Space Prize Roundup: SSR Approaches, Space Pirates Strike Back, Public Sector Prizes Forum, More

I have several updates on NASA Centennial Challenges:

Garver To Attend NASA $1.5 Million Robot Competition June 16 - NASA on the NASA-WPI Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge

The NASA Centennial Challenges are now on Facebook: NASA Centennial Challenges.  They have a few pictures related to the SSR Challenge, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more over the next few days.

Space Florida Announces Nano-Sat Launch Challenge Logo Design Contest - Space Florida

Space Elevator conference registration now open! - The Space Elevator Blog - The conference, to be held at the Seattle Museum of Flight, includes the Strong Tether Centennial Challenge and a robotic climber competition for kids.

The Return of the Kansas City Space Pirates - The Space Elevator Blog - It sounds like the KCSP team is going to make this year's Space Elevator conference even more interesting.  Hmmm ... I wonder how LaserMotive will respond? See more information at the KCSP blog 2012- New Mission: The Dawn of Laser Powered Flight

FAQ-What are the uses for wireless power via laser? - LaserMotive

Here's an article that isn't really about Armadillo Aerospace, another former Centennial Challenge team, but that nevertheless has some Armadillo "ambiance": 'Doom 3 BFG Edition' will deliver the full Doom back catalog plus new levels


Yesterday, the Collaborative Innovation: Public Sector Prizes was held by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Case Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation.  Here are a couple related articles:

Unleashing Innovation and Deepening Democracy Through Prizes - The White House Blog

How the White House is aiming the X Prize model at big problems - CNET interviews Cristin Dorgelo, formerly of the X PRIZE Foundation and now Assistant Director of Grand Challenges in the OSTP


To round things out, I'll catch up on some other prize news:

One moonshot team buys up another - Cosmic Log on Moon Express and Next Giant Leap

Landsat Contest Offers View of Local Landscape Change from Space - NASA - The contest is at "My American Landscape" Contest: A Space Chronicle of Change.

Space Prize Roundup: TARC 2012, Heinlein Award, SketchUp Models, SpaceApps Global, More

Team America Rocketry Challenge Celebrating Ten Years - Team America Rocketry Challenge - This year's finals for TARC will be held this Saturday, May 12, in The Plains, VA.

TARC Update: If you can't make it to the event, you can use twitter hash tag #TARC12 to follow it.  The @RocketContest twitter account will likely have updates. 

2012 Google Model Your Town Competition - Google SketchUp - The winning team for this year's competition using the modelling tool often integrated with Google Earth will be announced on May 15.  It's not clear whether this competition will be continued in future years, as Google SketchUp will become part of Trimble, well-known for its GPS products.

Space Foundation Student Art Contest Winning Artwork Bounces Off the Moon - SpaceRef

Glasgow school wins 70cm CanSat launch competition - Southgate Amateur Radio News

Stanley Schmidt Wins 2012 Robert A. Heinlein Award - Science Fiction Awards Watch - This award is not to be confused with the Heinlein Prize managed by the Heinlein Prize Trust or the National Space Society's Heinlein Award.  This one is for

outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.

It's also good to see that Science Fiction Awards Watch is back in action, as the original owners were no longer able to maintain the site and it was offline for a while.

Citizen Science Challenge to be unveiled at Maker Faire - RLV News - This in on May 19, which may be a busy day in the space field if schedules hold.

One man's path to space goes through Seattle's Space Needle - Cosmic Log - This involves an Armadillo suborbital flight and the "Space Race 2012" contest at the Seattle Space Needle.

#SpaceApps Global Judging Open Now - open.NASA

Steven Colbert receives NSS award from Buzz Aldrin - Space for All

Video Contest: Why Explore Space? - NASA Watch

Space Access '12: A Conference Warmup Roundup

After a long break from posting on Space Prizes, my post backlog is a bit too huge to handle all in one post, so I plan to do some "roundup with a theme" posts.  This post's theme is the Space Access '12 Conference.  It's a good time for this theme, since the Space Show's lineup for this week includes Henry Vanderbilt, who will discuss the 2012 Space Access Society meeting on the radio show today.  The conference itself is scheduled to start April 12.  Many of the presenters at this conference are, or have been, involved with various space prizes (the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge being a prominent example).  Let's take a look at what some of this year's presenters with space prize backgrounds have been up to lately, borrowing heading links straight out of the Space Access '12 agenda.

Altius Space Machines, Jon Goff

New Moonandback Interviews - Altius Space Machines

Armadillo Aerospace

Second Flight of Stiga - Armadillo Aerospace gives a detailed and entertaining description of the flight and subsequent shovel-less shovel recovery.  The post ends with a hint about what to expect next from the team.
More on Armadillo STIG-A flight - RLV News
Florida team pursues Carmack Prize - RLV News
Briefs: Latest ATREX launch target; Project Ursa aims for Carmack Prize - RLV News
NASA selects expt. payloads for commercial suborbital flights - RLV News (This one is relevant to both Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems) 

Lasermotive, Jordin Kare

LaserMotive: Working the paths at the DoD - LaserMotive
LaserMotive Marks Five Years Pioneering Wireless Power Technology - LaserMotive
Student Science Fair Project Studying Power Beaming - LaserMotive

LaserMotive is also mentioned briefly in this Space Elevator Blog post: JSETEC ‘11

Masten Space, Dave Masten

Why Precision Landing? - Masten Space Systems
Masten's Xaero extended hover test - RLV News
SpaceUp San Diego review - RLV News - This includes a talk by Dave Masten.
Masten Xaero free flight - RLV News
Draper flies Masten's Zombie with GENIE guidance system - RLV News
Masten Space's XEUS lunar lander system - RLV News
Briefs: More on Xombie & Draper; Steve Brody pt. 3 - RLV News
Briefs: Q&A with Masten Space; Alaskan rocket launch - RLV News
Masten's Xaero did 61m free flight on Feb.17th - RLV News

Tim Pickens, Rocket City Space Pioneers GLXP Project

Fourth Graders Name Rocket City Space Pioneers' Lander "Spirit of Alabama" - Rocket City Space Pioneers Blog
Rocket City Space Pioneers Team Member Participates in Electric Car Competition - Rocket City Space Pioneers Blog

Team Phoenicia, Will Baird

Team Phoenicia Wins $1 Million Contract - Team Phoenicia announces an arrangement with Nova Rocketcraft, which is interested in the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge.
Team JURBAN Selects Team Phoenicia Engines for GLXP Lander - Team Phoenicia

You can also see a number of recent rocket test videos and component pictures at the Phoenicia blog.

Team Phoenicia set up the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge seminars.  One of the teams, Vog Rockets, links to one of Phoenicia's seminar recordings in this post: The Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Seminar Video: Vog Rockets 

Speedup, Robert Steinke 

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Sara Meschberger

2nd Annual SEDS High-Powered Rocketry Competition Announcement - SEDS

Unreasonable Rocket, Paul Breed

Quick Update... - Unreasonable Rocket - This post covers a lot of ground, including a possible "show and tell" topic at the SA '12 conference.
Ideas about business and a request for feedback... - Unreasonable Rocket

Space Prize Roundup: Shredder Challenge, Cost Saving Idea, Nanosat Allied Org, LEAG, more

This isn't a space prize, but it's an interesting one nonetheless: the DARPA Shredder Challenge.

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White House Selects NASA Idea for Savings - Lori Garver at NASA discusses the NASA finalist for the SAVE Award.

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YouTube Space Lab Competition Expands Panel of Prestigious Judges: YouTube and Lenovo Tap Renowned Science and Technology Experts to Ignite Students' Interest in Space - press release at CNBC - The new Teachers in Space effort is well represented.

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NASA And Space Florida Small Satellite Research Center Partner In Space Launch Challenge - This is a NASA press release on the long-awaited selection of the allied organization for the $2M Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge


2nd Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar Draft Agenda Updated 11/2/2011 - Team Phoenicia presents the latest update on the schedule for the Nano-Satellite Launch Challenge seminar.  This includes Space Florida, NASA representatives, spaceports, potential suppliers and teams, and more.  The seminar is this weekend, and a parallel seminar covers NASA's other Centennial Challenges.

@unrocket: Saturday I'm going to NanoSat conference. I really like this particular Centennial challenge, IMHO best one yet.. (http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oct/early_stage_innovation/centennial_challenges/nano_satellite/index.html)

Space Florida promises Virgin Galactic payloads - Florida Today shows that Space Florida is keeping busy with space prize activity.  The researcher and payloads for the suborbital flight will be selected using a competition.  Part of the competition will be for Florida university students.

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NASA 2011 OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Video Contest - SpaceRef notes that registration is now open for the 2011 version of this contest.

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Teams selected for the 2012 CanSat competition - ESA on the high school finalists for the European CanSat competition

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NASA prepares for moon tourism - USA Today

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Rules have been updated - Sample Return Robot Challenge - WPI

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WSJ Innovator of the Year in Tech award for Elon Musk - RLV News

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Finding Commercial Applications for Laser Power Designed for Space - Space News

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FUTURE MISSIONS OF EXPLORATION AND SCIENCE (PDF)
FORGING INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS I: COMMERCIAL LUNAR EXPLORATION (PDF) - The LEAG (Lunar Exploration Analysis Group) meeting agenda includes X PRIZE Foundation and Google Lunar X PRIZE team participation.

Notables sign letter to Congress in support of Commercial Crew - RLV News - This includes representatives of the X PRIZE Foundation and Google Lunar X PRIZE teams.

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Here is some news about some former Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge competitors, including their latest work and the Carmack 100kft Micro Prize:

Armadillo Stig-A rocket video
Briefs: Armadillo rocket snapshot; New Virgin Galactic vid
Masten Space update
Armadillo Stig snapshot
Briefs: Ben Brockert interview; Derek Deville interview
Briefs: Ben Brockert pt. 2; Ken Murphy interview
Derek Deville's Qu8k rocket in USA Today
Unreasonable composite tank test - all from RLV News

FAA Trouble, YouTube Space Lab, Oil Spill Challenge, Why Do You Explore? Contest, Carmack Prize, More

Today, the Google Home Page features the YouTube Space Lab, so about a billion people should know about it by now.  Just in case that isn't enough, I'll try to push it over the edge with this mention.  The winning space experiment video will be performed on the International Space Station.

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House appropriators tell FAA to focus more on air than space - Space Politics - The affordable space access prize proposed by the FAA is one of the casualties.

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Illinois Team Wins Oil Spill Cleanup X CHALLENGE
Pictures: X PRIZE Contest Seeks Improved Oil Spill Cleanup - National Geographic

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NASA Funded Astronomer Wins Nobel Prize - NASA Watch

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Rocketry Winners Come to Washington - OSTP Blog - White House

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NASA Adds Some Numbers to Green Flight Challenge
AVweb Readers Weigh In on Electric Aircraft, Green Flight Challenge
Green Flight Challenge Winners
Green Flight Challenge – Days Three and Five
Green Flight Challenge – Day Two - CAFE Foundation Blog

The CAFE Foundation PhotoStream has pictures from the event.

NASA Contest Heralds Dawn of the Electric Plane - OSTP Blog - White House - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

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X PRIZE Foundation Announces Three-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Sponsorship with Shell for Prizes Promoting Exploration of Space, Oceans and Land - X PRIZE Foundation press release - This includes the Why Do You Explore? video contest, with a grand prize of a $10,000 National Geographic Expedition, and 3 other prizes of Airship Ventures flights.

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Amateur Rocketeers Chase $10,000 Launch Prize Offered by John Carmack - Space.com

Prize Roundup: 100kft Prize, Crater Finder, Sample Agreement, AIAA Booster Plane, Debris Removal, and Prop Depot Designs, More

The Carmack 100kft Micro Prize - Armadillo Aerospace - Currently one launch attempt is scheduled, the Proteus 7 sounding rocket, at the Tripoli Rocket Association's Black Rock Desert high power rocket event.

NASA Tournament Lab: Open Innovation On-Demand - OSTP Blog discusses NASA's prize and open innovation work, including the recent NASA Tournament Lab announcement of the winner of a contest to create ideas to automate detection of craters.

Competition Shines Light on Dark Matter - OSTP Blog

Team Agreement – For Review - Sample Return Robot Challenge

HeinleinPrizeTrust - YouTube - The Heinlein Prize Trust YouTube channel has some newly uploaded videos of the 2011 Heinlein Prize Award ceremony to Elon Musk.

The 2010-2011 academic year's AIAA Design Competitions include a Low-Cost Access to Space Booster Aircraft, an Orbital Debris Removal Spacecraft, and a Propellant Depot Design and Analysis of Economic Benefit.

The next 2 links are from the Science in School - Competitions page.

Entries wanted for the 2012 European CanSat competition - ESA

Explore the dynamic high-energy Universe – competition for secondary students - ESA - The competition is open to secondary students from "ESA Member States and Cooperating States, Russia and the USA".

A Busy Summer Looms for Masten - Parabolic Arc describes a highlight in a visit to Mojave.

Google Lunar X Prize Appoints New Senior Director - Parabolic Arc presents a press release on the new director of the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

Altius Selected as Finalist for the 2011 NewSpace Business Plan Competition - Altius Space Machines (link from RLV News)

We-Are-Space Video Contest Finalists Now Online - Space Frontier Foundation (link from Space for All)

NASA/Etsy Space Craft winner's work on Atlantis - Space for All

Sample Return Review, Unreasonable Perspective, Rover Challenge Results, EuSEC Teams, Armadillo Test

NASA’s new robot challenge - The Space Review - Ben Brockert discusses the Sample Return Robot Challenge.

Armadillo SuperMod test at full-throttle - RLV News - Ben also shows what Armadillo Aerospace is doing.  You can see more from Armadillo in other recent RLV News posts.

Unreasonable UAV aerial videography - RLV News - Continuing the coverage of former Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams, Unreasonable Rocket gives a view of a rocket launch that somehow reminded me of the trailer for the new X-Men movie.

Here are a few links for the 2011 University Rover Challenge:

The Results Are In!
2011 University Rover Challenge Concludes in Utah
Photos -> URC 2011

EuSEC announces competitors - The Space Elevator Blog

We-Are-Space video contest extended to June 14th - Space for All

Prize Roundup: Student Launch Initiative, Weightless Objects, Visioneering, More

Other than a burst of posts about Space Access '11 (see much more about that conference here), I haven't written much here at Space Prizes in the last few weeks.  This is due to a combination of getting ready for a new addition to the family, lots of visitors, and other activities unrelated to blogging.  I wouldn't be surprised if the posts here continue to happen at a slower rate than before.  In the meantime, here's a roundup:

The Student Launch Initiative is taking place this weekend.  The following tweet has a key hashtag and video link, but there's also lots more from SLI_1milehigh:

@SLI_1milehigh: 47 teams are competing today, including 17 middle/high schools and 30 college/univ ( #Watching_Rockets_Launch live at http://ustre.am/rrlz)

The deadline for the next tweet is now in the past, but there are still ways to get involved.

@gozerog: Last day to submit your entry into the 2011 Weightless Object Contest. Click here to enter http://bit.ly/fKSS6C

From the site: 

Submit one photo of an object you would like to see weightless by April 15. ZERO-G will select the Top 5 entries and publish them on ZERO-G's Facebook page on April 18. Then it's up to ZERO-G fans to select the winning object. The winner will be announced on April 22 and the winning object will fly on an upcoming ZERO-G flight. 

The next one is from April 15, so it's well under way now:

@peterdiamandis: Kicking off a three day X PRIZE board meeting. We have 100 CEOs and philanthropists gathering for a Visioneering brainstorm of future prizes 

You can see more about this at the twitter hashtag #visioneering

@nss: New review of Ansari's biography by Cliff McMurray: http://www.nss.org/books. Use Amazon links to benefit NSS. 

National Space Society Announces Space Pioneer Award for Business Entrepreneur to Be Awarded to SpaceX - National Space Society

@morpheuslander: @VAXHeadroom We are partnered with Armadillo Aerospace, one of the NGLLC winners. Having me at JSC allows rapid testing and iteration. 

LaserMotive to Exhibit at SPIE - LaserMotive 

Join our mailing list - Sample Return Robot Challenge 

NASA Releases Status On Open Government Initiatives - SpaceRef - You can see the status of the initiatives at the NASA Open Gov Status Dashboard.  Many of the items on the dashboard concern the NASA Centennial Challenges. 

2011 Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards - NASA Watch 

NASA Make Challenge Webcast - NASA Watch

I've posted a number of times on Google Earth prizes, on ocean prizes, and on Virgin Galactic's work to take the Ansari X PRIZE win to the next level.  This next link isn't about prizes, but it does mix up those other 3 interests of mine in a new way, so I'll let this post take a quick step outside of the prize world for a second to link to a post about Virgin Oceanic: 

Diving deep with Richard Branson - Google Earth Blog 

Saturday Testing... - Unreasonable Rocket 

Armadillo working on Mod vehicle
Briefs: Iridium Next on Falcons; Catch a Ride with Rocket City Space Pioneers
Briefs: PWR joins Rocket City Space Pioneers; Morpheus update
Briefs: Moon Express; Colorado rockets; Southern space gloves - all from RLV News

Space Access '11: Armadillo Aerospace - Russ Blink and Ben Brockert

Since the last conference, Armadillo has been flying the Mod vehicle and designing an aeroshell.  They will need to fly the Mod for their CRuSR contract.  They showed a video of a similar flight to what they'd need for CRuSR.  They did more work with the Rocket Racing League.  The RRL did 2 flights at a time.  Armadillo left us in suspense about something brewing at the RRL.  The RRL ran their engines 1,000 times.  These runs were full flight profiles, not just starts and stops.  Ben joked "You know you're doing a lot of rocket testing when it gets annoying."

Armadillo is working with NASA's Project M.  They needed a prototype for a system to take Robonaut to the lunar surface.  JSC folks worked with them to build a vehicle.  The vehicle is at jSC now.  They hope to fly around May.  It was a good collaboration, with learning in both directions.  They showed several videos of engine tests with new engines, some for their use, and some for NASA's use.  They showed a scaled-down model of the tube rocket.  This one can be held in a hand.  The full scale one is 29 feet long.

They showed videos of a burst test.

The NASA work took a long time.  Eventually they were able to start work on vehicle altitude and speed.  That's what the tube rocket is for.  It's not the final configuration.  Crashing the tube rocket is like crashing a sports car (I assume they meant in terms of cost).

They showed a video of a parachute drop from an airplane.  They also showed video of tube rocket Stig hovering.  One test even had them pull on the hovering rocket to give a disturbing force to the rocket.  They also showed a launch stand that Ben designed.

Stig is in New Mexico, waiting for some Spaceport America and White Sands Missile Range paperwork.  The are working through a new type of operation at the spaceport.  It's a learning process for everyone to get comfortable.  They are planning on a 100,000 foot flight.

Prize Roundup: FAA Space Access Prize? Space Elevator, ISDC, NSRC Student Prize, More

FAA 2012 budget proposal includes space access prize - Space Politics

Here are 3 updates that mix in some other topics with information about competitions with a Space Elevator theme:

An oldie but goodie… - The Space Elevator Blog

Call for Papers for the 2011 Space Elevator Conference - The Space Elevator Reference

Moving Forward In March - LaserMotive

Need your help: A GLXP Panel at International Space Development Conference (ISDC 2011) - Evadot

Allure From Afar: 1st Prize Student Essay at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, 2011 - SpaceRef

NASA recruiting sponsors for new high-tech competitions - Network World / Layer 8

The following RLV News set includes a number of Armadillo and Unreasonable Rocket updates:

Briefs: Paul Breed interview Pt.2; Stig at sunset; REL update
Briefs: Blue Origin article; Stig + team; CSF hails NSRC
Packing up Stig
Briefs: Unreasonable interview; Andrews Space gets Reusable Booster study contract
Armadillo nosecone/parachute deployment test video
NSRC 2011: Monday afternoon - Suborbital provider session
Armadillo video of the Tube Rocket preparations

Prize Roundup: Lunbotics Contractor, FIRST Peek, Night Rover Allied Org, Rocket Challenge, More

@nasawatch: Lunarobotics Mining Competition Awards Ceremony and Reception at KSC Visitor Complex http://srs.gs/15Kj

It looks like the scope of work for the Lunabotics contract also includes the opening ceremony and the competition itself.

@Team190: Check out the teaser video for this year's robot, the G-Rex http://vimeo.com/20350475! #omgrobots #WPI

Briefs: Night Rover Challenge needs management. WPI to run Sample Return Robot Challenge - RLV News

John Carmack and Paul Breed sponsor amateur rocket challenge prize - RLV News

@fineri: John Carmacks announcement of the 100kft micro prize on arocket has sparked abit of interest in the nz rocket community,positive interest :)

@fineri: @QuantumG go here for more pics mate: https://picasaweb.google.com/kiwi2space/6600N1500lbfLargeHybrid

Armadillo Aerospace tube rocket picts - RLV News

More Yuri's Night contests - Space for All

MIT $100K! ~ Business Plans Due 2/25 6p... - Maximizing Progress

@RCSpacePioneers: RCSP Team Leader, Tim Pickens, will speak at the Huntsville HAL5 meeting Mar. 3 about the #Google Lunar X PRIZE quest: http://bit.ly/gmTqjf

How are you going to fund your GLXP entry: The Nanosat Launcher Challenge Contracting - Team Phoenicia

Astrobotic Technology Inc. - D Minus Zero

@genomics_xprize: Pleased to announce that we're opening up the AGXP Validation Protocol for public comment. See details here: http://bit.ly/giGadT

Prize Roundup: Canadian Sat Challenge,UCF Conference, Prometheus Activity, EAA Electric Planes, More

Seven Entries for EAA's Electric Flight Prize - EAA AirVenture 2011

USST, the University of Saskatchewan Space Design Team, was one of the prominent Space Elevator Games climber teams.  They are also participating in another competition, the Canadian Satellite Design Challenge.

Ladies and Gentleman, Start Your Rocket Engines - Peter Diamandis at The Huffington Post

Future of Space Tourism, Research Will Be Focus of Conference - University of Central Florida Newsroom

GPS progress.... - Unreasonable Rocket

Team Prometheus had a number of interesting tweets recently.  Here are a couple of them:

@TeamPrometheus: John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace just agreed to donate $5000 to Team Prometheus to launch the Prometheus III... http://fb.me/V84sgdTG

@TeamPrometheus: I uploaded a YouTube video -- "Q" motor Static test http://youtu.be/Qt6nYh27BAQ?a

@tedprize: Check out this story from NPR on "Tuning In Space Noise For Sounds Of Life". Includes interview w/ Jill Tarter. http://n.pr/gguVPI

@evadot: Working on a proposed #GLXP panel for ISDC 2011. Would be nice if some teams could come. I know @rcspacepioneers and @ptscientists are.

@sedsusa: SEDS-USA is happy to announce the SEDS 2011 High-Powered Rocketry Competition! Full rules and details can be found at http://bit.ly/gAMsb1

@dmasten: A little Xaero flying action. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=H8rOcDW4Pbk

@FLspacereport: Anousheh Ansari, private-sector astronaut, gives keynote address today at @EmbryRiddle for Engineering Week.

@National Engineers Week at Embry-Riddle Features Anousheh Ansari, Space Explorer and X Prize Creator - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University News Center - This news release gives more information about the keynote speech and some competitions at Engineers Week.

@wikkit: Need a good machine shop? Nosala Engineering has been used by Armadillo, Altius, XCOR, and Masten. http://nosala.com/ Wnosala@aol.com

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Teams Roundup

Many of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge teams are still quite active.  Here's another update on some of those teams.  This is an impressive week of activity, considering that many of the RLV News posts cover more than one topic.

Armadillo Aerospace update - RLV News - This one features a post by Ben Brockert on the new tube rocket.

Armadillo Aerospace photos - RLV News

Getting ready for big hot flamey stuff at Armadillo - RLV News - This one was also updated to include some Masten pictures.

Briefs: A SS1 for the backyard; A historic Armadillo rocket - RLV News

Briefs: Masten engine test; Armadillo engine test - RLV News

Here's more about the Masten engine test mentioned above:

@ikluft: Preparing for @mastenspace static rocket engine firing test at #Mojave http://twitpic.com/3tc2yn 

I got to watch today... successful @mastenspace rocket engine static test - 3 firings

From an earlier tweet I'm guessing that this next one happened a couple days after the ones above:

@dmasten: Yep, #thrust. Looked like a good run. We're testing engine extremes. http://twitpic.com/3ty726

Briefs: Speed Up update; Alaskan sounding rockets - RLV News

Mr. Bezos, "please don't be evil" - RLV News - This one covers a post at Unreasonable Rocket about patents and openness.

Some Armadillo Q and A - RLV News

@mastenspace: January 30 is the deadline for @mastenspace summer internships! Apply now! Exciting time in sRLV dev / flight testing! http://bit.ly/cAemQk

@spaceberger: After 2 weeks in Mojave, I'm heading home. Had a great time working w/ @mastenspace. Plenty still to do though! Bring it on!

Team Phoenicia continues its series of Zephyr Aurora updates:

• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [34]
• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [33]
• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [32] 

@wikkit : James welding inside the tube rocket. http://twitpic.com/3tzj6n

So how bad do you think it would make me look if I was to webcast an engine test and the engine destroyed itself?

Dual-Fluid Single-Launch Propellant Depots - Selenian Boondocks

The 2011 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference will be held in a few weeks - February 28 - March 2.  Here is the preliminary program.  The preliminary program includes a student competition session with a Masten Student Prizes Address by Colin Ake, presentations on the Student Suborbital Experiment and Student Essay, and awards.  The program also includes an update session on flight provider program status, with Dave Masten representing Masten Space Systems and Neil Milburn representing Armadillo Aerospace.  Blue Origin, XCOR Aerospace, and Virgin Galactic are also represented.  The conference covers many other topics, too - check the preliminary program for more information.

With all of this activity from the teams long after the prizes, I wonder how much interest there would be in another variant on a lunar lander challenge?

JSC Ideas, Phobos and Deimos Conference, University Rover Date, Hoppers, More

A Look Inside JSC's New Ideas - NASA Watch
Cross Cutting Themes at JSC - NASA Watch - Click through to take a look at the slide presentations for both of these articles. You may see some imagery that evokes the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge here and there.  For example, the "Promote Rapid Prototype Engineering" slide (slide 16 in the Cross Cutting Themes presentation) reminds me of Robonaut - Project M History and Driving Philosophy:

We had also been working with Armadillo Aerospace for a few years. ... We did “hardware store engineering” like a scaled propellant slosh test made of light globes, colored water, nuts and bolts, and lumber from the hardware store. That test allowed us to confirm fundamental slosh modes, anchor our simulation, develop a better full scale slosh test, and give engineers an intuitive feel for the physics. We didn’t sit and debate it, we didn’t analyze and re-analyze, we simply built and learned.

@wikkit: Cryogenic snow falls in Caddo Mills as Phil's 4k methane engine starts running. http://twitpic.com/3r9c98

Preparations for NASA Power Beaming Competition 2011 - LaserMotive

Power up: Laser beams can now deliver energy to machines through thin air - The Economist (link from @NASA_Green_Ames)

Still here - Vog Rockets has a brief note.

A student interested in the N Prize gets a lecture from a former Centennial Challenges manager:

@fineri: Had a lecture by Ken Davidian from the FAA/AST office today, very interesting, pity it was only an hour..

@ConradAwards: Technological innovation, entrepreneurship alive among U.S. HS students, more than 480 students in 2011 competition http://ow.ly/3HiGk

@NextGiantLeap: Planetary rovers: Space hopping | The Economist http://t.co/hgCwg0g via @theeconomist

@Eurospaceward: Registration for the University Rover Challenge June 2 - 4, 2011 extended to Feb 15, 2011, see https://sites.google.com/marssociety.org/urc/

The above Mars Society link (and the site in general) is having some trouble as of this posting, but you can get more details at this University Rover Challenge site.

Second International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos - SETI Institute - The conference will be held at NASA Ames on March 14-16.  It includes the

Mars Institute “Asaph Hall Best Student Paper Award” ceremony during which the Mars Institute will present an award certificate and a USD$500 prize to the student who will have first-authored the most noteworthy research abstract or poster relating to the exploration of Phobos and/or Deimos, as judged by the Conveners of the conference.

Prize Roundup: Free Trips, Launch or Fizzle?, Zephyr Aurora, LEGO ISS Challenge?, NASA Crowdsourcing

Win a Free Trip to Space - Discovery News

Space Tourism: Will it go far or fizzle out? - NewSpace Magazine - This is an overview that features several companies involved with space prizes in one way or another.

NASA Launches Innovative Approach to Solve Old Challenges - NASA Ames shows how NASA is using crowdsourcing and InnoCentive internally to solve 3 challenges:

"NASA InternSpace" ... NASA Ames is considering developing a customized social networking and new media communications platform for use by NASA interns, mentors, and managers. ...
"Low Impact Robotic Sensor Platform for Land Survey" ... This challenge is seeking brainstorms and "eureka moments" for alternative sensor platforms. ...
"Measuring Gas Concentrations in Microliter Samples" ... Suggestions are being sought for a new small device (<10 cm3) capable of measuring key gas concentrations in small volumes (10-500 microliters) of gaseous samples.

Team Phoenicia has some new photos:

• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [16]
• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [15]
• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [14]
• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [13]
• Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [12]

I'm curious what the LEGO ® Challenge (coming soon) featured on the NASA International Space Station National Laboratory page sidebar is about.  Any more hints?

Prize Roundup: Nanosat Launch Seminar, Centennial Winners Keep Going, ZeroG Pictures, More

As the Nanosatellite Launch Challenge Seminar this weekend approaches, the news continues:

Team Phoenicia/Techshop Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar: Gathering Questions - Team Phoenicia:

The FAA-AST has asked Team Phoenicia to gather questions that the community would like answered for their part of the challenge.

Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar: Agenda Change (11/1/10) - Team Phoenicia

Getting closer - Vog Rockets

@TeamPrometheus - Getting ready to go to the conference for the NASA Centennial Challenge Nanosat contest! Go! Team Prometheus!

Several past Centennial Challenge winners are keeping themselves in the spotlight.  LaserMotive is getting a lot of press and staying active:

@LaserMotive: Regardless of how our pitch is received, I overcame my mental glitches and delivered a good presentation today.

Copter sets a laser-powered record - Cosmic Log

Laser-Powered Helicopter Breaks Records, Is Pretty Cute - Discover

Nov 2nd Update: Joining “The Vault” - Altius Space Machines

NASA’s Quest to Send a Robot to the Moon - The New York Times features Armadillo Aerospace in part of this article.

@paulsrobotics: Moonraker will be dropping the first puck this Friday @ Worcester Sharks! Buy tix through me to support FRC190. Check out the #omgrobots

Of course there's plenty of prize news from other sources, too:

@GoZeroG: 2010 Weightless Photo Competition http://conta.cc/aBapiz via #constantcontact

@sedsusa: The SEDS-USA Video Contest is finished. Thanks to everyone who submitted! Comment on your favorites - http://bit.ly/c6nNxe

CPM TV Pre-Launch Test Phase Begins - Synergy Moon on Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

@arielwaldman: Science Hack Day SF is looking for prizes and/or sponsors! Anyone able to help? http://sf.sciencehackday.com/

Space Prize Roundup: Optimus Prime Award, Space Shows, N-Prize Interview, More

Interview with Paul Dear of the N-Prize - RLV News

@pkhomer - Was just visited by Buzz Aldrin! Yup. For real. My head is still spinning!

@NASAGoddard - 3rd-8th graders, make a short video about spinoff tech and you could win the coveted NASA Optimus Prime Spinoff Award http://go.usa.gov/xbk

@doug_comstock - NASA and Hasbro partner for Optimus Prime award. Students do videos how NASA techs 'transform'. http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/optimus/index.php

Here are NASA's main links for the NASA Optimus Prime Award:

Home
Contest Details
Spinoff Technology Choices

@fineri - Spanking new website up at http://www.kiwi2space.co.nz/,thanks to @expertnz for donating their time & resources to make this happen!!choice!

Dr. Bryan Laubscher to appear on the 9/12/2010 Space Show - The Space Elevator Blog

Here's the podcast: Broadcast 1422 (Special Edition) - The Space Show

Just to mix things up a bit, instead of giving you the Space Show link, here's a link from The Space Show's Way Outside The Box Ideas And Plans Blog for Friday's interview of Tim Pickens. One of the subjects is the new Google Lunar X PRIZE team, the Rocket City Space Pioneers:

TIM PICKENS, Friday, 9-17-10

It looks like Armadillo is keeping busy this weekend ... but how did it turn out?

@armadillogadget: after 5 rocket racer runs we are about to pull out for a couple mod tests.

25 minutes to launch...

Keeping Up with Lunar Lander Challenge Teams

Armadillo flies Super Mod
Armadillo Super Mod altitude goals
Super Mod take off and landing view - all from RLV News

Jon Goff gives some background on his company:

@rocketrepreneur: Ok, finally got my Business of Altius Space Machines post up: http://is.gd/feFEB Now back to packing and sleeping, then way too much driving

The Business of Altius Space Machines - Selenian Boondocks - Here's some information about one of the enabling technology product lines from Altius Space Machines:

Reusable First-Stage NanoSat Launcher
This is a topic area I’ve been working on for quite some time now, but particularly over the past year or so. There are many competitors in this market area, especially with the announcement of the NanoSat Launcher Centennial Challenge, but most of them are looking at expendable systems based on solids or other components.

Another product line involves reusable micro reentry vehicles. Micro reentry vehicles were considered by NASA Centennial Challenges (see slide 20 here (PDF)), but that hasn't happened (yet?). With NASA's new emphasis on the ISS, potential market growth from new platforms like DragonLabs and commercial space stations, NASA's new technology focus that includes landings, and the need Jon describes to fill the RLV technology gaps left by trends like suborbital RLVs and smallsats, a micro reentry vehicle seem to me to be a good subject for a future space prize (as well as Jon's technology business!).

@unrocket: http://plixi.com/p/45492209 motor bottom

Pressure Fed Upper Stage.
Stainless Chamber bottom on the way. - both from Unreasonable Rocket

Update:

Video of Armadillo's Super Mod flight on Friday - RLV News

Something Wonderful Is About To Happen - Team Phoenicia (via RLV News) - This post has a lot of hints in the tags. Those include "California Space Authority", New Mexico Spaceport Authority", and "Nanosat Challenge". They also include "Vog Rockets", which Google search suggests is vogrockets.org, "Vog Rocket Builders". Vog Rockets includes the following posts that give a couple more hints about their plans:

The Start of Vog Rockets
New Rocket Mockup Picture

Space Prize Roundup: Masten Members, NYC Maker Faire, NWEN, New Huntsville Team, More

Here's some updates from some NASA Centennial Challenge winning teams and team members:
New crew lineup at Masten Space - RLV News

Transitions - Selenian Boondocks

@wikkit: As requested by @QuantumG, a short video of the short pulsejet run. http://youtu.be/iZYqnz6sDLM It seems almost as loud as the rockets.

Cryofrost grows around cables like a tree around a wound. http://twitpic.com/2mu5hz

@paulsrobotics: Moonraker will most likely be on display in the #WPI Robotics booth at the NYC Maker Faire! Look out for us if you're in the area!

LaserMotive Makes NWEN First Look Forum Top 20 - LaserMotive

There's been a lot of activity with current and future space prizes, too. For the Google Lunar X PRIZE:

Google Lunar X PRIZE Roundup #28 - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration, covering a wide swath of time

You've probably already heard about the new team:

New Google Lunar X PRIZE Team: Rocket City Space Pioneers! - Luna C/I: Moon Colonization and Integration

Rocket City Space Pioneers announce entry into Google Lunar X Prize competition - Huntsville Newswire

Dynetics Chases Google Lunar X Prize - al.com - photos from the Huntsville Times

Orion Propulsion, now part of Dynetics, was part of the LunaTrex team. Draper Laboratory is also part of the Next Giant Leap team. I might speculate that the Rocket City Space Pioneers could work mainly with a different part of Draper - their Huntsville office.

Space entrepreneurship forum at Congressional Black Caucus conference - RLV News

Google Lunar X PRIZE Summit to be Held on the Isle of Man - X PRIZE Foundation

Here's some other news:

Challenges.gov - RLV News

Some progress... - Unreasonable Rocket
An Orbital Vehicle Part 1 - Unreasonable Rocket

Student Rocketeers Wanted For World's Largest Amateur Launch - Team America Rocketry Challenge Opens Registration - Aero-News.net

Prize Roundup: MICI Presentations, MoonBots Winners, More X-Hab Finalists, More

@doug_comstock: Congrats to X-Hab proposers Oklahoma St, Univ of Wisc, and Univ of Maryland. Now let the competition begin! http://tinyurl.com/x-hab-sel

NASA Selects University Finalists for Inflatable Loft Competition - NASA (so you can see the title)

@tedprize: Jill Tarter reports on last month's SETIcon http://bit.ly/d4usbU

@peterdiamandis: James Cameron is flying aboard Zero-G to raise money for X PRIZE. Oct 9; VNY; Almost sold out. 3 seats up for bid... http://www.ebay.com/cameron

@unrocket: So many projects so little time, Just re-did my printed STL motor model to have GPI prototype quote using DMLS, a better process.

Getting back to rockets. - Unreasonable Rocket:

The potential NASA nanosat launcher prize may change my path, but I'm still thinking the year or so out goal is a reusable vehicle that can go to 100Km and back. It will be much smaller than the Masten and or Armadillo plans. It will also look more rocket like. ...

@nasamici: MICI finishes NASA Strong Tether Month - meet the man who built a tether to try & win $2 mill http://tinyurl.com/Tether-August

Not too late! MICI Presentations from NASA Lunabotics still viewable http://tinyurl.com/Lunabotics-July

@nasaprize: Two lunar lander prize winners (Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace) selected for NASA CRuSR work

X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO Group Announce Winners in "MoonBots" Educational Contest - X PRIZE Foundation

USST Epic Crash Footage from the Japanese Space Elevator Association's 2010 Competition - on YouTube