Prize Roundup: July 2-3, 2009 (Part 2) - Rocket Racing Financing, Masten LLC Plans, MiniSpaceWorld, NewSpace 2009 & Prizes, Prometheus Update, SF

The picture is from the NSS Space Settlement art calendar - July. Notice the flag - and related to that, I'll be celebrating the July 4th holiday tomorrow, so you get 2 prize roundups for the price of one today.

Masten Space tests - RLV News - This includes videos of recent tests and a note about Masten plans with respect to the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Rocket Racing League Closes Multi-Million Dollar Financing - MarketWire press release:

The Rocket Racing League® today announced the closing of a $5.5 million dollar financing round, ensuring the next phase of development of the league. It also announced the appointment of a new President & CEO and the commencement of manufacturing activities for its next generation Rocket Racer®. ... July 2009 also marks the kick-off of the manufacture of the League's next generation Rocket Racer, an advanced design based upon the current ships already built, flown and FAA-certified in 2008, in a collaborative partnership with Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas and Velocity, Inc., of Sebastian, Florida.

MiniSpaceWorld Design Contest - This is a new competition entry in SpaceHack:

The MSW Design Contest is a contest open for participants worldwide about imagining various parts of MiniSpaceWorld, a lively scale model exhibit about spaceflight and astronomy. Participants shall create a high-level content design including a theme description, map and graphical representations.

Here's a link to the MiniSpaceWorld contest itself: MiniSpaceWorld Design Contest - Overview

Sturgeon & Campbell Winners - Science Fiction Awards Watch
Locus Award Winners - Science Fiction Awards Watch

Here are some of the NewSpace 2009 events and speakers related to space prizes and awards:

A.C. Charania
Ken Davidian
Peter Diamandis
Art Dula
Jonathan Goff
Nicole Jordan
Michael Mealling
Bob Richards
Paul Spudis

Friday, July 17th: Space Elevator Day (including a session specifically on "Spaceward and the Elevator Games")

Monday, July 20th: GLXP Discussion (presumably with some of the above speakers with connections to the Google Lunar X PRIZE)

Heinlein Business Plan Competition
Finalists Selected for the Heinlein NewSpace Business Plan Competition - As I mentioned in an earlier post, this includes teams in, or with history in, other space prize competitions. I mentioned Flagsuit, LLC and Next Giant Leap. I didn't mention Aeronautic Enterprises because I didn't know about them, but this should give a hint:

http://teamprometheus.org/movies/2009/07/prometheus-makes-finals.html -

Aeronautic Enterprises/ Team Prometheus made the finals of the New Space Fronter Foundations Business Plan competition ... We will be launching a large rocket on the 11th and I will go to the NASA AMES Reasearch center for the New Space Convention 2009 on the 16th ...

Team Prometheus has been posting a lot more than that. Here are some. Don't be intimidated by the number of posts because most are short, a lot of it is imagery, and it's all iteresting.

Balloon Making 101
Load Cell for QPIII motor test
Balloon For Near Space Expedition II
Quad Pod III Rocket Motors
Station Keeping in the upper atmosphere
More Horizon Shots

Prize Roundup - June 2-3, 2009

Vertica Takeoff and Landing looking up - RLV News - This gives an assessment of the current state of play in this niche, including the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

@cswiki - List of suborbital launch vehicle companies/teams now at full compliment of 11 at http://tinyurl.com/n8h8df. Next up, orbital LV companies.

The list now includes even more Lunar Lander Challenge teams.

Masten Space makes 60 sec tethered test flight - RLV News

A Very Successful Lunar Lander Eggs Prize - Omega Envoy at Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page (discussing a contest they held at the 2009 ISDC)

SYNERGY MOON Launch Providers Speak at LA Adventurers' Club - SYNERGY Moon at Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

To The Moon, By Way Of MIT - Red Orbit -

Another forward-looking project is one led by former astronaut Hoffman, who is working with a team including MIT students that plans to compete in the Google Lunar X-Prize Competition. ... The MIT team's approach involves using a unique "hopper" design. The craft would land, like the Apollo module, using a retro-rocket to control its descent. But then it would re-light the rocket, rise a short distance and move across the surface before making a second landing.

The article also discusses the Giant Leaps Apollo celebration at MIT with many prominent speakers and interesting-sounding events.

Briefs: Laliberte confirmed; GLXP LunaTrex team - RLV News

IEEE Spectum space podcasts - RLV News - One of the podcasts is on the Carnegie Mellon University entry in the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

'Nascar in the Sky' Still Taxiing - Forbes covers the Rocket Racing League during a tough business environment.

Team agreement updated with new deadlines - Reglolith Excavation Challenge

@segames - Back in bay area. Dryden have located cable parachute for us. Have another volunteer, have to pull the trigger on major items tomorrow.

In Lancaster, more meetings tomorrow at the base - detailed planning of test procedures, airfield briefing.

Met with Aris's crew today, went over plans and options. Saw the helicopter, pictures soon on the blog (http://www.SpaceElevatorGam...)

Status Report - Engine 58, Cables, Parachutes - Space Elevator Games

junk - Space Elevator Games:

As explained before, when preparing the games, we need to coordinate our lasing activities with the Laser Clearinghouse, so we know that we don’t accidentally illuminate a satellite. By the time our laser beam reaches orbital altitudes (let’s say 200 km) it is very dispersed – about 200 meters across – but it can still pose a risk to sensitive downwards looking optical equipment (wink wink nudge nudge). The Laser Clearinghouse is a Department of Defense service whose purpose is to coordinate lasing activities above the horizon, so that commercial lasing activity is not impeded. ...

I'll also note that the site lists the Tether Challenge as being held on 8/13 in Seattle, where the Space Elevator Conference is being held. I haven't heard of any contenders this year, though.

@glxp - The bad news: I've had a crazy busy day. The good news: we've got some exciting news for you all very very soon.

Yikes. Been in #i2i all-hands meetings this afternoon. I come out and the skies are dark and there's thunder. In Los Angeles!

Also, you should start following @i_2_i ... why? Because yours truly will be tweeting from it next week from the United Nations.

@PeterDiamandis has some ideas to cure his plane travel woes:

5 cities in 2 days... mega tired of planes... now a 3 hr ground delay @ Dulles! teleportation x PRIZE??

and... yes i do delegate... and we have brainstormed a hypersonic X PRIZE

nickyjor - RT @glxp: Just had a great webinar with our #GLXP teams on blogging and online outreach. Can't wait to see what they post in the next week.

Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE Announces Hire of Senior Director Eric Cahill - X PRIZE Foundation press release

Robot of the Week: Nereus, underwater robot reaches bottom of Mariana Trench - The Launch Pad -

The X PRIZE Foundation is proud to be exploring new incentive prizes that could drive innovation very similar to the Nereus voyage. While over 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, only 2% of the ocean's depths have been explored. The economic potential from mineral, fuel, biological, and medical discoveries should not be underestimated.

Healthcare X PRIZE - Additional Questions and Answers - Healthcare X PRIZE blog
Measuring Health Value - Shifting the Paradigm - Healthcare X PRIZE blog

X PRIZE Foundation Updates

Here's another X PRIZE Foundation news source:

Say Hello to My Little Friend: Flight Plan - The Launch Pad

MIT Enterprise Forum of Phoenix Presents an Evening With Peter Diamandis - X PRIZE Foundation press release

Here's more about the event: MIT Entreprise Forum Phoenix

NASA's Exploration Overhaul - William Pomerantz (link from glxp)

Also from glxp:

#GLXP team @whitelabelspace is getting a lot of buzz. See: http://bit.ly/t8GXP http://bit.ly/wqDD5 http://bit.ly/xinhl (comic sans!)

From PeterDiamandis:

giving a keynote @ Autodesk conference in Detroit. speaking about Progressive Auto XP and Rocket Racing!

Prize Roundup - April 8, 2009

I'm going to be offline for a day or 2 during some house work, so I thought I'd get a quick RoundUp/CatchUp post in:

Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award Winners - SpaceRef shows a press release with the winners in the Personal Spaceflight, Lunar Exploration, and Renewable Energy categories.

ROCKET RACERS TAKE IT SLOWER - Cosmic Log - This update, which features some news from Space Access '09, also features Lunar Lander Challenge team Armadillo Aerospace and hints on when the Lunar Lander Challenge will happen this year.

Armadillo's Space Access 2009 video - RLV News

Peter Diamandis twitter: There are lots of quick but interesting tidbits here. The recent ones:

AI physician or Doc in a Box... diagnose as well as any 10 board certified docs

great meetings working on an Artificial Physician X PRIZE for the developing world

Today we announced 111 teams from 11 Nations entering 136 vehicles into the Progressive Auto X PRIZE! Great WSJ article

Just back from great meetings at the White House briefing OSTP & OMB on Progressive Auto X PRIZE, Health Care X PRIZE and our top 20 ideas!

There's a lot more news about the 111 registered Automotive X PRIZE teams that Dr. Diamandis mentioned:

Full List of Automotive X Prize Teams - X PRIZE Cars blog
111 Teams Get Green Light to Advance in Multimillion Dollar Competition - Progressive Automotive X PRIZE press release
Progressive Auto X PRIZE Team to Live Blog on Thursday, April 9 - Progressive Automotive X PRIZE blog
Teams Race to Build Super-Fuel-Efficient Car - Wall Street Journal online (link from X PRIZE Foundation)

Here are some other X PRIZE Foundation twitters (besides the ones I already have on the right):

HealthXPRIZE
I2I - (Incentive to Innovation conference)

Here's another Google Lunar X PRIZE team on Twitter:

NextGiantLeap

From the Space Elevator Chat:

Ted Semon, President, International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) & the owner of the Space Elevator Blog
April 7 ...
Topic: The International Space Elevator Consortium & other news
The transcript will be available April 8.

A couple of the other chats were rescheduled/postponed.

NewSpace Year in Review

NewSpace in 2008 - Ups and Downs in entrepreneurial spaceflight - HobbySpace.com - Clark reviews the good and bad events of 2008 in the NewSpace industry. The review includes a whole section on space prizes, and some events in other sections that are also related to space prizes and competitions.

More Space Year in Review

2008 In Review: The Year In Aerospace - Aero-News Network - The highlights for 2008 include Google Lunar X PRIZE, Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, X PRIZE aviation fuel investigation, and Rocket Racing League events.

Otero Vote

Spaceport studies reflect positive impact in Otero - Alamorordo Daily News editorial - The Armadillo and Rocket Racing combination is mentioned as part of the evidence the county is likely to benenfit from the spaceport tax. Is the Virgin Galactic $1 B+ of passengers booked accurate?

Commercial Space Wiki Interview and Centennial Challenges Updates

There have been a number of recent changes on the Commercial Space Wiki. Here are some of the prize-related ones:

At the moment, the Front Page celebrates the Armadillo level 1 win in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

The ECDP Presentations page features a Space VidCast interview of Ken Davidian at the NG LLC airport site. It's about 25 minutes long, and features Centennial Challenges at several points. It also covers Ken's other work with NASA and commercial space.

The NASA Centennial Challenges Information, Documents, and Links page features updates in the "Centennial Challenges Success Stories" section for Peter Homer and his customer Orbital Outfitter's NASA space suit contract, Armadillo and the NG LLC, and the Rocket Racing League/Armadillo/New Mexico joint venture.

Lunar Lander Challenge Win!!!! - October 24, 2008

Friday is the first lunar lander day - RLV News - This, and the linked webcast, are good places to go to find out about the LLC. That's where I'll be checking when I get a chance ... which means in the late afternoon at best.

I shouldn't forget the Launch Pad, too:

Are You Excited Yet???? - includes videos ...

Almost Here... - ... and photos

GLXP Twitter also continues to be actively posting LLC updates.

Update (evening):

Armadillo Wins! - The Launch Pad - Level 1 first place!!!!!!! ... tomorrow they go for Level 2 first place.

NG-LLC Report 16 - RLV News - As you can see from the title, there are a lot more covering the events of the day as they unfolded. These include not only the competition, but an announcement concerning Armadillo, the Rocket Racing League, and New Mexico. Here's a bit of looking to the future:

The check will be presented later in Washington DC. (Two checks if things work out tomorrow.) Remind Congress people of the value of prizes.

Armadillo Aerospace’s MOD rocket - Set 2, Flights 1 and 2 - Space VidCast with videos of Armadillo flights

TrueZerO Ignignokt Launch Attempt - Space VidCast video - It didn't work but it's pretty impressive considering how recently they started and the fact that it was their first non-tethered attempt.

Armadillo Aerospace’s MOD rocket - Set 1, Flight 1 - Space VidCast video

It's Official Now - Personal Spaceflight - just one of several updates from there.

ROCKET RACERS TARGET SPACE - Cosmic Log - This gives some context to the competition and Armadillo/RRL/N.M. annoucement.

Condolences to True Zero and Congratulations to Armadillo. - Unreasonable Rocket

Near Miss at $2-Million Lunar Lander Challenge - Wired Science - This one shows events as they stood in the middle of the day.

NG LLC News - Team Phoenicia - The teams are watching!

Lunar Lander Challenge Roundup - October 14, 2008

Unreasonable Rocket plans test on Wednesday - RLV News

FAA clears Armadillo powered rocket racer for exhibition flights - RLV News

I couldn't access the linked press release, but here's a copy from KRNV (Reno, Nevada).

The RLV News post links to this Cosmic Log post: ROCKET RACER IS 'GO' FOR SHOW. I wanted to point out the Lunar Lander Challenge piece:

Now those plans are off, and Whitelaw said one reason was that Armadillo is focusing on its third bid to win a six-figure or seven-figure prize in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. That contest takes place in Las Cruces right after the symposium.

"We need to focus on winning the Lunar Lander Challenge," Whitelaw said.

"We"? Yes, Whitelaw said "we." Does that hint at a more formal financial relationship in the future? ... I had to ask Whitelaw whether a similar deal was in the works with Armadillo.

"No comment," Whitelaw answered.

Lunar Lander Challenge Roundup - October 13, 2008

Unreasonable update - RLV News

TrueZer0 hover progress [Update] - RLV News

Unreasonable and TrueZer0 update; NG-LLC update - RLV News - I'm glad they explained it; at first I thought TrueZer0 found a blueberry pie in their engine.

Rocket competition moved to Las Cruces - KRQE.com - It's not new news, but I'm including it to show the local Las Cruces media is letting the community know what's going on with the NG LLC.

Update (afternoon): When will rocket racing take off? - The Space Review (Jeff Foust) - One of the topics is how the Armadillo RRL flights are helping that team test for the NG LLC.

Armadillo flies 90 second tethered test flights - RLV News

Prize Round-Up for August 28, 2008

RLV News has the latest on a Will Pomerantz interview, LLC team Armadillo and rocket racing, and a test video from LLC team BonNova.

In addition to the above link, the Launch Pad has a number of other recent interesting posts, including 9 Cool Facts About the X PRIZE Foundation and a Lunar Commercial Communications workshop. See the site for the rest; there's quite a bit there.

I've mentioned the idea of "Mega-Prizes" here (just use the "search blog" tool in the upper left with that term). The latest X PRIZE Foundation email newsletter update notes that

Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, CEO and Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation, will be talking about the idea of Mega X PRIZEs as part of the Long Now Foundation’s monthly series Seminars About Long Term Thinking. The seminar will take place on Friday, September 12 at 7:30pm, at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, with a $10 suggested donation. For more information, you can get in touch with Danielle Engelman at danielle@longnow.org.

The newsletter also covers the Lunar Lander Challenge Summit, 100+ Automotive X PRIZE Teams, a National Human Genome Research Grant for an Archon Genomics X PRIZE team, and the WhiteKnightTwo rollout.

Launch Pad Videos and FAA News

FAA says tethered operations require authorization [Update] - RLV News - This, of course, affects teams going for the Lunar Lander Challenge. There's a link to a Launch Pad post that gives some more detail on how this is being handled.

Briefs: Launch Pad roundup; More WK2 postings - RLV News - The Launch Pad Oshkosh pictures and videos are pretty cool, if I may say so.

August 1 2008 Roundup

Interview: Bob Richards and James Antifaev of Odyssey Moon - The Launch Pad - This interview covers the multinational Odyssey Moon GLXP team, Canada's growing space capabilities, and the MDA-ATK sale attempt.

Oshkosh Bloggin' - The Launch Pad - William is there for some GLXP panels, and is also posting a lot of photos from the show, some by the SpaceShipOne replica (check the main Launch Pad page to see the latest).

Briefs: WK2 debut audio; GLXP at Oshkosh; Space shoe spinoff - RLV News covers the Launch Pad activity, as well as an 8th Continent post about one of their space/Earth business plan winners, iShoe.

Rocket Racing demo flight 2 - RLV News

French space tourism contest - RLV News - This covers the winning of the Rocketplane/Nestle suborbital ride contest I mentioned a bit after Space Access '08. The OK article makes it sound like the promotion was a success in terms of driving business. One of the linked posts discusses the legal responsibilities of the spaceflight participant and the ride company using Willy Wonka as an appropriate analogy.

Rocket Racing Continues

Rocket Racing League finally gets off the ground - Heath Haussamen on New Mexico Politics - The RRL Oshkosh exhibit is discussed from a New Mexican perspective:

The company hasn’t been able to recruit teams as easily as it originally anticipated and has had funding delays. But it broke ground on its first hangars at the Las Cruces airport in January and has recruited several teams to participate. It plans to make Las Cruces its worldwide headquarters.

More Rocket Racer demo response - RLV News - Several articles are posted (I'm a couple days behind on this one).

Rocket Racer Photos - Samizdata.net

Diamandis on Rocket Racing League Flights

SUCCESS!!! Using Economic Engines to open the space frontier - The Launch Pad (Peter Diamandis) - Peter talks about the importance of the big WK2 and RRL rollouts on the 50th anniversary of the NASA Space Act (just go to Google.com and click the picture). It's all about private industry, low cost, reliability, and fast repeatable operations.

It's a big time in the prize calendar as well. Quickly following these somewhat prize-related events are 2 NASA Centennial Challenge competitions: the General Aviation Challenge and the Regolith Excavation Challenge. Not only that, but I'll bet that some GLXP teams will be carefully watching the Falcon 1 launch.

Rocket Racing Oshkosh Demo

RLV News has the news on the Rocket Racing League Rollout:

Rocket racing demo today

Rocket racing on Internet radio [Update]

Rocket Racer demo flight reports

Rocket racer demo

Personal Spaceflight Events

Here are a couple from Personal Spaceflight:

RRL Oshkosh Preview - This covers a Rocket Racing League press conference. An excerpt:

A slide during Whitelaw’s presentation included the Reno Air Races in September, the Nellis AFB show in Las Vegas in November, and the X Prize Cup. Wait, how is that last one possible since there won’t be a formal X Prize Cup event this year, only the Lunar Lander Challenge (LLC) competition that will not be open to the public? “There is another event that is X Prize-driven,” he said, apparently referring to the LLC. “So I think we’re either going to fly there, or we’re going to have our own standalone event in Las Cruces in late October or early November.”

It would be nice if that happened, especially if it's timed to blend into the International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. There's already a Space Week planned there, including a tour:

Join us for an all day tour of some of the cutting edge programs taking place in Southern New Mexico. Tour will include the Labs and Propulsion Test Areas of White Sands Test Facility, the High Speed Sled and other stops at Holloman Air Force Base

WK2 rollout anticipation - Yes, I realize the White Knight 2 isn't shooting for a prize, but there's a close historical connection to the White Knight carrier that helped SpaceShipOne win the Ansari X PRIZE.

EAA Aviation Nation

There's a lot to interest aviation fans at the 2008 EAA AirVenture aviation celebration at Oshkosh, Wisconsin this July 28-August 3. There's also a lot to interest space fans, too. I posted about some prize-related possibilities for the big show a few weeks ago.

Alan Boyle from Cosmic Log is on the road to see and report on the AirVenture. He notes that

Among the headliners will be the Rocket Racing League as well as aerospace designer Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, fresh from their rollout of SpaceShipTwo's mothership, the White Knight Two.

The linked article from the Business Times Online shows that the WK2 folks will be busy:

This month, various aviation big-wigs and politicians, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, will assemble in the Mojave Desert for the unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo (WK2).

Cosmic Log also reports on one of the draws of AirVenture, the Rocket Racing League. If you read the article already yesterday, read the bottom again for the July 23 update on FAA certification for the variant supported by LLC challenger Armadillo.

RLV News points to a New Scientist article on the status of the Rocket Racing League demo race at AirVenture. Also see the comments for XCOR events there.

Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor LunaTrex has personal-scale aviation connections through its AirBuoyant team member and future municipal airport facility. They also will be represented at AirVenture.

We started in Mojave CA, and did a lot in Oshkosh, WI. Now it's time for prize-seeking aviators to quickly fly back to a different part of California: the Charles M. Schultz County Airport at Santa Rosa. This is for the 2008 NASA/CAFE General Aviation Challenge. The CAFE Foundation recently announced 5 teams that will be competing starting August 5 for $300,000 in NASA-sponsored prizes at this year's GAT Challenge. EAA Chapter 124 is looking for 60 volunteers to help run the event. Their June Newsletter has more details.

Rocket Racing Approaches

Rocket Racing League primed for blast off - Network World - This is a good time to get people thinking about the RRL, which is planning a big event at EAA AirVenture in a few weeks. From the AirVenture site:

The flight activities at EAA AirVenture will begin on July 29 with a single-ship demonstration to open the afternoon air show. On August 1-2, the first full demonstrations of the Rocket Racing League concept are planned, using large outdoor screens to showcase how competitors will fly a “raceway in the sky” via in-panel and 3-D helmet displays during actual competition. All of the flights will also highlight the innovations in aircraft and engine technology that makes this new competition possible.

...

Along with the public aircraft unveiling and demonstration flights, the Rocket Racing League is scheduled to make several other presentations throughout the week, including an evening program at EAA’s Theater in the Woods on Monday, July 28. During these presentations, the Rocket Racing League will present the “inside story” on the creation and development of this entirely new concept in aerial competition.

Next July 4th I want to see some Rocket Racers showing off!