Lunar Lander Contest Continues, Commercial Lunar, Regolith Teams Tally, Lunar Art and Design, More

I've been covering space prizes for a bit over 3 years now. One of the tools I've used from the beginning is an automated internet search for new information on space prizes. In those 3 years I've never seen anything like the flood of media articles and blog updates on the exciting recent Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge flights by Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace. I'm not going to attempt to round up all of that; you can see the results so far at places like The Launch Pad and RLV News. Don't forget that the competition is still going strong:

@unrocket - Son is cooking catalyst disks, I just finished the software for the gimbal controls. Should be ready to test the silver ball on Sat!

Static first then maybe monoprop flight.

Up and starting the 20 hr day....

Decadal Survey: 29 Lunar White Papers - Spaceports covers the LEAG (Lunar Exploration Analysis Group) list of white papers for lunar science, and suggests these might be of interest to Google Lunar X PRIZE teams. Here's one of the white papers:

Proposal for a Lunar Exploration/Science Campaign: A commercially‐leveraged, science‐focused, lunar exploration program (PDF) - Robert M. Kelso

@regolith_chal - Early count puts number of teams at about 20. Full roster will be posted later this week.

Super busy day with registration processing. Getting ready for team documentation deadline tonight.

@paulsrobotics - Just machined the digger final drive sprocket. http://yfrog.com/0htdbefj came out well

2009-2010 Life and Work on the Moon Art and Design Contest (9-12, Higher Ed) - Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium

Here are the 2009 winners.

@tedprize - Updates on Jill Tarter's wish - http://bit.ly/6JsXn and http://bit.ly/13ZAl1

Kids Win National Rocket Contest and Need Your Help! - Space for All

Vomitrocious Climber Video - LaserMotive

Space Elevator Games - testing updates - Space Elevator Blog