Armadillo Aerospace completes VTOL lunar lander challenge

[Hyperspace05]

FYI - This is pretty cool IMO.

Armadillo Aerospace this monday passed/completed the X-Prize level II Lunar Lander challenge - Two 180+ second VTOL flights. The prize won for this is $1 million. (although it may be split with another group if they can do it within a few weeks)

Pretty neat video:

Flight #1 - Youtube

Flight #2 (return triip) - Youtube

Pretty impressive that the whole vehicle is propelled and balanced by just one gimballed rocket engine. The reason the rocket hovers for such a long time at the beginning and end is to fulfill the 180 second flight criteria.

 

[sojourner]

first time I have seen people up close to it. Never realized it was that big!

 

[Brandonv]

I'm really impressed that it can balance itself on one engine.

I still find it weird that John Carmack is head of the company. Maybe next Armadillo will start doing experiments with teleportation. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Peter the Younger]

Woo Hoo! NASA should give these guys more than a mil. Let's make Big Aerospace sweat a little bit.

Edit: Oh, Northrop gave them the cash. Surprising.

 

[sojourner]

NASA didn't sponsor the X-prize.

 

[Hyperspace05]

NASA is not the main sponsor of the current challenge (Northrop Grumman is), but they are involved. A NASA representative had to be present for their attempt.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Yep, I didn't see that at first. Well that's okay - until the big fish decides to buy out the little fish.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Wow, that's pretty awesome stuff.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Shades of Delta Clipper, Batman! (Video gets interesting about 2:00)

 

[Hyperspace05]

Yep, DC-X was the major inspiration for the Armadillo guys. Very shortly they will go beyond what the SC-X achieved, though, and they are doing in on a (relative) shoestring budget.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Wow, between Armadillo using Delta Clipper tech, Bigelow Aerospace licensing Transhab, it's beginning to look like space will eventually be pwned by stuff NASA poo-pooed for political reasons.

 

[Marc]

damn impressive that they kept the thing so stable on a single rocket in a 1G environment. If you can do it on Earth then you gotta be pretty close to doing on the moon without any problems.

 

[RevDMV]

I've been following these guys for years, they've done some very serious work.