The X PRIZE Foundation has done an excellent job with their media on the prize so far, and they're getting better all the time; keep an eye on that channel and their blog.
Personally, between a teleport and a jetpack, if that teleporter's safe, it's teleporter all the way for me :)
Today is the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the first Google Lunar X PRIZE team, Odyssey Moon (with the Google Lunar X PRIZE itself having been announced in August of last year).
It's also the 25th anniversary of my birth (haha), possibly a large part of why I remember the date ;)
Check out the Google Lunar X PRIZE's excellent and increasingly active Youtube channel here, as well as their excellent Launch Pad blog.
Despite the spectacularly dangerous-looking results, the abort motor is actually a safety feature: it would direct the Orion craft away from the Ares rockets in the event of a launch malfunction.
I've been flagging "Chandrayaan" on a lot of my moon posts as of late, but now the Chandrayaan-1 has done me one better, flagging something itself: the Moon.
The craft's Moon Impact Probe, carrying the Indian Tricolour (pictured above) on its side, landed on the Moon on Friday, making India the fifth (or fourth; videos seems to state fourth, but that linked article from the India Times states fifth) world entity (after the U.S., Russia, Japan, and the 17-nation ESA) to reach the surface of the Moon.
That is a picture the Moon Impact Probe took before impact (from the India Times); the prode landed just 32km from the all-important Shackleton Crater near the South Pole, a very likely location for a future full-fledged colony or colonies (due to its rim being a Peak of Eternal Light, a.k.a. eternal solar power and other benefits). So its likely that future colonists (robotic or otherwise) will come across, or at least take field trips to, this Indian tricolor in the future :)
Below is a great video from CCTV on the Probe's landing, which rather interestingly, also confirms the active Indian interest in helium-3 (something not mentioned in the official ISRO Moon Impact Probe page):
That is a picture of the CESAR rover, which won last week's ESA Lunar Robotics Challenge. Built by a student team from the Bremen University, the rover completed the task of descending down the steep slopes of a 15-meter deep crater, grab a soil sample, and return it (all in darkness).
Check out the CESAR site for details from the team on their rover (and their experience), and below is a Youtube clip of the victorious little guy conquering a hill in practice:
The lunar surface is a challenging environment, and it'll be a lot of fun to see the variety of designsfor rovers that come along, and to see them in action there within the next few years :)
Below is a neat video from the ESA (European Space Agency) on India's recently launched moon mission, the Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter.
The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) itself has a 30-minute video online about the Chandrayaan-1, as well, so there's plenty of video to go around to get caught up on India's hip moon mission :)
Still, it was an exciting event and a great first day, with Armadillo Aerospace taking home the $350,000 prize with a successful flight and TrueZer0 getting a launch off (which, as you'll see in the video below from the actual craft, didn't end as well as it started:)
Keep an eye here at Luna C/I for future event coverage as the private space boom and Base Race continue to take shape :)
That is a NASA image (from their EDGE blog) of their Black Point, Arizona test driving yesterday of their lunar Small Pressurized Rover concept.
In a lava-field area with many geologic similarities to the lunar surface, the new rover roared into action at speeds up to 6 mph, designed with leather seats and bunks with the ability for astronauts to take the vehicle on two-week trips. The vehicle includes "suitports" (see at right, image also from NASA's EDGE blog), allowing the astronauts to enter and exit the rover without having to bring the suits (and the potentially dangerous dust clinging to them) in.
This is where the name "Small Pressurized Rover" comes in--the cabin being pressurized is what allows the astronauts to not have to wear the suits inside.
The testing has been going on for a week with day-long rides (sounds like fun), with the big test coming up in a three-day jaunt, largely to test the comfort of the vehicle (sorry, no wet bar).
Of the nine teams to enter the contest, two managed to make it to the point of actually getting flights in at the Challenge: Armadillo Aerospace and TrueZer0 (check out my previous post for short profiles on each).
A congrats to Armadillo Aerospace as, third time being the charm this year (after competing the last two years), they won the $350,000 prize with a successful flight (check out that Space.com/MSNBC article for a full skinny on their frustrations, including a lot of clock problems, many due to the aforementioned venue change to Las Cruces airport).
"Color me quite frustrated on several counts." -John Carmack, Armadillo Aerospace founder/lead engineer, and co-founder of iD software (makers of Doom, Quake), to Space.com
TrueZer0 gets something of an underdog prize, though, despite not qualifying for a prize with their Level One flight: they were already only the fourth competitor ever to get their craft off the ground (and that's ever, including in test flights), and they had entered the competition very late. Bad news, though, in that their craft (while making it into the air) crashed and burned after 18 seconds, being lost completely.
There's a completely awesome recap from the X Prize Foundation of Day 1 up on Youtube today, embedded below for your enjoyment:
For Day 2 coverage, there's a live blog by Leonard David at LiveScience chronicling the events as they happen, and of course there's the live webcast with chat and much narration by Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation (which as you see with the video above, is itself really interesting, to see such a wealth of dialogue from an important figure in the private space boom). As TrueZer0 was only entering Level One competition, it's all the Armadillo show today as they go for the big one, the Level Two prize (landing on difficult lunar surface-like terrain).
Check back for more link-a-riffic coverage here as the weekend rolls on... :)
As promised earlier this week, here's a look at the teams competing in the Lunar Lander Challenge event coming up tomorrow (starting at ~630am, looks like) and Saturday (via live webcast, from a new and really cool site I hadn't heard about previously: Spacevidcast.com).
There are a total of nine teams; today, here's a look at (for now, four of them; I'll update this post with the others as the night comes along)
Acuity Technologies: Coming from Menlo Park, California (just north of Palo Alto--home of Stanford--and the rest of Silicon Valley where I happened to grow up), Acuity is one of the teams returning from last year's event. Started in 1992, Acuity develops specialized unmanned aerial systems. Their Level One (of two; there are two difficulty levels teams can compete for, one with smooth landing pad, one with a more lunar-surface-like landing area) "Hop & Hover" offering is a Hydrogen Peroxide and Methanol-fueled craft, coming in at 210 lbs.
BonNova: An engineering design firm, they've developed designs for extreme conditions ranging from racecars to oil wells (and, with their specially-formed rocket team, this Lunar Challenge). Also a returning team, their leader (Allen Newcomb) has experience from the winning craft (SpaceShipOne) of the Ansari X Prize. Their craft ("Lauyad I") is similar in size to Acuity's (small-ish, at 200 lbs), but is using a Propane and N2O propulsion system.
High Expectations Rocketry: With no pressure from their name, High Expectations' team comes from Moscow, Idaho as a first-time participant in the challenge. Composed of four guys (the first three teams coming in at four, seven, and five, respectively), they look to succeed where last year's teams came up short. They are using more medium-sized craft, with their Level One offering "ISP 1" coming in at 350 pounds on a Nitrous oxide, nylon and propane propulsion system.
The most interesting contrast, clearly, is that none of them use the same type of fuel (and the Armadillo's craft weighing a good 1000 pounds more than the others'; note that Armadillo were the ones to get into the air last year, and so perhaps bigger will prove better?).
Tune into that webcast over the next two days to see just how the craft do, and check out the official matchup page.
Edit: Here's the rest of the teams, I'll edit/update as I go along.
Paragon Labs: This Denver-based team developed their effort in what they describe as a "skunk-works" environment, fielding a weightier 650-pound (1800-pound gross) craft ("Volkon") with a Liquid Oxygen/Ethanol fuel (check out this article for details on that combination). Chekc our their great gallery of works-in-progress and other images.
Team Phoenicia: With their eyes also set on the Google Lunar X Prize, probably the more poetic of the teams (and a competitor with Armadillo in the graphic design department) comes in with "The Wind At Dawn", a 660-pound RP-1(Rocket Propellant-1)-fueled craft with 550 pounds thrust. They've got an oddly familiar blog (I'm workin on it, I'm workin on it...;) ) and some sweet Youtubeage to go along with their interesting literary style.
TrueZer0: This Chicagoland 4-man team comes with with a 475-pound craft called "Ignignokt" (a name that is gloriously and amazingly notinvented by the team, unlike some of the other teams' craft that ironically sound more like real-world influences; go figure) and plenty of dry humor (and as Ignignokt shows, humor of all kinds). Poetry, humor, armadillos; this competition has it all. Their site, while minimal, has a cool narrative to it, including some more great Youtube material. Ignignokt (and I presume his fellow "Mooninites") are fueled by Hydrogen Peroxide and Nitrogen gas.
Unreasonable Rocket: Fellow Blogspot-dwellers, their entry to the competition was the Hydrogen Peroxide-fueled Burning Speed 80 ( for the Level One), a 300 pound craft. As that link attest to though, they were not able to get operational in time. Shooting for next year (or the constant stream of opportunity we'll be seeing for efforts like theirs over the next decade), though, would not be unreasonable ;)
Seraphim Works is listed as a team on the official site, but their Landr Challenge page is a "coming soon" and a quick google turned up not even a whisper, so their status is unclear (and with so little presence at this late point, they are likely not a final competing team).
I watched Armadillo's first attempt while finishing this up (8:30 am on the 24th), and it was entertaining, as they got into the air but didn't fit within the required time frame. Tune back in at the end of the day for a full recap of that flight and the rest of Friday's Lunar Lander Challenge events :)
Their Falcon 1 craft successfully made it into orbit on what is actually the fourth attempt by SpaceX (kudos to their perserverance and pioneering spirit). Here's a video (with raw sound, but incredible visuals) of the launch, including images from the Falcon 1 itself:
With SpaceX's goal to "reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access by a factor of ten", this (combined with other recent efforts) is a huge sign that a private space boom really is coming, and coming fast. This is a historic step, amazingly coming right on the heels of events like the Chinese spacewalk. It's been an incredible couple of weeks.
Of course, orbit is just the beginning. Once we've got a private space boom in full swing (or even before), there'll be more than just a few private efforts with their eyes fixed on the Moon.
It's time for another session of MoonPop (my ongoing series of features on Moon colonization and integration in pop culture), and while this one has a few asterisks, often the interpretation of pop culture is just as signicant as the pop culture itself.
Check out the end of this post for a neat, rare 1969 video of the B-side version of the song.
The song, while inspiring to anyone thinking about space and (as noted) generally thought to be inspired by space's place in the pop culture of the 1960's, is also concurrently about something else entirely. The song was featured by the BBC during their coverage of the 1969 moon landing, despite the drug-trip symbolism, which itself is confirmed in Bowie's follow-up to "Space Oddity", "Ashes to Ashes":
"Do you remember a guy thats been In such an early song Ive heard a rumour from ground control Oh no, dont say its true (...) Ashes to ashes, funk to funky We know major toms a junkie Strung out in heavens high Hitting an all-time low" -"Ashes to Ashes", David Bowie, 1980
The BBC's usage of "Space Oddity" was surprising, given the rather negative tone of the song. In fact, this song outright gave me the creeps when I was a kid growing up (though technically, at 24, some older segments of the population may still consider someone my age to be a 'kid').
"Space Oddity" is deeply rooted in both the events (the moon landing) and the pop culture ("2001: a Space Odyssey") of that time, and as we enter into two decades (2010-2020; 2020-2030) that are going to have both a likely private space boom, and then the full swing of the 'base race', we should expect to see more pop culture creations like "Space Oddity" come around in vivid form. Hell, Bowie himself is still kickin' (as Tesla, no less), so maybe we can lobby him for a tune to fit this new era (perhaps about an internet junkie this time?).
As promised, as a wrap-up for this edition of MoonPop, here's that rare B-side version video of the song. Enjoy:
That is a full video of the first-ever Chinese spacewalk, conducted by the CNSA on September 27th (technically yesterday in the U.S., given the international date line).
Clearly, this is an enormous (and particularly visible) step forward for the Chinese space program, and perhaps something of a wake-up call to the fact that the official language of the Moon could end up being Chinese. ;)
Below is a video with a translation of Zhigang's comments, and a narration:
The above is a video I came across featuring a great look at space elevators from Michio Kaku , a technology that could greatly amplify the speed and efficiency of moon colonization efforts, both through moving supplies off the Earth and for actually building these on the Moon itself for exports.
Check out the video for an excellent explanation of the whole concept, as well as my original look at space elevators and this example of a space elevator company (Black Line Ascension).
That is the result of a recent NASA test of its Orion craft's (Orion being the replacement for the Space Shuttle) recovery-landing parachutes.
According to NASA's report on the failed test, the parachutes on the actual craft worked fine, but the parachutes used to set up the test (e.g., the simulation) failed, causing the craft to fall faster than desired and resulting in what I'm sure was a lovely and distinctive "thump".
Apparently this is a pretty common type of failure, and doesn't represent a serious setback (though it did succeed in producing entertaining photos and video...and not to mention a lot of coverage).
I have now, as you see, emerged out of the blogging stone age and have figured out how to embed videos in here. (It wasn't hard.)
The gentleman speaking in the video is Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, talking about the Google Lunar X Prize and sort of the inspirations and motivations for the sponsorship/prize.
Talking to people I know and always getting blanks on Moon Colonization/Integration, I sometimes forget that important people are out there that take this seriously, and it's not as fringe as my other interestssometimes are, despite the seemingly 'radical' nature of the subject. So, it's always a cool and interesting reminder to see someone like a Sergey Brin, a Stephen Hawking, or a John McCain actually out there talking about this.
I'm in California from June 10th-June 15th, so even this post is a minor miracle as I don't have a laptop, etc (beyond borrowing my Dad's), so expect little to no posts until my return on Monday, and increased activity/a return to near-daily posts after that :)
Until then: Some neat 'Gaia Selene' stuff on Youtube.
The interview's very funny, as you might expect from Conan, and there's some great stuff in there about the plan for space elevator(s), e.g. how many and when. A great, short layman's-terms rundown of what's up in the world of the space elevator.
I think this makes Brian Turner/the Space Pirates something of geek heroes, as well :)
For your Youtube viewing pleasure today is this week's moon colonization in pop culture highlight: the sequence from Stanley Kubrick's legendary 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" involving a trip from Earth to the Moon, with one of the most unique choices in film history as far as sound design, and the level this design is taken to:
An interesting thing I noticed upon watching this again is the lander the astronauts use, which has strong similarity to a current NASA design and previous Picture of the Week feature here at Luna C/I. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? :)
Today we've got links to three videos, from Youtube, of one of the deepest realities about the Moon and moon colonization, and certainly in setting up a base there:
That is a picture the Moon Impact Probe took before impact (from the India Times); the prode landed just 32km from the all-important 
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