Armadillo Aerospace technicians prepare Pixel, one of the company's two prototypes for flight. Clustered around the craft's engine, two silver tanks hold ethanol fuel while two white tanks, encrusted with insulation, contain the liquid oxygen oxidizer. Along with sistership Texel, these vehicles are competing in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge at the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup 2006. They are manually "flown" by Armadillo Aerospace founder and CEO John Carmack via joystick inputs radioed to the vehicle's flight computer. John Carmack is also known as the president of "id Software" where he developed the popular computer games Doom and Quake. Image Credit: Jim Campbell, Aero-News Network
