Armadillo Update - Failure to win Lunar Lander prize

[diamondspaceguy]

An ignition problem on the Mod vehicle caused Armadillo to scrub its attempt to win the Lunar Lander Challenge Level 1 for the first window this morning. They will try again this afternoon. I believe the next window opens at 12:30. This means that they won't go after Level 2 any earlier than Sunday morning. <br /><br />Updates available at:<br /><br />http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=3486<br />http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php<br />http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/<br /><br />Post more as you get them!<br /><br />D<br />

 

[holmec]

no web cast? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[usn_skwerl]

http://www.space.com/xprizecup/ <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[holmec]

I'm showing T minus 3:48. And I'm not seeing any web cast on it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[diamondspaceguy]

cant find anything!

 

[holmec]

<img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /><br /><br />Well we got the video archive, and news posters. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[usn_skwerl]

Nothing happening yet, as far as I know. I am watching for the webcast though. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[diamondspaceguy]

JesseD posted some great images at<br />http://spacefellowship.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=27142#27142<br /><br />I think they were originally from Transterrestrial Musings: <br /><br />Anyone else found anything new anywhere?<br /><br />

 

[usn_skwerl]

cant find the webcast....anyone else find it? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[diamondspaceguy]

vertually live at<br />http://spacefellowship.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=27148#27148<br />again people are sending in images as they find them<br /><br />This is what the nets about!

 

[diamondspaceguy]

it tipped over!

 

[no_way]

I just came from the AFB. Heard John Carmack talk about the mishap to reporters there.<br />They had sort of a hard start on the second attempt, which cracked the graphite chamber. This caused excessive fuel consumption on the flight and uneven flame, causing gimbal to be tilted on one side. The mod ran out of fuel at 83 seconds of hovering a few feet above the landing pad. 6-7 seconds short of winning the prize.<br />As the gimbal was out on one side, the vehicle fell down and tipped over. The damage aint big, they are going to take the flight computer from Pixel, and put the spare engine in. JC said its a few hours work.<br />If they succeed on tomorrows morning flight, they are going to take the flight computer back from mod to Pixel and attempt the Level 2 on the afternoon.<br />Thats how much i gathered from the debfief talks over the noise of all these F16s, Nighthawks and Ospreys whizzing around in the skies.<br /><br />Fingers crossed that they make it tomorrow morning. I didnt get what caused the fuel problem and the hard start in the first place... probably some of the reporters there will have a full interview up sometime soon.<br /><br />Edit: im uploading a bunch of images from the event as we speak, dont have any good closeups of anything as i just have a simple camera. Will post a link once its complete.<br /><br />Edit2:<br />Here you go<br />Just a bunch of random pics, but you should get a small overview of whats there to see.<br /><br />

 

[no_way]

After a quick RSS check, these guys are reporing on Mods problems and plans than i ever could:<br />New scientist space blog<br />Wired<br />HobbySpace reports everything as always<br />

 

[PistolPete]

I've uploaded some video to LiveLeak.com. There was a slight rise in the terrain between the viewing area and the launch area. Because of this I couldn't get any video of the hovering portion for the first flight. On the second flight I ended up resorting to shooting the jumbotron to see what was going on.<br /><br />It's not exactly Steven Spielberg quality and because I forgot to bring my tripod it's a little... NYPD Blue. I'll have my tripod tomorrow so the Tier 2 flight and the Tier 1 reiteration should be a bit better quality. I should have that uploaded by Monday.<br /><br />LINK <br /><br /><br /><br />Edit: the video didn't upload to LiveLeak properly so I corrected it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[no_way]

You know that they are heading out at 8AM already, right? Had they succeeded this morning, i would have missed it as i didnt expect it would take one hour to get from the gates to exhibit grounds so i got there like 10 o clock.<br />We'll try to be there way earlier tomorrow.

 

[PistolPete]

Yeah, the parking situation was crazy. I've never seen anything like that before. I've got a military ID so tomorrow I'm going through the main gate instead of the west gate and just park at the PX . <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[longshot]

The Prize money was reported earlier as 500k and 2mil, now is reported as 350k and 1mil for the level I and II competitions, respectively.<br /><br />Anyone know why there was a drawdown in the prize money?

 

[diamondspaceguy]

They are halfway there again!!!!!!!!<br />Day 2 flight is happening now!

 

[themanwithoutapast]

<br />The Prize money was reported earlier as 500k and 2mil, now is reported as 350k and 1mil for the level I and II competitions, respectively.<br /><br />Anyone know why there was a drawdown in the prize money?<br />-------------<br />There is no reduction in the prize money. Overall the prize money is 2 million. Of that 1 million for the big challenge and 350 thousand for the smaller challenge. The rest goes to second places and other smaller challenges within the competition.

 

[henryhallam]

Sadly the module caught fire on the second attempt today. Apparently they'll announce more details later, but Armadillo are out of both the L1 and L2 competitions for this year.<br /><br />This should make next year really interesting, with at least 3-4 more teams who are currently at the almost-ready-to-fly stage.

 

[no_way]

Saw the morning attempt but i left after that, as the airshow part seemed to be all the same as saturday, and i had a very bad feeling about Armadillos afternoon attempt ...<br /><br />Well, its over now, it was a great show, especially the aviation part of it, and it seems i'll need to cross the pond next year as well to see the LLC actually being won.<br />That said, i think the organization team has a few things to fix here and there, and the space/rocketry part of the show has to be stepped up significantly to attract significant crowds and make it interesting for paying public.<br /><br />Here are a few more shots i got on my camera this morning, and i managed to get close to VLA dishes later as well.

 

[PistolPete]

I totally agree with you with needing to ramp up the space portion of the show. Some of the people that were there for last year's event said that last year Armadillo went three or four times a day. I think the AF strongarmed the X-Prize cup into doing a more conventional airshow. At any rate it will indeed be more interesting next year with more competitors.<br /><br />What really amazed me was that many of the other competitors had real flight hardware as well. The impression that I got was that several of them just simply couldn't secure FAA certification for the flight. Several days ago someone here posted a video of Armadillo's modular rocket doing a test flight. Apparently, that was Armadillo's FAA certification flight. Unfortunately the rest couldn't pull it off in time. Most of them, particularly Bon Nova, Unreasonable Rocket, and SpeedUp, looked like all they needed was some fuel in the tank and they could have taken off.<br /><br />Some inside info: I was talking to one of the Armadillo guys after the final, unsuccessful, attempt and he said that next year for the Tier II they may forgo Pixel and group three or four modular rockets together for the attempt.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />This is a picture that I think sums up the X-Prize Cup: it is a picture I took of Paul Breed Jr. of Unreasonable Rocket helping Armadillo remove the engine off of their display rocket so that they could get a part off of it. Unfortunately that was the final attempt that caught fire, but the thought behind the gesture remains the same.<br /><br />LINK<br /><br />Tomorrow I'll post more juicy pictures and videos including the SpaceX Dragon capsule, a Rocket Racing League prototype, some of the other X-Prize Cup competitors, and some of the action and camaraderie in the pits between launches. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[no_way]

I talked to SpeedUp guys at length. They said they basically ran out of time integrating the vehicle, the missing bit was mostly software. Considering that they started the whole thing less than a year ago, and its a four-five man effort, not bad at all.<br />Unreasonable guys covered their misfortunes on their blog already. They need to put together some sturdier airframe.<br />Didnt have a chance to talk to anyone from BonNova but the vehicle seemed indeed relatively complete.<br /><br />As for Microspace .. im not sure what to think of the cardboard tubes and aluminum foil wrapped dummys .. seemed to be a bit on the fringe side.

 

[henryhallam]

<font color="yellow"><br />As for Microspace .. im not sure what to think of the cardboard tubes and aluminum foil wrapped dummys .. seemed to be a bit on the fringe side.</font><br /><br />I don't think those were cardboard tubes... I didn't go up and touch them but from the Microspace guy is involved with a composites firm and I think he said they were kevlar-wrapped.

 

[PistolPete]

For some reason the video for Saturday's flight didn't upload to LiveLeak.com properly. I think it may have been because I kept it at very high resolution (just inside their 50 mb maximum). I recompressed it down to a smaller size and now it works. Both the old link and the link below have been updated for the new video.<br /><br />I'm working on the videos from Sunday now and will post them today when I get done.<br /><br />LINK <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>