Just let’s encourage Congress to support private enterprise in space, and not squelch it with overburdensome regulations, fees, etc.