A commercial vehicle successfully completed a mock lunar
landing Saturday, qualifying its team to win a $1 million prize offered for NASA's
Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.
The rocket-powered craft, built by Armadillo
Aerospace, ascended 50 meters (164 feet) into the air, flew over to land on
a simulated rocky lunar surface 50 meters (164 feet) away, and then rose and
flew back to land where it started. The flight included a requirement of at
least 180 seconds of flying time.
Armadillo's champion
craft, named Scorpius, weighs about 1900 pounds fully fueled. The vehicle
made its flight at the Caddo Mills Airport in Texas, where Armadillo
Aerospace's facilities are based.
Armadillo is the first team to complete these requirements,
which comprise Level 2 of the Lunar Lander Challenge. The company won Level 1
of the completion in October 2008, snagging a $350,000
purse. That achievement required a similar flight, but for half the time - only
90 seconds. The minimum flight time for Level 2 is
calculated to simulate a trip between the moon's surface and lunar orbit.
"Since the Lunar Lander Challenge is quite demanding in
terms of performance, with a few tweaks our Scorpius vehicle actually has the
capability to travel all the way to space," said John Carmack, head of
Armadillo Aerospace. "We'll be moving quickly to do higher-altitude tests,
and we can go up to about 6000 feet here at our home base in Texas before we'll
have to head to New Mexico where we can really push the envelope. We already
have scientific payloads from universities lined up to fly as well, so this
will be an exciting next few months for commercial spaceflight."
NASA will award the $1 million prize for Level 2 this year after
all the entering
teams have a chance to compete. Armadillo was the first of three teams
gunning for the title; Masten Space Systems and Unreasonable Rocket are scheduled
to make prize attempts soon, before the closing of this year's competition
window on October 31.
"Carmack and the entire Armadillo team made it look
easy... an overnight success after 4 years of hard work," said Peter Diamandis,
Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, which manages the prize on behalf
of NASA's Centennial Challenges program. "Congratulations on two perfect
flights. Now we'll need to see if any other teams attempt the Level 2, Northrop
Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. If no one does, then Armadillo will win $1
million in purse cash."
The flight represents an achievement not just for Armadillo,
but for the whole commercial
spaceflight field. With NASA's space shuttle fleet soon to retire, and the
agency's goal of returning humans to the moon uncertain in the face of political
and budget constraints, private companies could play an increasingly important
role in space exploration.
"Congratulations to Armadillo Aerospace, NASA, and the
X PRIZE Foundation for their excellent teamwork in making this week's Lunar
Lander Challenge milestone possible," said Brett Alexander, President of
the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "This competition shows exactly how
much NASA can benefit from close engagement with the commercial spaceflight
sector."
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