Space Prize Roundup: Green Flight Approaches, MoonBots 2.0, Sample Return Rules, More

The Green Flight Challenge is getting close:

Embry Riddle Begins GFC Test Flights - CAFE Foundation Blog

Latest Details - Sample Return Robot Challenge at WPI gives an update on the final rules, team agreement, and registration.

The X PRIZE Foundation and LEGO Group Announce Global Student Team Winners of MoonBots 2.0 Challenge - Google Lunar X PRIZE

Creating a Collaborative Nano-Bio Manufacturing Institute - Challenge.gov - This is for the Air Force Research Lab.

Competition Provides Solution for Stopping Uncooperative Vehicles - OSTP Blog

08/26/2011: Update - SpeedUp

The NASA Tech Briefs "Create the Future" Design Contest winners should be announced this month.

UK contest for student space settlement design - Space for All

The Hubble Roadshow - update and contest - Space for All

NASA Centennial Challenge Updates: Sample Return, Nanosat, Green Flight, Tether, More

A lot has been happening related to NASA Centennial Challenges in the last few weeks, so here's an update that focuses mainly on them.

Some teams are anxious to learn more about the rules and team agreement for the Sample Return Robot Challenge:

Update on Challenge

Status Update - Sample Return Robot Challenge

As you can see, starting a major prize competition can be quite a challenge in itself.

Team Phoenicia to hold 2nd Nanosat launcher seminar - RLV News - From the Team Phoenicia post: 

This will be upgraded to a two day event based on the feedback that we have received. Food and drink will be provided. There will be speakers in the vein of last time, but additionally all potential teams that wish to present will be able to do so on a first come, first serve basis until the slots are filled. Potential suppliers for the teams will also be given time to present as well.

Tech Could Beam Power to Drones - Lasers could power drones in flight and remove the need for gas deliveries to army bases. - Discovery News covers LaserMotive, the winner of the most recent Beam Power Centennial Challenge.

Also check out the recent tweets from @LaserMotive at the Unmanned Systems North America 2011 conference.  The conference had some other prize events, including a student competition pavilion, a photo contest, awards, and the following X PRIZE hint:

@AUVSI: Diamandis: will announce $10M purse James Cook X Prize next month for AUV that can circumnavigate the globe collecting certain data.

Move Over DARPA: X Prize is Here - National Defense Magazine - This covers the Peter Diamandis talk at the conference.  It includes a bit more information about potential prizes, including the James Cook X Challenge for a long-range autonomous underwater vehicle with a sensor suite and an Autonomous Auto X PRIZE that would pick up where the DARPA Challenges left off.

Getting back to the Centennial Challenges, here's some news about the Green Flight Challenge:

Google to Sponsor Green Flight Challenge - CAFE Foundation Blog: 

CAFE (Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency) will conduct the event from September 25 through October 2, 2011 at Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport. ... All competing aircraft will be shown to the public at the Google Green Flight Challenge Exposition hosted by NASA at Moffett Field–NASA Ames Research Center, from 9 AM to 4 PM on October 3, 2011. ... In addition to the main prizes for highest scores, the competition includes a bio-fuel prize and plans for a special Lindbergh Prize for Quietest aircraft, to be presented by Erik Lindbergh, grandson of the renowned winner of aviation’s Orteig Prize, Charles Lindbergh.

In addition to the Centennial Challenge news, the CAFE Foundation also has an announcement from Oshkosh 2011: PC-Aero Wins Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Vision Award

The Tether Strength Competition was held at the Space Elevator Conference a few days ago:

Space Elevator: Going Down? - Seattle Weekly
The 2011 Strong Tether Competition - The Space Elevator Blog

Many competitors in past Centennial Challenges continue their contributions.  The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is a great example of this:

Thoughts on small sat and cube sat market size. - Unreasonable Rocket

Team Prometheus on Carmack 100kft Micro Prize - Team Prometheus: 

Team Prometheus officially entered the Carmak Micro Challenge today.  Our launch date is set for March 10th 2012.  That's the date for our Space Shot.  Going to be crazy here for a while!

Masten Space Systems Wins NASA Suborbital Flight Contract
Masten Space Systems Announces Management Additions - Masten Space Systems

'Sticky Boom' made for space dockings - Boulder County Business Report on the 2011 Heinlein NewSpace Business Plan Competition win by Altius Space Machines
Biz Plan Pitch Video - Altius Space Machines

2011 Tether Challenge

I'm still here, although I haven't posted in weeks.  I now have a daughter, and that means less frequent posting, especially while I have lots of visitors on extended trips to meet her.

I will quickly note that today one of the NASA Centennial Challenge competitions will be held.  You can find background information, a video stream link, twitter update information, and more here:

2011 Space Elevator Games - Strong Tether Competition - is Friday - The Space Elevator Blog

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

2011 X-Hab Challenge Winners, and 2012 X-Hab

Here are a couple of articles about NASA's 2011 X-Hab Academic Innovation Challenge student competition:

University Of Wisconsin Students Win Space Habitat Competition - NASA

UW-Madison undergrads win NASA habitat design competition - University of Wisconsin

You can find more information about the 2012 challenge here:

eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge - National Space Grant Foundation: 

The Habitat Demonstration Unit (HDU) project will offer multiple X-Hab awards of $5K - $45K each to design and produce functional products of interest to the HDU project as proposed by university teams according to their interests and expertise. The prototypes produced by the university teams will be integrated onto an existing NASA built operational habitat prototype. ... The Foundation anticipates that approximately 6-8 awards will be made under this solicitation. ...

eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) 2012 Academic Innovation Challenge Solicitation (PDF) - The 2011 competition theme was inflatable habitats, but the 2012 one is much more open-ended, which can be either a good or bad thing in a prize competition depending on your point of view.  The suggested topic list, covering a "Deep Space Habitat Systems" theme, includes "top-down" topics like a habitat demonstration module or a habitat structure that can be tested in underwater analog test sites like NEEMO.  It also includes habitat subsystems such as sensors, recycling systems, geological sample management systems, telemedicine, a virtual reality environment, and many others.

Prize Roundup: Heinlein Prize, International Rocketry Challenge, CanSat winners, SEDS Conference, More

Heinlein Prize Honors Elon Musk of SpaceX - Heinlein Prize Trust

06/16/2011: Swing Test - SpeedUp

NASA And DARPA Offer Students Chance To Support Future Missions - NASA - This is for the Zero Robotics competition using floating SPHERES platforms on the International Space Station

The CanSat Competition has posted their 2011 Competition Winners and 2011 Cansat Photos.  Also, the 2012 mission has already been identified: Mission: Planetary Atmospheric Entry Vehicle.

Raytheon has a number of posts about the International Rocketry Challenge at the International Paris Air Show.  You can see all of them at their 2011 Paris Air Show - Team America Rocketry Challenge tag.  The most recent post is Raytheon-Sponsored Texas High School Team Wins International Rocket Fly-Off at Paris Air Show.

Northrop Grumman Announces Student Winners of Fourth Annual Engineering Scholars Program for Woodland Hills Facility - SpaceRef

SEDS Space Vision 2011 - RLV News - The early Speakers list for the conference includes a number of people with prize connections: Bill Nye (Executive Director of the Planetary Society, which has held a number of space competitions like the Apophis Mission Design Competition and numerous contests with themes like space art and mission names), Robert Richards (a Google Lunar X PRIZE competitor), Will Pomerantz (formerly of the X PRIZE Foundation), Jon Goff (who was part of the winning Masten Space Systems Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge team), and Ben Brockert (also from the Masten NG-LLC team, and now a member of another prize-winning NG-LLC team, Armadillo Aerospace).

Team Phoenicia sells first engine - RLV News

Briefs: Masten intern jobs; Langley lifting body event; Bruce Cordell interview - RLV News

White Label Space starts testing engines - RLV News

The next 2 links are from @ChallengeGov:

Now this is a cool ride! - The White House Blog discusses the Experimental Crowd-derived Combat-support Vehicle (XC2V).

The latest International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge opened on May 31. 

A TEA Party organization called TEA Party in Space has a platform that includes the following plank:

NASA shall use competitions and prizes whenever feasible to stimulate the private sector, including individual American inventors, to achieve innovative and affordable solutions to technological challenges.

Prize Roundup: Counting Craters, Earth Day Videos, Rockets, Asteroids, Sample Return Rules

NASA Requires Source Code from Robot Challenge Entrants - Robotic Trends on the Sample Return Robot Challenge

Draft Rules Feedback - WPI responds to some of the concerns from their comments sections and articles like the Robotic Trends one.

Earth at the Movies - NASA Earth Observatory on the 2011 NASA Earth Day Video Contest with the theme The Home Frontier (link via NASA Watch)

Caltech Space Challenge: Mission to an Asteroid - California Institute of Technology - Two groups of students will participate in a workshop and compete to design a mission to an asteroid or comet.  Here is more information about the workshop.

The Second NTL Marathon Match Challenge - NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) - This competition will be to develop algorithms to automatically detect craters from remote sensing images.  The winners of the previous challenge, the Planetary Data System Idea Challenge, were announced recently.

College rocket teams competing in Utah contest - RLV News

Materials wizard wins $500,000 prize - Cosmic Log

Prize Roundup: Suborbital Sweepstakes, XHab, SFF First Prize, NASA Day, CanSat, More

Students rocket to Cross Plains for hands-on competition - Reporter News reports on the 2011 CanSat competition in Texas.

LaserMotive to Present at NASA Day on the Hill - LaserMotive

@spacehack: The Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is open for a few more weeks: http://is.gd/zUyPyj (thx @basilleaf)

SFF Announces $25,000 First Prize for the NewSpace Business Plan Competition - Space Frontier Foundation

NASA Offers Grants For 2012 University Competitions - NASA - This is for the 2012 University Student Launch Initiative (USLI) and Lunabotics Mining Competition.

Students Build Space Habitats at NASA's Johnson Space Center - NASA

Visioneering Workshop 2011: VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE X PRIZE CONCEPT! - X PRIZE Foundation

7-Eleven announces sweepstakes with space prizes - RLV News

KSC Star Trek exhibit sweepstakes offers Lynx ride prize - RLV News

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: OSIRIS-REx, 8-Band Research, CanSat, Mars Rover Challenge, More

NASA has selected the OSIRIS-REx mission to examine asteroid 1999 RQ36 and to bring a sample of it back to Earth as its next New Frontier mission.  The Planetary Society plans to be involved with the mission, including running some contests: 

As stated in the OSIRIS-REx Concept Study Report, Planetary Society "publishes OSIRIS-REx scientist- and engineer-authored articles; creates radio stories and holds interviews with OSIRS-REx personnel; collects names to be imprinted on a microchip and flown to RQ36 and back; runs the contest to name RQ36; holds a Planetfest at the time of asteroid sampling; and features images of RQ36 on the Planetary Society web site, and runs a 'choose your favorite OSIRIS-REx image' contest." 

The latest Space News has an article about DigitalGlobe's 8-Band Research Challenge, which encourages researchers to find new ways to use the data products of DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 satellite 

in topics such as Land Use/Land Cover, environmental monitoring, coastal habitat mapping, feature extraction and mapping, natural resource mapping and monitoring, or other related disciplines. 

The winning papers are now compiled here (large PDF).

It's a big time of the year for student competitions!  The @Lunabotics competition continues later this morning, the Mar's Society 2011 University Rover Challenge will be held from June 2-4 at the Mars Desert Research Station, and the 2011 CanSat Competition in Texas is planned for June 10-12.

Challenge.gov: Mapping Dark Matter - NASA Watch - Also see the SpaceHack page.

Update May 29:

Laurentian students win NASA Lunabotics - CBC News

Draft Rules Available for Review! - Sample Return Robot Challenge (WPI)

Prize Roundup: Nanosat Launcher Comment, Make Tech Winner, CAFE and EAA Flight Challenges, More

Student Experiment Microgravity Kit Wins NASA-Make Tech Contest - NASA press release: 

Sponsored by Teachers in Space, a project of the Space Frontier Foundation in Nyack, N.Y, the first "Bring It Back" kits will fly aboard the Excelsior STEM mission scheduled to fly on a Masten Aerospace unmanned suborbital mission later this year. 

Jeff Foust tweets about one of the ISDC 2011 talks:

@jeff_foust: London: NASA's planned $2M nanolaunch prize is a "little light"; estimates it would cost $20-30M to build a nanosat launcher. #ISDC

Also see Jeff's twitter account for tweets on the Google Lunar X PRIZE ISDC session.

3DHawaii expands with private label product and a great trip giveaway - Google Earth Blog

Zephyr Aurora: Taking Shape [45]: More First Small Holes - Team Phoenicia (see more pictures at their site)

Pipistrel’s Four-seat, Side-by-side Electric Airplane - CAFE Foundation blog: 

This unique design has come about by grafting two Pipistrel Taurus aircraft together with a center section which is some 5 meters (16 feet) wide and includes a center pylon housing the electric engine and batteries designed to successfully carry this aircraft to the skies and hopefully to the completion of the 2011 CAFE/NASA challenge, the design bears some similarity to the twin Mustang fighter and even White Knight Two. ... The goal for the development of this aircraft is to enter and hopefully be successful in completing the 2011 CAFE/NASA green flight challenge which is held between July 11 and July 17, 2011 at the Santa Rosa airport in northern California and then also competing in the EAA AirVenture Electric Flight Challenge held at this year’s Oshkosh event just a few weeks later.

2011 Lunabotics (University Regolith Excavation) Competition

NASA's Second Annual Lunabotics Mining Competition, a university student competition to excavate and collect simulated lunar regolith that is similar to the NASA Regolith Excavation Centennial Challenge, will be held at the Kennedy Space Center from May 26-28.  I hope this Lunabotics overview will get you in the mood to support this competition.

NASA Invites Reporters To Second Annual Lunabotics Competition - NASA press release

Here's the Lunabotics Facebook page: ESMD Lunar Regolith Excavator Competition.  You can see quite a bit about some of the teams on the Wall page, and there's also a lot of information about other aspects of the competition like last year's event, a Senior Design Course based on the challenge, and more.  There's also a Lunabotics twitter account, but that hasn't been active lately.  That might change as the competition approaches; it's worth a try to check it out then.

There's also a Lunabotics YouTube Channel with video from last year's event, and also some new content.

Now for the teams!  There are quite a few teams, and many of them have been showing their progress on YouTube and other sites.

Temple University Lunabotics 2011:

Colorado School of Mines:

University of North Dakota Robotics:

Harvard Lunabotics 2011 (see quite a few more at their YouTube channel):

Oakton Community College 2011 Lunabotics:

LAR-E (Lunar All-terrain Regolith Excavator) from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott (also see the article Lunabotics & LAR-E: Mechanical Engineering Senior Robotics Design):

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona:

University of Louisville (It looks like this is for a capstone class with a Lunabotics theme, as I don't see the school in the Lunabotics teams list):

UNC Charlotte:

Chondrobot, BRAC University:

Universidad de Los Andes:

Alabama Lunabotics (Also see the Alabama Lunabotics twitter account):

University of Southern Indiana, Lunar Ash Borers:

Here are some other articles, team sites, and other links related to the competition:

McGill LunarEx - team site from McGill University

West Virginia University Lunabotics - This Facebook page has plenty of videos and photos from the team.
McBride-inspired WVU team to compete in Lunabotics Mining competition - WVU Today
Robot to work on the moon : novel creation by WVU students - Gizmo Watch

ISU Lunabotics - Ames, Iowa - Here's another team Facebook page.  They expect to put recent pictures up soon.

UND NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition 2010-2011 - University of North Dakota team site, including photos.

Vizag team hopes to mine lunar surface - Deccan Chronicle

Lunabotics Mining Competition - Team site for The Robotics Association at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

NASA’s Lunabotics 2011 – Symbiosis Sponsors Indian team - Symbiosis Coaching

Engineers to take robot to NASA competition - Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech

NASAMICI is already looking ahead to the 2012 competition, and how Minority Serving Institutions can try to get a $5,000 grant for that event.

Team America Rocketry Challenge Today

The TARC competition is today.  For those who want to follow the event on twitter, you might want to try the hashtag #TARC11.  At the moment it looks like some people are starting to show up a bit early.

Also, here is the twitter account for the organizers:

@RocketContest. The Plains, Va. The Aerospace Industries Association's Team America Rocketry Challenge is the world's largest rocket contest for middle & high school teams!

Prize Roundup: Tricorder, SeaPerch, Google Earth Puzzles, LASER2011, STEM Bar, Biz Competitions, More

How good are you at Google Earth-based puzzles? - Google Earth Blog

New items from Japan - The Space Elevator Blog - One of the new items is about the LASER2011 student competition.

Updates - The Space Elevator Blog - One of the updates is on a new event to be held at the Space Elevator Conference called RoboQuest.  It sounds like there will be a student robot competition and a FIRST Tech Challenge demonstration.  The conference already features the Strong Tether Centennial Challenge and the Artsutanov and Pearson Prizes.  The other update is about a video from an early Space Elevator Games team.

LaserMotive Featured in Photonics Online - LaserMotive

MoonBots 2.0 Challenges Teams to Conduct Google Lunar X PRIZE Missions with LEGO Robots - X PRIZE Foundation

The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Join Forces to Develop a Competition to Enhance Integrated Digital Health - MarketWire - The name of the competition, the Tricorder X PRIZE, should give you a good idea what sort of device is envisioned.

Student experiments to soar in NASA balloons - MSNBC

NewSpace Business Plan Competition - RLV News

Space Florida co-sponsors $100k biz plan competition - RLV News

Student-developed 'STEM Bar' to fly on STS-134 - NASA Watch

FAR weekend and progress.... - Unreasonable Rocket

Check out the submissions for the Connected Vehicle Technology Challenge, a competition based on ideas for ways to use "dedicated short range communications" for vehicles.  

The Office of Naval Research is funding the Sponsoring Scholars in Science Awards for ideas that will inspire student interest in STEM topics of interest to the Navy.  An example topic is "Designing Affordable Sensors for SeaPerch Remotely Operated Vehicle".  SeaPerch is an educational underwater robot program that includes the 2011 SeaPerch Challenge, where students operate their vehicles in a simulated underwater oil spill.  They also get to meet a NASA astronaut during the challenge.  This year's event will be held on May 23-25.

Prize Roundup: Conrad Awards at Ames, LaserMotive at SPIE, FAA Prize Discussion, More

Bright Young Minds Present Visions for the Future - NASA on the Conrad Foundation's Innovation Summit held at NASA Ames:

The team from Upper Clair High School in Pittsburgh, Pa. won the aerospace exploration category for their composting system for use in long-duration space flight. The “Perpetual Harvest Space Nutrition System” takes organic waste and creates compost that is then used to grow fresh foods while also serving as an air filter for human habitation.

The winner in the clean energy category, the West Philly EVX Team, was a prominent contender in the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE and other competitions.

SPIE 2011: Laser solution for long-endurance UAVs - Shepard

EuSEC moved to August, 2011 - The Space Elevator Blog

Here are some articles on the FAA AST budget request, which includes funding for a prize for a partially reusable cubesat launcher:

Nield Lays Out FAA Commercial Space Budget for Congress - Parabolic Arc
FAA Defends Requested 74 Percent Budget Increase for FY2012 - Space Policy Online
Raising the profile of FAA’s commercial space transportation work - Space Politics

'Incentiprizing': The New Path To Business Breakthroughs - The Huffington Post

@paulsrobotics: Pauls Robotics yfrog.com/h44a9kdj

@LaserMotive: Wow, we had a great business trip to CA this week! Can't go into details, but there's some exciting stuff coming up!

The 2011 Team America Rocketry Challenge is scheduled for next weekend - May 14.