French Coverage of Space Elevator and Tether Challenge

L'ascenseur spatial a du mal à prendre son envol - Rue89

X PRIZE Cup, Google Earth/Maps, and Airships

Links: Panoramio Heat Maps, See Russia?, 1m LiDAR, Airship - Google Earth Blog - It's all interesting, but I'm posting specifically on the airship part because of a little space prize connection:

They created a Google Maps airship tracking map so you could watch it travel along. ... the good news is that Airship Ventures is setting up for tours at Moffett Field in California (one of the few remaining locations with large airship hangars - and right next door to the Google Headquarters). I actually met the husband and wife team which started this venture at the X Prize Cup last fall. Hopefully they'll be setting up some Google Earth files for tracking their tours as they fly over the San Francisco sights.

Up Ship! - their blog, full of airship pictures

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.

2008 X PRIZE Cup and Lunar Lander Challenge Information

I'm not sure when this appeared on the X PRIZE Foundation XPC and LLC sites, which I don't check regularly. I noticed it in a GLXP Forums conversation about a Little Rover Challenge idea.

From the X PRIZE Cup site:

After exploring a number of options, the X PRIZE Foundation has decided that we will not be holding an X PRIZE Cup in 2008. Instead, we will be holding a Lunar Lander Challenge at Holloman Air Force Base on October 24 and 25, 2008. This event will be webcast, but will not be open to the public. We are planning to hold the next Cup sometime in 2009, so stay tuned for more information!

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge site has similar news.

I'm not sure what the status of the 2008 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award is.

It's too bad they couldn't pull it off this year. Even if they had to call it a "mini-X PRIZE Cup" or something like that because they couldn't hold certain events like the LLC there or couldn't raise enough money for a big event, it would be good to have some kind of public-oriented space/rocketry festival to anchor one of the weekends of the International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. That reminds me, I still have to catch up and listen to the archived Space Show interview of Dr. Patricia Hynes to see what the plans are this year.

Space Show Week of Prizes

This week the Space Show promises to have a lot of discussions about space prizes. A couple of interviews likely to have prize content should have already happened. I can't comment because I didn't hear them; I'll have to catch up with the archives. You can check the Space Fellowship, HobbySpace, or the Space Show News Letter for the details. Here are the talks:

Sunday: Dr. Bryan Laubscher and Dr. Martin Lades - This one is already archived; hence the link. According to the summary it's mainly about the Space Elevator Conference, but there's a lot in that conference on the SE Games.

Monday: Dr. Pat Hynes - This one is likely to feature the X PRIZE Cup (will it happen in 2008?) and the International Symposium on Personal Spaceflight. There's the possibility of Lunar Lander Challenge or Rocket Racing League questions.

Tuesday: William Simon and Matt Everingham - The main topic is expected to be the Regolith Excavation Challenge. I wouldn't be surprised if the MoonROx challenge is also discussed.

Wednesday: William Watson - This one is on the 2008 NewSpace conference, to be held soon. Prizes are certainly featured in that conference (multiple Google Lunar X PRIZE participants, X PRIZE Foundation, V Prize, former Centennial Challenges management, space VidVision competition ...). Of course a lot of other things will happen at the conference, so it remains to be seen how much prizes are discussed in this interview.

Sunday: Dr. William Gaubatz (and possibly other guests...?) - Dr. Gaubatz is Senior Advisor, X PRIZE Foundation, so you might hear questions on their prizes.

A lot the discussions depend on the callers and their questions, so if you're interested in the prize competitions these experts might discuss, give them a call during the shows!

SS1 Book, Diamandis and Breed on Prizes, XPC/LLC

RLV News has a number of recent prize-related posts of interest. Here are some of them:

Briefs: SS1 book; Diamandis on prizes; NASA's good week - I saw the SpaceShipOne book at the ISDC and also at the Air and Space museum not far from the actual craft. I was actually given a space book as a gift on the trip, but it wasn't that one. Cosmic Log reviews the book. See the RLV News post for the link to the book on amazon.

The other prize article, a Business Week article on Incentive Prizes, is mainly an interview of Peter Diamandis on the subject.

Briefs: Personal Spaceflight study; Better prizes; Low carbon suborbital space - This one includes a post at Unreasonable Rocket about the GLXP and his preference for prizes directly related to space access, like one for a reusable orbital vehicle.

I also like the idea of space access prizes, and think the original Ansari X PRIZE victory should be considered more like a battle won rather than a war won. I could see an orbital prize like the one Paul advocates. I could also see suborbital space access prizes for any (or all) of the following:
- take the Ansari X PRIZE to the next level (eg: considerably greater altitude or payload than the suborbital ships now under development)
- give the current set of manned suborbital ships under development more business (eg: demonstration of difficult suborbital science or engineering measurements using the vehicles integrated with payloads)
- encourage reusable unmanned suborbital launches to even greater altitudes than the manned vehicle(s) from my first bullet
- encourage smallsat launch from reusable suborbital vehicles

Still, although I see space access as the #1 problem to tackle, I have no problem with encouraging cheap robotic missions/smallsats, which I consider perhaps problem #2 or #3 to solve.

Briefs: LLC and XPC update; Astrium crew capsule picts; Space VidVision Contest - This covers the contest I first heard about in Greg Zsidisin's recent Space Show interview, and a Leonard David article on the X PRIZE Cup and LLC. The LLC article mentions a number of possible venues for the XPC that are circulating. My (outsider) understanding is that the XPF would like to continue the association of the XPC with the ISPCS, which makes any scenario that is too different from that one in time or space seem a little less likely. At any rate, we should know one way or the other pretty soon according to the note on the XPC web site.

Updates on 2008 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award

I haven't posted much on the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award because I didn't know so many details were out. I assumed I'd have to wait until the X PRIZE Cup details were released, but I was wrong. There are a lot of details on the student competition that I haven't seen before. Check it out here. Some details from that page:

The 2008 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award includes two competition categories:

Personal spaceflight: Assume you can go to space. Create an innovative concept and business plan for use in personal spaceflight.
Lunar exploration: Assume you can go to the moon. Create an entrepreneurial venture for lunar exploration.

Students will compete for over $20,000 in prize money, trips to the 2008 X PRIZE Cup, and many more special benefits stemming from the competition’s unique position within the aerospace industry.

The site goes into details on the important benefits to the competitors, but you'll have to go to it to read them. Some more links:

Competition Details

Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award 2008 Rules (PDF)

Astrobotic Pictures and Unreasonable Jet Vanes

RLV News awaits an announcement on this year's X PRIZE Cup and Lunar Lander Challenge plans ... no word yet, but the wait is not in "vane", as you'll see in the video in this post from Unreasonable Rocket.

Also, the Google Lunar X PRIZE site has 3 more pictures posted from Astrobotic. I'm not going to send you there, but instead to where you'll find yourself if you keep clicking on the pictures: the latest Astrobotic Picasa Web Album. There you'll see the full collection of 14 photos, and be able to get closeups of the pictures more quickly (via photo downloads or slideshows).

Don't neglect the GLXP Teams site version, either - there are comments on those pictures.

Multi-Team Lunar Lander Challenge Update

RLV News has been keeping up with the X PRIZE Cup and Lunar Lander Challenge. Here are a number of posts, some with news on multiple teams:

Briefs: Speedup testing; BonNova engine test; Unreasonable stainless steel - This one includes a BonNova hot-fire test video (here's the BonNova YouTube Channel and BonNova News), a Wyoming Tribune-Eagle Online article on a SpeedUp test at the local Frontier Astronautics test site, and a pretty detailed Unreasonable Rocket engineer design drawing and machine shop post with some helpful-sounding (to my non-engineer ears) comments.

Briefs: Unreasonably close to flight tests; X P Cup; Space Elevator Challenge - I've covered the SE Challenge part, but this one also has another recent Unreasonable Rocket post and an assessment of the overall 2008 X PRIZE Cup.

An October rocket party - This one recounts Yuri's Night, and suggests a night program for the X PRIZE Cup:

This got me to thinking that it would be great if a future X PRIZE Cup included an evening program with space-themed music and arts. Instead of a Burning Man, the highlight, so to speak, could be an after dark exhibition flight by a VTOL vehicle like Mod or Pixel.

I haven't been to any of the X PRIZE Cups, so I don't have a good sense of how much of this kind of thing they have. I thought (but I could be wrong) that at one point one was supposed to have a kid-oriented night program with outdoor movies and astronauts speaking. My impression is that the actual Cups have closed down at evening.

A lot of outdoor festival of course have multiple types of art. A music festival might have an art/craft area, and an art festival might have a music area. An air show might also have various vendors including airplane art. It seems to make sense to include something like this in the day program, especially if there are "down times" between rocket flights or there are families where not every family member is a rocket fan, but might enjoy a moderate amount of rocketry mixed with related music/art.

As for a night program, that also makes a lot of sense to me. An onsite program would be cool, perhaps allowing some night-time rocket flames (on the ground if safety doesn't allow it in the air). If it can't happen onsite, maybe some kind of off-site space party, movie, performance, or other activity would be fun.

It would also be cool for spectators and teams to have some kind of pre-LLC competition, perhaps with cash prizes, for teams that haven't reached the point where they have FAA approval to fly, but where they can competitively demonstrate their progress on the ground.

X PRIZE Foundation April Newsletter

The April XPF email newsletter is out. It has the last month's updates. These include:

• the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE rollout
• news of the XPF's Genomics X PRIZE and the St. Louis Science Center joining forces at the Center for a DNA Day event on April 25
• a reminder about the Google Lunar X PRIZE Summit at the International Space University, including an education competition for ISU students involving designing a GLXP type of mission
• outreach at the National Science Teacher's Association Conference, where the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award was presented
• news of a WIRED Magazine article feature XPF Board member Ray Kurzweil
• and an Google Lunar X PRIZE Lunar Legacy of a Peace Sanctuary design that probably could be seen from orbit.

Sign up for the regular XPF email update on their site, because you aren't getting any of the links or pictures, and few of the details, from my summary.

Nancy Conrad on the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award

Will Pomerantz at the X PRIZE Foundation adds more, mainly from Nancy Conrad, to his earlier post on the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award. From Nancy's contribution:

Our first year rocked and 2008 promises to be even more exciting ... We're going to have 2 Awards: Space Travel and Space Exploration and many other surprises.

Rocket Magazines

The Rocket Dungeon reviews 3 recent issues of rocket magazines: Rockets Magazine, Sport Rocketry, and LAUNCH Magazine. Competitions with prizes that are mentioned include the Team America Rocketry Challenge and the 2007 X PRIZE Cup. I just got my issue of LAUNCH today, so I can't give any comments of my own about it yet.

Pomerantz on the Conrad Award

Will Pomerantz, with major appearances by blog guests Josh Neubert and Becky Ramsey, explains how the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award to encourage space entrepreneurialism in students started. It sounds like they have plans to continue the competition in 2008, and hope to make it even bigger, for example with more teacher outreach.

I'm not sure if this part indicates just where they wanted to go at first, or where they'd still like to go:

We planned to do both a student and professional version of this challenge, but quickly realized that we did not have the capability to take both on at first.

Of course if the big jump is too much, it's sometimes possible to take smaller steps (like expanding the competition to have an undergraduate level, or many other options).

First Lunar Lander Challenge Compilation of the Year

There's been a lot of news and posting related to the Lunar Lander Challenge teams lately. Here's what I've seen compressed into one post:

• SpeedUp posts on a recent pressure test, and comments on weight-saving measures that can be used if needed.
• RLV News points to an Unreasonable Rocket post on valves, controls, and the helicopter with a lot of pictures to show you what the hard work is like.
• RLV News comments on another William Pomerantz X PRIZE Foundation post, this time with a lot of details on Acuity, one of the quieter teams as far as LLC Internet posting is concerned. This one also covers 2 more posts from Unreasonable Rocket - 1 on a typical rocketeer evening and another on a different evening.
• RLV News also has the latest update from Masten Space Systems, including several job openings at the company, lots of details on their design and planning decisions, and contracts. The LLC is mentioned, but it's not clear from the main post whether they're planning to compete in 2008. However, Jon has a comment about that in, well, the comments section: "If we can get this new engine debugged and operational, and if we can get the vehicle ready to fly early enough in the year, we’ll probably take a shot at competing this year."

Somewhat related is this article (and this one) from the Alamogordo Daily News on N.M. state funding, the New Mexico spaceport, and the X PRIZE Cup.

Also, as planned, the winners of the 2007 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award that was part of the 2007 X PRIZE Cup will be honored at NASA Headquarters. It looks like the Conrad Scroll will be sent to the ISS, too.

Google Earth Treasure Map

The Google Earth Blog notices something interesting when reviewing their flight path to the X PRIZE Cup.

Cool X PRIZE Cup Picture Album

There's not much for me to say; just check out both pages.

X PRIZE Cup Photos

RLV News posts some links on the X PRIZE Cup. I liked the XPC photos taken by Jason. You get a good view of the Lunar Lander Challenge teams' hardware, and a lot of the displays at the Cup. It sounds like he would have been happier to see more Lunar Landers flying in the LLC, and some Rocket Racers as well ... I have to agree with that, but I would have liked to have been there anyway.

The View from the Outside

Here's a piece on the X PRIZE Cup from El Paso, Inc, from the point of view of someone who, it at least seems, hasn't been indoctrinated in the history and assumptions of the either the new or old space industries ... in other words 99+% of the world.

X PRIZE Cup Reference

RLV News has put together a comprehensive reference to the 2007 X PRIZE Cup and associated Lunar Lander Challenge and International Symposium on Personal Spaceflight.

Not only that, but here's a post with a link to a Wired Science interview of Peter Diamandis that's gives the background on lots of the space prizes covered here, as well as some similar prizes.

X PRIZE Cup Action

RLV News links to 2 cool videos from space.com on the X PRIZE Cup - one an action-packed zoom through different visual thrills at the event, and another by Will Pomerantz summarizing, with videos of the Armadillo attempts, what happened at the Lunar Lander Challenge.