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The 2006 competition got off to a fast start. With less than 6 months
between the May 5th announcement of the challenge and the 2006 Wirefly X PRIZE
Cup, four teams stepped forth to register for their place in the Challenge,
and a spot in history. They are:
- Acuity
Technologies
Aerospace development company based
in Menlo Park, CA, specializing in unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV) design and integration and 3D environment capture and reconstruction;
- Armadillo
Aerospace
Volunteer effort from Mesquite, TX, specializing
in vertical takeoff and landing rocketry, and an ANSARI
X PRIZE Team;
- Masten
Space Systems
Rocketry
and propulsion company based in Mojave, CA, specializing
in unmanned vertical takeoff and landing rocketry;
- Micro-Space
Volunteer
effort from Denver, CO, specializing in minimalist, spartan
rocketry, and an ANSARI X PRIZE Team
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This first slate
of competitors for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge
demonstrates one of the most attractive aspects of prize competitions:
their ability to attract interest from outside of the traditional
aerospace community; among the 4 teams were two volunteer groups,
one enterprise that moved to a new home to pursue the Challenge, and one
successful company from another sector of the aerospace industry. All were
united in their interest in contributing to mankind’s return
to the moon—and in their desire for the prize money! |
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Working on extremely
accelerated schedules, each team rushed to prepare its rocket—or
rockets—in time. Struggling to accomplish in less than 6 months what
would normally take as many years, each team experienced triumphs and set-backs
along the way. Complex engineering problems were only part the equation
for each team: getting the funding to proceed, and the clearance to fly
their vehicle both for test flights and at the competition itself significantly
added to the difficulty of the Challenge.
October 2006 approached, with all
four teams putting in long hours to meet the deadline. In the
end, only one vehicle was to fly: “Pixel”, one of two nearly identical
vehicles built by Armadillo Aerospace. Team Acuity, Team Masten, and Team
Micro-Space brought their vehicles and other systems to show the crowds,
with team Masten performing several firings of their engines; but all teams
were eagerly watching Team Armadillo as they prepared Pixel for flight.
Even Pixel was just barely cleared to fly at the event: team Armadillo
received its Experimental Permit from the Federal Aviation Administration—only
the second such permit ever given—only days before the event, and
conducted its first complete test flight with less than 24 hours remaining
before the opening of the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup. |
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Team Armadillo was given
four launch windows during the two-day Wirefly X PRIZE Cup
during which to attempt to win the prize. The first window, beginning in
the early morning hours of Friday, October 19, 2006, was forfeited by team
Armadillo, to allow further time for the team members to incorporate changes
needed after the previous day’s test flight. By the time the second window opened,
though, the team was ready, and a large crowd gathered along the flight
line, where team Armadillo awaited the official start to their window.
A loud cheer went up as Judge S. Pete Worden—the director of NASA’s
Ames Research Center—started the clock, and team Armadillo sprinted
forwarded, wheeling Pixel towards the special truck designed to carry Pixel
and her crew out to the launch pad. |
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One hour later, Pixel was fueled and
prepared for its flight. Hunkered in Team Armadillo’s mobile command
center—a specially outfitted van—team Leader John Carmack throttled
up the vehicle for the first ever attempt to win Level 1 of the Northrop
Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. With a deafening roar, Pixel shot up, pausing
only for a brief calibration and systems check before climbing with surprising
grace to the competition’s minimum required altitude of 50 meters.
At 50 meters, Pixel was high enough to avoid kicking up the dust or setting
fire to the brush of the New Mexican landscape, but low enough that the
lunar lander did not have to waste much energy moving through the Earth’s
thick atmosphere, something it wouldn’t need to contend with above
the surface of the moon. |
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| In Armadillo’s bunker, Carmack—a software
genius best known for designing computer games such as “Doom” and “Quake”—guided
the vehicle by joystick and computer readout, with teammate Russell Blink
navigating. Quickly, Pixel was over its landing pad, having made the journey
in much less than the 90 second minimum flight time required to win Level
One. Team Armadillo kept the vehicle steady above the pad, watching the
seconds tick off. As the clock approached and then passed 90 seconds, Carmack
guided the Vehicle down. An eager crowd—and an even more eager Team
Armadillo—watched as Pixel dropped through the sky, kicking up dust
as it came to rest on the pad. After ensuring the Vehicle was safe to approach,
Team Armadillo and the Judges approached Pixel, only to discover that the
legs of the Vehicle had all snapped off. The landing had been too hard,
causing damage to the vehicle. Pixel was done for the day. |
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Amazingly, Team
Armadillo got Pixel repaired and ready by the following morning.
In the early morning hours, Team Armadillo faced a decision: go with the
battle-tested but recently damaged Pixel, or with her untested sister vehicle,
Texel. In the end, Armadillo decided to stick with the vehicle that had
carried them this far, and readied Pixel for its morning window. Again,
the clock was started to great cheers from the early morning crowd, as
Armadillo carried Pixel out to the landing pads. The morning flight was
loud and impressive, just as the Friday flight, but problems arose once
again on landing. When the dust settled, Pixel was leaning on the edge
of the landing pad, half on, and half off. |
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The final hours of the Wirefly
X PRIZE Cup came with Pixel having just one last chance to
take home a prize check. Previous plans to win Level One and make an attempt
at Level Two were abandoned with regret, but Team Armadilllo remained optimistic
and upbeat. Afterall, Pixel had never even flown free before
that week—and they were already
gearing up for her fourth flight. A nervous energy filled the crowd as
spectators at home shared in the suspense. Pixel was ready for one last
try.
The crowd’s send-off was the loudest yet, as the appreciative
audience bid good luck to Armadillo and to Pixel, already the star of the
show. The transportation and fueling of the vehicle went smoothly, with
Team Armadillo now a group of polished and seasoned veterans. Pixel’s
take-off and flight were as impressive as ever, and everyone held their
breath as Pixel came down for her landing. Rushing to the pad, the Team
saw that Pixel had finally completed its landing—but that
one of the Vehicle’s four feet had been dislodged by the force of
the impact.
Team Armadillo conferred with the Judges, who quickly informed
the team that they were cleared to make the return flight required
to win the prize—but that they were not allowed to replace the leg, nor
to remove the other three. Armadillo worked quickly to fuel and repair
the vehicle, propping her up to keep her level on the pad. Less than 45
minutes after her rough landing, Pixel was ready to fly again. A successful
return to the original launch pad and a sprint to the finish line would
secure a $350,000 check and a place in history.
With preparations complete,
X PRIZE Flight Operations gave Armadillo a “go for launch” call,
clearing them to begin flight. In their control van, Carmack pressed ignition,
starting Pixel’s final flight of the 2006 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup, its
last chance for a year to win part of the Nothrop Grumman Lunar Lander
Challenge. As the rocket engine throttled up, the exhaust plume pushed
the spare parts used to prop up the vehicle out of place, and, in the instant
before the vehicle was fully supported by the rocket engine, the corner
above the missing leg dipped drastically. As Pixel took off, her onboard
sensors detected the abnormal orientation of the vehicle. Having exceeded
pre-programmed limits on the tilt of the vehicle, Pixel’s guidance
software automatically initiated an abort sequence, shutting off the engine,
dropping the vehicle to the ground, and ending Team Armadillo’s hopes
of taking home a prize in 2006. |
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Although no prize money was claimed in
2006, the event was viewed by all as a success. Though disappointed
by the final result, Team Armadillo wore all smiles, gladly shaking hands
and signing autographs for an appreciative crowd. In the end,
the development of Pixel had been accomplished in under 6 months and for
only a few hundred thousand dollars—yet Pixel had broken world records set by the
famous Delta Clipper “DC-X” vehicle, a 6-year, $60 million program
undertaken in the 1990s by the Department of Defense and NASA. They had
also made history with the world’s first privately funded vertical
take-off and landing flight, the first flight under an Experimental Permit,
and the first attempt to win the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. |
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