First private craft on the moon!

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Buzz69

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Greetings everyone!

i've just looked (and even searched) through the Forum but couldn't find a hint on the GoogleLunarX-Prize launch dates.

Google got this $ 30 Million Dollar competition for sending a craft to the moon!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lunar_X_Prize

I'm following the GLXP teams for quite some time now at their official blogline at:
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams

Especially the Part Time Scientists caught my eye http://www.part-time-scientists.com
Very catchy slogan and great attitude. The last interview I found was even in podcast form http://evadot.com/2010/07/21/evadot-podcast-29-part-time-scientists-1-year-later/

AND they're launching 2012! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part-Time-Scientists
I sure hope they pull it off. Would be great if someone besides NASA and the Soviets landed on the moon!


Cheers Buzz
 
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EarthlingX

Guest
Welcome to SDC Buzz69 ! :)

Here's a tip for searching on SDC : use Google ;) , like this :

Code:
"x prize" site:space.com

This thread is probably on the way to SB&T, but at least it's here. We have X Prize related discussions all over the place, but i don't remember dedicated thread, perhaps some old ?

Members of the Part-Time-Scientist team are active on IRC :
http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=part-time-scientists

and Twitter :
http://twitter.com/PTScientists

They were lately mentioned in this Spiegel article :

http://www.spiegel.de : Nasa und Google locken Tüftler mit Millionen
Google translated :
Nasa and Google attract tinkerers with millions

(Google translation)
26.07.2010

By Holger Dambeck

Only one can win. In the U.S., more and more developers are working meticulously to the bet: Who first one robot to the moon or a nano satellites into orbit as shoots, gets millions of dollars from NASA and Google. Researchers rivalry or classical promotion - which brings more success?

Inventor is not easy. Often they lack the money to implement their ideas. Sometimes they are simply no one who can use their concepts. For several years now, tinkerers and amateur inventors, especially in the USA but a whole new field of activity: they try to win innovation competitions.
..
Currently there are 21 teams still in contention for the Lunar X Prize, including two from Germany.
"Es geht uns um die technologische Entwicklung", sagt Robert Böhme von der Mannschaft Part-Time-Scientists . "We are concerned with the technological development," says Robert Boehme of the team Part-Time Scientists .
Neue Ideen für die Antriebstechnik oder die HD-Übertragung könne eine der beteiligten Firmen womöglich auch anderweitig nutzen. New ideas for the drive or the HD transmission could possibly use one of the firms involved elsewhere.
Natürlich sei auch Publicity wichtig, sagt der IT-Sicherheitsberater. Of course, publicity is also important, says the IT security consultant. "Die braucht man für die Sponsoren." "The need is for the sponsors."


I mentioned them once before in the "Why a manned mission to an asteroid?" thread.


I think they were also present on the ILA Berlin Air Show 2010

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-57346-7.html

Mobil of Part-Time Scientists at the International Aerospace Exhibition 2010 in Berlin: "We are concerned with the technological development."
 
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Buzz69

Guest
Wow , thanks!

Kids like the Part Time Scientists may be the future of space travel.

I'll follow the around on Twitter etc. To see what they do next.

It's going to be really interesting once they're talking some more about how they plan to actually land on the moon.
And then follow up with some hardware.


cheers Buzz
 
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PiotrSatan

Guest
I have a motivation for modern eastern european society! First one who gets a spacecraft up to moon, will be given 30 bottles of 1 l polish or russian vodka by me, hahaha :). And yes, getting there once again would be a great thing.
 
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RobertPTS

Guest
Hello Guys!

first, your awesome! it's nice to see all the footage and information you've compiled.
We couldn't have done it any better :)

Sorry for the late response, thanks to some unknown visitor in our public IRC Channel we've just been made aware of this thread.
As the most interesting topic for this forum seems to be upcoming launch dates, let's talk about them!

As this thread already pointed out our Team the Part-Time Scientists is participating in the GoogleLunarX-Prize.
The grand prize of the GoogleLunarX-Prize was originally awarded to the first team that sends a rover to the moon by the end of the year 2012. Roughly 6 Months ago Google and the so called X-Prize Foundation agreed upon a 12 month extension of the deadline due to America being hit hard by the economic crisis. So right now the official deadline for the contest is the end of the year 2013.

As far is i know we are the only team in the competition that still sticks to it's original schedule.
The first launch windows is mid of 2012, the second fallback windows is 5 months later in the end of 2012.

However, it looks like a further extension of the deadline is in the making.
To be made aware of such things, just subscribe to the official (and by the way awesome!) Newsletter of the X-Prize Foundation at http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/, see "Join the Revolution" in the upleft corner.

If you're reading this and like what we're doing maybe a stop by at our Team blog could be of interest.

"The Heat is on"
moon_day-night-time_temperature_map-nasa-300x231.jpg

http://www.part-time-scientists.com/2010/08/25/the-heat-is-on/

"One small footstep"
56__320x240_apollo_11_bootprint_k.jpg

http://www.part-time-scientists.com/2010/07/31/one-small-footstep


with greetings from Berlin,

Robert Boehme
Part-Time Scientists Team
 
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SteveCNC

Guest
That's great Robert , best of luck to you and your team !
 
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EarthlingX

Guest
www.part-time-scientists.com : Team Part-Time Scientists to attract audiences to … Attraktor!
Posted on September 1, 2010
by robert

On September 1, two of our Hamburg-based team members are going to give a presentation at Hamburg’s Attraktor. The aim of this registered society is to bring together people who wanna share their ideas, projects, visions and experience. Be it hackers, coders, sceners, admins, sysops, networkers, cryptologists, mathematicians, electronics technicians, radio operators, model railroaders or lock pickers – everyone is welcome to gather and mingle!



As for the presentation, topics will include an overview of what the Google Lunar X-Prize is all about, details of the mission, status quo of the rover’s development, FPGA development, lander concepts as well as details on our side project ComRay.

In addition, attendees will be witnessing a “world premiere”: for the first time ever, moon rover Asimov Jr. will be operated in front of a live audience!

If you’re located in Hamburg or the surrounding areas, you have no excuse to miss out!

For further details on time and venue, please visit the Attraktor’s homepage (available in German only):
http://www.attraktor.org/

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!
 
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RobertPTS

Guest
We just published a video featuring the construction of our second generation Rover prototype:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE7clZDxPHE&hd=1[/youtube]

Without Youtube tags:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE7clZDxPHE&hd=1

I hope you like it :)


Many greetings,

Robert from the Part-Time Scientists
 
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sftommy

Guest
When I first read the title to this thread it looked like it said

First private crash on the moon!

also an interesting speculative topic...
 
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EarthlingX

Guest
www.googlelunarxprize.org : One day at the beach (with video)
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 19:53 — Part-Time-Scientists



For the first time our rover Asimov Jr. got to enjoy the sunny beach at the Elbe in downtown Hamburg. Cruising around the beach is nothing you would normally expect a moon rover prototype to do. As you know from our blog the surface of the moon consists of regolith, which is made of much smaller particles than any grain of sand you could find on earth.


So why did we do this?
First, of course, it's tons of fun and even while not like being real regolith you can still learn quite a lot about your electronics and wheels. Secondly, we had the excellent opportunity to present ourselves to the spying cameras of RTL Nord, the regional branch of RTL, one of the biggest TV networks in Germany. :)
The interview already aired and is available in German.

What did we learn?
Our interim batteries were lead based and did not perform very well. To get more power for our testings and longer duty cycles we developed an all new battery pack especially for Asimov Jr. R2! And the results were astonishing. Not just could Asimov free itself from a gap in the sand, but it also lasted a very long time. So long we almost drove it into the water and shooed of some ducks! ;-)
What we learned is that driving on the beach can be an instructive experience even for a lunar rover.

(video)
 
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