Beyond 62 - The privatization of space

2008 Lunar Lander Challenge

The Lunar Lander Challenge is a two-level, two million dollar competition requiring a vehicle to simulate trips between the Moon’s surface and lunar orbit. The vehicle is required to rise to a height of 50 meters, translate to a landing pad 100 meters away, land safely, and then return, following the same path. Two levels have been defined: one with smooth landing pads, the other with a replica lunar surface as an additional difficulty. In 2007, eight teams were registered to compete: Acuity Technologies, Armadillo Aerospace, BonNova, Masten Space Systems, Micro-Space, Paragon Labs, SpeedUp, and Unreasonable Rocket

In 2007 Armadillo Aerospace almost won it.

The X PRIZE Foundation today announced that the 2008 Lunar Lander Challenge will take place at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, October 24-25, 2008.

No Comments | Posted in » Armadillo Aerospace, Lunar Lander Challenger, X-Prize

Google Lunar X Prize first space flight!

The European Lunar Lander (ELL), ARCA’s lunar vehicle for this competition, will make the flight. For this flight ARCA is partner with Pablo De Leon and Associates Company a former major Ansari X Prize competitor.

ELL will be carried in space, at an altitude of 100 km, by the STABILO booster rocket that has been in development for two years and has completed a series of successful flights.

The tests are in progress and the flight called Mission4 will be launched in the next three months. The STABILO rocket will be lifted up to an altitude of 18 km by the world largest Montgolfier solar balloon. At that height the STABILO rocket engine will be ignited and will take ELL to space. The STABILO and ELL will land on the sea. Once in space, ELL will execute several avionics systems tests, take measurements, photos, and transmit live video to Earth.

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Bigelow Aerospace gets help

Bigelow Aerospace has reached two agreements with Aerojet to supply the propulsion system for the aft end of Sundancer and with Orion Propulsion to supply the attitude control system for the forward end of Sundancer.

Aerojet will provide the system that will handle rendezvous and docking, as well as the end-of-life controlled deorbit of the module. The aft propulsion will also compliment the forward-end propulsion system provided by Orion Propulsion towards attitude control and momentum-wheel desaturation.

No Comments | Posted in » Bigelow Aerospace

10.000 orbits for Genesis 1

In its 660 days in orbit, Genesis I has traveled the equivalent of more than 270 million miles, which would take it to the Moon and back 1,154 times.

No Comments | Posted in » Bigelow Aerospace

SpaceX Conducts First Three-Engine Firing Of Falcon 9 Rocket

SpaceX conducted the first three-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket. At full power the engines generated over 270,000 pounds of force, and consumed 1,050 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second. This three-engine test again sets the record as the most powerful test yet on the towering 235-foot tall test stand.

A total of nine Merlin 1C engines will power the Falcon 9 rocket.The test series continues with the addition of two engines for a total of five, then finally the full complement of nine engines. With all engines firing, the Falcon 9 can generate over one million pounds of thrust in vacuum - four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft.

The first Falcon 9 remains on-schedule for delivery to the SpaceX launch site at Space Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral, Florida, by the end of 2008.

No Comments | Posted in » SpaceX