Posted on 02/22/2006 6:29:41 PM PST by KevinDavis
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2006--The X PRIZE Foundation (XPF) is moving forward with plans to offer a $2 million Lunar Lander Challenge (LLC) by releasing draft rules of the competition today, making them available for public comment.
The LLC was originally introduced in a Letter of Intent executed between XPF and NASA's Centennial Challenges manager, Brant Sponberg, at the 2005 X PRIZE Cup. It is planned that the challenge will take place at this year's X PRIZE CUP event on October 21-22, 2006 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
The LLC will require a rocket capable of vertical takeoff and vertical landing to fly from one pad to another and back. The LLC is broken into two difficulty levels to maximize the interest from potential competitors while still resulting in the development of vehicles that are of value to NASA.
Any portion of the total prize money that is not won in the 2006 competition will be up for grabs at future X PRIZE CUP events.
Rules will also be designed so that the energy required for any winning flight is matched up with an actual lunar flight. The Lunar Lander Challenge rules will be made available for public comment at www.xprize.org and www.nasa.gov later today. The public, as well as, industry professionals and potential teams are encouraged to provide their ideas and comments by sending email to LLComment@xprize.org.
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They have gone around the bend. Will they next have a prize for a Mars habitat that will support a crew of four for six months in downtown Indianapolis?
Is there a black monolith involved in this somehow? One that sings this EeeeeeeeEeeeEeeeeeEEeEe sound? Is the next prize going to be the first one to reach Jupiter? Here's a hint, when you land on the moon, don't touch the black thing. Either that or get some good earplugs. Oh, and whatever you do, dont' trust the ship's computer. He lies.
That would not reward or even finance the secretarial staff required for such an effort.
WTF?
Maybe you are thinking of the government, which wouldn't even be able to pay for the paper for the paperwork with ten times that amount. (This isn't for a complete trip to the Moon, just the lander part).
"$2 million for a Lunar Lander?
That would not reward or even finance the secretarial staff required for such an effort. "
My thoughts exactly. $2 Million is the best they can do?? If they want to generate some buzz, then the prize money needs to be increased significantly. I don't think rolling the money forward is going to make that big of a difference any time soon...
Stick with Grumman.
Bull. The prize isn't for an Earth launched lunar lander, but for a lander which can move from place to place ACROSS the surface of the moon. $2 million to build a functional prototype for that kind of vehicle is quite reasonable.
My first reaction after reading that was to laugh, but on second thought they actually might have a very good shot at it. While their current work is focused on building a VTOL suborbital vehicle, all of their nozzle and research work, as well as their control system development, would adapt beautifully to this prize. They ALREADY have a prototype man-capable lander built that can launch, hover, and soft land again. Maybe Carmack's Folly will finally pay off?
Wasn't Buzz Aldrin involved with company that has already done this?
It almost seems like X Prize is doing Carmack a favor here. :)
Well, I certainly hope so. I respect the guy a lot and was a bit bummed to see him fall so far behind in the space race after their test rocket crashed. His technology seems to be better adapted to VTOL aircraft or landers anyway, so this really does seem like a natural direction for the company to go in.
Wasn't Buzz Aldrin involved with company that has already done this?
No that was Pete Conrad, from Apollo 12.
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