The
future will take to the skies over New Mexico next month as teams compete in the
Lunar Lander Challenge sponsored by NASA under their Centennial Challenges
program.
This
effort uses prize contests to stimulate creativity and competition in solar
system exploration, tapping the talents of non-traditional sources of
innovation in academia, industry and the public.
Teams
of rocketeers are readying their vehicles for the Lunar Lander Challenge to be
held live October 20-21 at the Las Cruces International Airport in southern New
Mexico.
The
Vertical Lander Challenge (VLC) and Lunar Lander Challenge (LLC) presented by
NASA are designed to speed up the commercial development of a vehicle capable
of ferrying cargo or humans back and forth between the surface of the Moon and
low lunar orbit.
The
complete Lunar Lander Challenge purse of $2,500,000 -- NASA's contribution is
$2 million -- is divided into two levels. Level One is worth a total of
$500,000. The more difficult Level Two is valued at a sum of $2,000,000.
Degree of difficulty
What
has to happen to win prize money in either level?
A
rocket-propelled vehicle with an assigned payload must takeoff 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 liftoff point. After
remaining at this location for a period of time, the vehicle must takeoff, fly
for the same amount of time, and land again on its original launch pad.
The
primary differences between the Vertical Lander Challenge and the Lunar Lander
Challenge are the minimum time of flight -- 90 seconds versus 180 seconds --
the surface terrain at the landing sites -- flat compared to rocky -- and the
degree of difficulty presented for precision landing.
For
both Level One and Level Two, the vehicle has the option to refuel before conducting
the required return level to the original starting point.
Quick turnaround
After
the smoke clears, NASA's hope is that the prize will spur the design and
fabrication of quick turnaround vertical take-off, vertical landing vehicles.
That ability can help cultivate the commercial launch procurement market - not
only for future operations on the Moon but here on Earth too.
"We
are extremely impressed by the way that the teams have responded to our
Challenge and built their vehicles literally from scratch in a matter of just a
few months," said William Pomerantz, Director of Space Projects for the X Prize Foundation, headquartered
in Santa Monica, California.
The
Lunar Lander Challenge was first announced in May of this year, Pomerantz
added, with several teams now signed up to fly their respective vehicles in
October.
"The
X Prize Cup is the ideal venue for this kind of prize. It's a unique event. I
don't know of any other similar 'rocket show' in the world," Pomerantz told SPACE.com.
"Planning and operating these events is a demanding and difficult task, and by
collaborating with us, NASA can save the taxpayers money by taking advantage of
the infrastructure we are building."
Level playing field
With
only weeks away before the challenge, competitors are moving into high gear.
"We
are looking pretty good," said John Carmack, chief rocketeer at Armadillo
Aerospace of Mesquite, Texas. His team has been busy at work readying hardware
for qualification flights.
"The
level 2 prize is quite challenging," Carmack said. "No rocket vehicle has ever
been built that could complete it," underscoring the required length of flight,
let alone refueling such a craft in the allotted time.
The
real lunar lander, Carmack said, "even if it was equipped with an engine that
could support its weight on Earth, wouldn't make the entire flight. That isn't
to say that it requires a level of efficiency that hasn't been demonstrated
before. [But] of the small list of vertical takeoff/vertical landing rockets
that have actually flown, none of them would be able to do it."
Small and light vehicles
The
Lunar Lander Challenge and the reduced duration of the Vertical Rocket
Challenge
competitions
are both very difficult pursuits, emphasized Richard Speck, President of
Micro-Space, Incorporated of Denver, Colorado.
The
Micro-Space efforts are restricted this year to the shorter duration, Vertical
Rocket class, Speck noted. "This is not actually a limitation of the propulsion
system, but of the 'rough surface' landing needs, and a few other factors which
could not be developed in the available time."
Nevertheless,
Speck's group plans to enter the long duration competition next year with a
very similar vehicle, fitted with a larger cluster of fuel tanks, but having
the same dimensions and only slightly greater empty weight.
The
emphasis at Micro-Space has always been on the smallest and lightest vehicles
usable for manned flight or unmanned research, Speck said.
Affordable space travel
Today,
most space vehicles resemble flying submarines, Speck observed. "Jules Verne's
"Nautilus" submarine could make undersea exploration pleasant, but it was Jack
Cousteau's 'aqualung' which made it affordable," he said.
Since
in virtually every way, space is less dangerous than undersea, Speck
emphasized, similarly, minimized systems will make orbital and interplanetary
space travel "affordable".
"Micro-Space
efforts have included the development of operational, light-weight life
support,
oxygen regeneration and water reprocessing systems which will drastically
reduce the costs of even Mars missions," Speck predicted.
X
Prize Chairman, Peter Diamandis, said the $2.5 million Lunar Lander Challenge
will require a vehicle to mimic a trip between the Moon's surface, to lunar
orbit and back to the lunar landscape.
"NASA's
exploration vision calls for putting humans back on the Moon in the next
decade. The vehicles to land on the Moon no longer exist," Diamandis observed.
"We believe that entrepreneurial companies can build these lunar spaceships,
and a Lunar Lander Challenge can stimulate the required technology in an
efficient and rapid fashion."
advertisement
