Gathering for Regolith Challenge, More NSS Beam Team Details, Mars Fiction, Meetings, Conferences,and Festivals

Regolith Excavation Challenge

@regolith_chal - Updated event schedule: http://regolith.csewi.org/schedule

@paulsrobotics - At the Hacker Dojo (http://hackerdojo.pbworks.com/) in Mountain View, checking out that the robot made the trip safely.

Workin at the awesome Hacker Dojo (thanks #WPI alum Mike Lundy). Prepping bot for the weekend! http://twitpic.com/lnean

@alias_amanda - Broken free from the bonds of LA gridlock, now swiftly making my way to the Bay Area.

NASA Hosts National Lunar Robotics Moon Excavation Competition - NASA media advisory

NASA ARC Internal Memo: 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge at Ames, Oct. 17 - 18, 2009 - SpaceRef

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@arcaspace - Echipa ARCA s-a intalnit cu jurnalistii in Rm. Valcea si Bucuresti. In aceasta seara va ajunge in Constanta. http://bit.ly/wVixq

@omegaenvoy - Omega Envoy to Hold Open House Meeting in Orlando, Fl. http://bit.ly/2wvT68

According to the above link, the open house is on October 28, 8:00am at the University of Central Florida.

@pomerantz - Google Lunar X PRIZE teams has a job posting up on the forum: http://bit.ly/3NM82z #GLXP

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

@wikkit - Xoie now has duck tape on it. I knew it was missing something.

Days like this, with WK2 showing off, are ones I'm glad our shop faces away from the flightline. We'd never get anything done.

@jeff_foust - NASA funds the Lunar Lander Challenge prizes http://is.gd/4lgwD and then MSFC goes and builds its own lander testbed: http://is.gd/4lgrF

@mojaverocketguy - @jeff_foust FYI, MSFC is paying Orion Propulsion to build those. One of our previous interns did the testing/debugging of the one linked to

though it is definitely amusing. I wonder how much they've spent on that over the past few years...

QOTD, from IIIan on chat after verifying Xoie's computer was reading pressure sensors correctly: ~~my presssuresss~~ they take it from me

@unrocket - Wk2 with long ez chase flew over the site. Our lunar pad got poured mon, looks nice done by same person as mastens.

Focused on helicopter and pad 2 pad navigation, good results today. Silver on fri, big customer static on sat

Unreasonable Rocket's approach? Do they have any plans beyond NGLLC? - NASA Spaceflight forum question - Jon Goff has an answer.

Space Elevator Games - Beam Power/Climber Competition

A different sort of climber (NSS – plan A) - The 2009 Space Elevator Games

NSS testing at TRUMPF - Day 2 - The Space Elevator Blog

Other Prizes

@progautoxp - If you are in the NYC area on 10/19, stop by the Classic Car Club to check out some of the teams competing in the #PIAXP @algore #PIAXP has some exciting news to announce on 10/19 in NYC. Thanks for your support as we move ahead with the competition.

@peterdiamandis - now in Houston speaking on X Prize and Zero G at the UP Experience Conference

@michaelbelfiore - My report on the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards last night--Dean Kamen, a flying car, and the future of gaming: http://bit.ly/3srGbN

The Quantum to Cosmos Festival's live streaming events start today. I'll be on Oct. 22 at 8 ET to talk about robots: http://bit.ly/1y7DNu

The Quantum to Cosmos Festival post linked above mentions a talk by Peter Diamandis at the festival. Many other interesting speakers are also on the schedule, including at least one Google Lunar X PRIZE Team member.

Piece on Mars submitted to New Scientist magazine’s Flash Fiction Competition - Marooned: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror books on Mars

Win a copy of Zima Blue, a new anthology by Alastair Reynolds that has three Mars novelettes - Marooned: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror books on Mars

October Competition - Antipodean SF - SF Downside-Up (note: This competition is for Australian readers):

To enter, all you need to do is listen to the audio in the player (below) and tell the editor which movie each quote is from. The last one may be difficult. Hint — the last movie is based on a story by another talented SF writer in the Gollancz stable, Philip K Dick.