Space Prizes

Space Frontier Ideas, Student Prizes, Google Lunar X PRIZE Team Action, Earth Prizes

2009-11-30T18:01:00.036-05:00

NASA Centennial Challenges

@SpaceFrontier: The Space Frontier Foundation's 2009 submission to NASA for six new prizes to Centennial Challenges. http://bit.ly/6NYtKi

Some of the ideas include the "Explore Space!" student science fair competition where the prize is student access to a suborbital rocket, suborbital point-to-point travel, and a follow-on to the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

The SunBreak on Jordin Kare and LaserMotive - LaserMotive

N-Prize

@TeamPrometheus: Working on the Ground Station! http://bit.ly/5e2XlW

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@synergymoon: Stand tests like this and our first Synergy Moon Flight Test of a Common Propulsion Module are coming up in... http://bit.ly/8owAVX

@whitelabelspace: Steve Allen is back, and just in time!: I'm happy to report that our illustrious team leader Steve Allen has go.. http://bit.ly/8pMFD6

From the linked White Label Space article:

... Steve got back in time to help us put the finishing touches on our most important publication to date! It's a document we are calling the Mission Concept Summary, and it explains the main details of our technical approach to the Google Lunar X PRIZE. We will publish it in the next 24 hours, so stay tuned to this web space!

... New partners are coming on and we also have some top-ranking contributors that we can't talk about yet ...

@arcaspace: After ARCA’s launch attempt of Helen rocket, we received several questions. We listed a short FAQ and their... http://bit.ly/5rdDT1

Moon race 2.0? Count Russia in - RT

2009 Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group: An Official Report - Lunar Networks

Off to find the art side of the Moon - Times Higher Education

Google Lunar X Prize Roundup #2 - Lunar C/I

Student Prizes

@spacehack: New project added to Spacehack: Spirit of Innovation Awards: Aerospace Exploration: http://is.gd/56As1 #students #international

@ConradAwards: Next live Web chat tomorrow 12/1 Laura Schoppe Protecting your Research Project for Commercialization, 3-4 PST http://www.conradawards.org

@Pomerantz: Know some smart HS or College students? RT @bnjacobs: You still have time to register for the Great Moonbuggy race! http://bit.ly/6oBMAn

GIS, Earth Environment and Science

@VerySpatial: We have the Gone Trekking iPhone app to give away http://bit.ly/6gEzKR. Tweet us your favorite trek by Dec 2 for chance to win.

@gisuser: ESRI Canada's Green Roof Wins 2009 Design Exchange Award http://su.pr/4AgAQn

Barrasso co-sponsors bill to create technology contest - Senators copy NASA model for climate change - Trib.com

Google Lunar X PRIZE fans may like these:

@EarthPic: Earth Science Picture of the Day: Crescent Moon and Poseidon Temple http://bit.ly/7SYnip

@EarthPic: Earth Science Picture of the Day: Harvest Moon above the Valley of the Moon http://bit.ly/83KNRI

SBIRS and STTRS; Masten Job; Sample of Google Lunar X PRIZE Updates

2009-11-23T19:44:00.032-05:00

@SoldTheMoon NASA awarded Astrobotic two SBIR/STTR contracts today, to study excavation robots and lunar gravity simulations. http://tinyurl.com/ylybmem

Here's the list of SBIR awards from NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program 2009 Phase 1 Proposals Selected for Negotiation of Contracts

There are a lot that sound interesting; I'll just pick a few with a prize spin (either the organization is involved with prizes, the subject matter is related to some prominent space prizes, or both):

Astrobotic Technology, Inc.: Lightweight Robotic Excavation
Grainflow Dynamics, Inc.: Low-Gravity Mimicking Simulants and Evaluation of Simulant Flow
Los Gatos Research: Novel Instrumentation for Lunar Regolith Oxygen Production Facilities
Micro-Space, Inc.: Automatic Solar and Celestial Navigation on the Moon and Mars
Paragon Space Development Corporation: Contaminant Robust System for Oxygen Production from Lunar Regolith
Pioneer Astronautics: Lunar Organic Waste Reformer
Plasma Processes, Inc.: Mass Production of Mature Lunar Regolith Simulant
Ventions, LLC: Regeneratively-Cooled, Turbopump-Fed, LOX/Methane Lunar Ascent Engines

On the STTR side, we have NASA 2009 Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program Phase 1 Award Selections

Here are some STTR examples:

Astrobotic Technology, Inc.: Scalable Gravity Offload System
Orion Propulsion, Inc.: Carbon Nano-Composite Ablative Rocket Nozzles
ProtoInnovations, LLC (CMU): Reliable Autonomous Surface Mobility (RASM) in Support of Human Exploration

@synergymoon First preparations for Orbital SkyDive..... :) Neb http://bit.ly/07U9pvp

@selenokhod I uploaded a YouTube video -- Selenokhod at Memorial Museum of Cosmonatics, Russian TV cnannel NTV http://bit.ly/07CpWC6

@TeamFREDNET Tomorrow we'll have an internal demo of our Lego Mindstorm setup (http://bit.ly/8d4qEy). Public demo to follow soon.

@colinake I'll miss the people at GTRI, but I'm excited to say I'm taking a full-time gig with @MastenSpace 2 weeks from today! Pumped, I say!

@ConradAwards Next live Web chat 12/1 Laura Schoppe on Protecting your Research Project for Commercialization, 3-4 PST http://www.conradawards.org/

N-Prize Twitter List, Science Art, Power Beaming Next Year, Glove Wins Reviewed, More

2009-11-22T16:03:00.034-05:00

N-Prize

Yes, I made another one: N-Prize twitter list. One of the tweets there points out that there are a lot of recent updates on the Team Prometheus blog, such as:

Frednet Lander Progress!
More Liquid Fuel Engine Progress!
More Launcher Progress!
Tiny Satellite Prototype!

Actually you might want to check out the entire November archive. You will see in some of the posts that Team Prometheus is collaborating with Google Lunar X PRIZE Team FREDNET.

Astronaut Glove Challenge

High-Tech Space Gloves Win NASA's Astronaut Glove Challenge - Popular Science

$350,000 given in glove design - Florida Today - I have to admit that I prefer Florida Today's prize total addition to Popular Science's.

Astronaut Glove Challenge Winners Announced - Universe Today

NASA Awards $350,000 to Winning Astronaut Glove Designers - On Orbit

Space Elevator Games - Power Beaming/Climber

Jordin Kare and LaserMotive - RLV News

Fox News coverage of the Space Elevator Games - Space Elevator Blog

Next Power Beaming Challenge competition set for May - RLV News

Post-competition analysis from LaserMotive - Space Elevator Blog

Other Prizes

Big pictures of tiny wonders - Cosmic Log covers the Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition. It also gives a list of other similar competitions combining science and art that will keep you clicking for quite a while.

2010 University Rover Challenge - Space for All

The Suborbital Refueling Dance - Transterrestrial Musings suggests a couple more rocketry prizes.

Spaceship design contest entries - Space for All

CSA Announces 2009 SpotBeam Award Recipients (PDF) - California Space Authority

Young Entrepreneurs Visit White House - OSTP Blog discusses the winners of the National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Mathematics and Materials Science Research Take Top Prize at Nation's Premier High School Science Competition - PR Newswire

LEAG 2009 Debrief - Out of the Cradle - In addition to covering the 2009 Lunar Exploration Analysis Group conference, which may be of interest to Google Lunar X PRIZE teams, this includes information on several student contests:

the Waste Limitation Management & Recycling competition
the No Boundaries program
the 2010 Life & Work on the Moon 2010 Art & Design Contest

Secrets

2009-11-21T18:15:00.025-05:00

Update (November 25):

Here's another secret!
@glxp Scheming to start a secret project, to be revealed at Christmas if all goes to plan!

Earlier secrets:

@dmasten - I wake up to #LHC spooling up, #STS129 EVA2, Spirit doing another drive, and stuff I cant say yet. What an awesome time to be alive!

Stuff Dave Masten can't say yet? I have to assume that with Dave's reaction, whatever it is, it's good.

@jeff_foust - NASA's Jay Steptoe on MPLMs used to carry supplies to ISS: "there will be future uses of them that I can't talk about yet."

I've heard of potential uses for modified MPLMs as storage areas on the ISS.

@alanstern - is anticipating an extensive new exploration of the Moon.

Back from DC. Saw the Moon every night and wondered if I might just go there after all. Shhhh. Something's brewing almost no one knows.

Count me in the "doesn't know" category. I'll give an opinion here that's similar to one I gave in a recent post. Regardless of whether the reaction to the Augustine Committee report is something like the report's "Flexible Path" or "Moon First", a strong push with robotic lunar precursors and a generally strong push towards the Moon is in order.

Moon First is, of course, all about the Moon for the time being.

Flexible Path starts with Earth-Moon Lagrange points and lunar orbit, which calls for substantial robotic lunar work. In fact, if the Augustine assessment that it will take quite a few years to start human beyond-LEO missions is right, it makes even more sense to make a strong robotic push so we can make valuable progress in the meantime.

Earth-Moon Lagrange points and lunar orbit also encourage us to set up space infrastructure that will help enable later astronaut visits to the lunar surface, and that in the long run could use lunar resources. Flexible Path emphasizes deep space destinations for astronauts, but the lunar surface is an astronaut destination in the Flexible Path that is strongly encouraged by the Augustine report. The costed version of the Flexible Path includes it, and it uses commercial services like those that are anticipated from the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

Automotive X PRIZE Twitter List

2009-11-20T10:43:00.005-05:00

Yes, inspired by Progressive Automotive X PRIZE blog post Team Summit Day #1 - Teams Get Schooled in Competition PR and Social Media, here's another twitter list:

Progressive Automotive X PRIZE twitter list

It's also in the "list of twitter lists" on the top right of the Space Prizes blog main page. I have a few teams on the list, and some other twitter accounts that may be of interest to PIAXP followers. For example, I included @EVCUP - "Organising the first Electric Vehicle Racing Cup!"

Late in the Astronaut Glove Challenge Day - Winners!

2009-11-19T18:39:00.006-05:00

Here's a twitter list for the Astronaut Glove Challenge:

twitter.com/spaceprizes/astronaut-glove-challenge

Alternately, you could just go to twitter and search for some variant on the challenge name.

As I'm finishing up this post, I see Doug Comstock posted the following a couple minutes ago!

@Doug_Comstock: Peter Homer wins $250k 1st prize and Ted Southern wins $100k 2nd prize in Astro Glove Challenge. Congrats to both for a great competition!

@NASAPrize: testing all done judges will meet to determine scores

Peter Homer's glove passed burst test reaching 20 psi with no leak

Ted's passed reaching 17 psi

You can see some pictures from some of the other tweets.

Astronaut Glove Challenge underway - RLV News

Designing Astronaut Gloves - MIT Technology Review

NASA challenges inventors to improve space gloves - Florida Today

Astronaut Glove, LEAG Meeting, MoonBots, more

2009-11-15T08:19:00.016-05:00

@NextGiantLeap Good luck to @pkhomer this Thursday, re: the $400K Astronaut Glove Challenge! http://bit.ly/2blddB

From the linked NASA IPP press release:

At least two competitors are expected, including Peter Homer, the winner of the competition held in 2007.

@selenokhod I uploaded a YouTube video -- Selenokhod at TvRoscosmos http://bit.ly/4xRqWW

@MoonBots: We're having a MoonBots planning call right now! Moonbots will be back!

Tentative Dates - 2nd International CanSat Competition in Madrid

Its Time To Push NASA Prizes Even Further - NASA Watch on a post from the JSC Advanced Planning Office Blog

Here are some Google Lunar X PRIZE team members presenting at the Annual Meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG 2009) (PDF) being held November 16-19:

Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 1:15 p.m. Panel: Robotic Lunar Rover Prospectors
Whitaker W. (Carnegie Mellon Institute)

Poster Session: Cohanim B. Joyce M. Mosher T. Tuohy S. Cunio P.
TAKING THE NEXT GIANT LEAP. (PDF)

Poster Session: Richards R. D.
ODYSSEY MOON “M-1” MISSION OF OPPORTUNITY– ENABLING SCIENCE, EXPLORATION AND COMMERCE. (PDF)

These are just the ones I noticed; I wouldn't be surprised if there are more there.

Update:

Briefs: EVA interviews Next Giant Leap; White Label Space team - RLV News

@VerySpatial GAW Contest - What country is the home to Lake Nasser? DM your answer by 11:59 PM PST for chance to win.

@bonnova New video: 106 sec. rocket engine hot fire http://bit.ly/3lCmGM

@LaserMotive Discussions have begun on holding the next phase of the competition. We will be there!

In my ongoing twitter management quest, I've updated some twitter searches at the top left of the Space Prizes blog to use Twitter Lists, and added some new lists. Some are links to other peoples' lists. The ones I've made are:

Space Elevator Games
Regolith Excavation Challenge
More Google Lunar X PRIZE
X PRIZE Foundation Space
X PRIZE Foundation Other
More Prizes
Commercial Space
NASA
Space Media
General
Digital Globes, Remote Sensing

Lunar Water

2009-11-14T08:03:00.010-05:00

Yesterday, in celebration of the LCROSS water discovery, Google put up a Google Doodle with a LCROSS theme. If you click on it you get search results on the water news. The Doodle still up this morning. I'm not sure if the Doodles are based on UTC time or not always up exactly 1 day. In case this one is gone by the time you read this, you can see what it looks like here:

Google doodle: water found on the moon by Nasa - Telegraph.co.uk

Doodle 4 Google - Google - This is the 2009 student contest with the theme "What I Wish for the World". You can see the winner and finalist art there.

Water Found on Moon, Researchers Say - New York Times

A Wet Moon Is Hot Once Again - NASA Watch:

... Meanwhile, word has it that NASA is now looking to match Google's $30 million pledge to the Google Lunar X Prize - and that Google may up their ante as well.

These would be interesting developments if they happen. I've thought for a long time that NASA and the world's other space agencies should make the most of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, but my concept for how they should do that is some or all of the following:

make serious moves to buy services from teams that demonstrate lunar capabilities the space agency can use
offer prizes that "fit" with the Google Lunar X PRIZE in the sense that similar components might be used to get to the Moon or operate once there, like non-mobile landers, regolith excavators, or ISRU demonstrators
offer additional bonus prizes or augment existing bonus prizes
offer a 3rd place prize and/or larger 2nd place prize
see the first bullet again, and again

I'd hesitate to add to the main prize, simply because that might encourage more high-cost systems. However, without knowing details of teams' fundraising efforts, I could certainly understand that even there a recalibration might be in order considering the global economic setbacks that have happened since the original Google Lunar X PRIZE plan.

It will be interesting to see how the LCROSS results feed into the decision-making process related to the Augustine Committee "Moon First" and "Flexible Path" options. My take is that the Augustine options really aren't "pure" - they have "off-ramps". Flexible Path has an "off-ramp" using commercial participation to help get astronauts to the Moon's surface. It also starts with trips to lunar orbit and Earth-Moon Lagrange points. Those initial destinations strike me as being all about lunar observations, lunar telerobotics, and space infrastructure for lunar and deep space access. The space infrastructure could even include refueling nodes that could use propellant derived from Earth or lunar resources.

It seems to me that both "Moon First" and "Flexible Path" need ambitious lunar robotics efforts.

Briefs: SpaceX protests USAF launch contract; CCDev update - RLV News - The first part of this concerns the launcher for LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer orbiter.

LCROSS Results, Patch Contests, 2009 Astronaut Glove Challenge, SEDS Conference, Recent Elevator Games

2009-11-13T07:33:00.021-05:00

Space Fellowship hosts alternative Google Lunar X PRIZE Forum - Space Fellowship

Most Valuable Real Estate in the Solar System: Water on Lunar South Pole - Peter Diamandis at The Launch Pad:

I’m particularly excited for all of the teams building vehicles for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. ... Think of these vehicles as a low-cost ‘prospectors’ looking for information and valuable data, as well as the companies constructing the shovels and picks on the bleeding edge of this potential boom.

LCROSS Changes the Game, Discovers Significant Amounts of Water on the Moon - The Launch Pad

NASA offers $400,000 for super space glove - Network World - I haven't heard any news about competitors this year, but this may be a hint:

NASA said the competition will test gloves from at least two contestants that will measure the gloves' dexterity and strength during operation in a glove box that simulates the vacuum of space.

NASTAR Suborbital Scientist Training Program Patch Contest - NASA Watch

Last patch for the last Shuttle flight - Space for All

SEDS SpaceVision 2009 at Univ. of Arizona - RLV News - The conference includes a number of speakers with prize connections, such as Ben Brockert (Masten Space Systems), Bob Richards (Odyssey Moon), Ken Davidian (former NASA Centennial Challenges manager), Peter Diamandis, and Richard Garriott (who used a competition as part of his space flight).

Going from lunar landing to suborbital flight - RLV News - Unreasonable Rocket considers what's needed for the next big step.

The three caballeros… - The Space Elevator Blog

LaserMotive’s first prize-winning run - The Space Elevator Blog - It includes the key video.

Press Release and Tech Discussion of Competition Results - LaserMotive:

“Now that we have dramatically demonstrated the capabilities of laser power beaming, we will be going on to new projects,” said Dr. Jordin Kare, chief engineer for the project. “We look forward to working with NASA and DOD, as well as with our industrial partners, to develop laser power beaming systems for aerospace and military applications. We also hope to develop commercial products based on our technologies. We will be evaluating several possible markets over the next few months.”

2009 Best Invention of the Year

2009-11-12T19:08:00.007-05:00

Space Prize Roundup: After the Lunar Lander and Power Beaming Challenges, Student Prize Resources, More

2009-11-09T20:26:00.042-05:00

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

@NGLLC09: Masten Space Systems post-prize plans, in Aviation Week: http://bit.ly/12zbvB

From that article: ... the company will use the $1.15 million it won by taking first place in the Level 2 lander competition and second place in Level 1 to upgrade its Xoie (pronounced "Zoey") vehicle for higher and faster flight ... The next steps, Masten said, will be to devise an aeroshell to permit faster flight and - eventually - re-entry, and to build a new engine that can deliver 2,500 pounds of thrust, versus the 750-pound rating on the Xoie engine.

A wild finish for the Lunar Lander Challenge - The Space Review

@glxp: The quick #NGLLC highlight reel showed at last week's award ceremony is now on YouTube! http://bit.ly/10WayS

@ikluft: my photos of Washington DC trip w/ MSS team for NASA awards for Lunar Lander Challenge http://is.gd/4RkZC

@ikluft: my photos of Masten Space Systems L2 flights in Lunar Lander Challenge on Oct 28-30 http://is.gd/4RkXS

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@Pomerantz: RT @glxp: Here's some great news: #GLXP Team Astrobotic picks up ANSYS as a sponsor! http://bit.ly/3C40us

Bad weather postpones launch of first Romanian rocket - Romanian Times

Prototype fab update #1 - Team FREDNET Lander

@Team_Selenokhod: Laboratory of innovative radiosystems from Research center of Novgorod State University - our new partner http://www.novsu.ru/english/about/

Space Elevator Games - Power Beaming

Highlights from 2009 Competition - LaserMotive

@LaserMotive: Media interview requests are coming in fast from around the world!

And it's over... - USST

Winner in Contest Involving Space Elevator - New York Times

Awards Ceremony - Space Elevator Blog

Contemplating 5 m/s - The Space Elevator Games - In addition to some thoughts about the 3 final teams should they choose to compete next year, this post has some information about the competition next year:

... the next round of the power beaming challenge, which will only have the 5 m/s benchmark level. ... Our job next time, however, is much easier – we have the racetrack stored in a box, we have the right crew, the right venue – we know how much it costs, and how long it takes to do. We’ll be making small changes in the rulebook and setup to facilitate smoother operations, but otherwise – see you all in the next round, date TBA.

Other Prizes

@Pomerantz: RT @ikluft: White House office of Science & Tech Policy blog mentions MSS, #ngllc "A Phenomenal Week for Prizes!" http://is.gd/4Rc0m

In addition to mentioning some X PRIZE and Centennial Challenge news, the OSTP post points out the DARPA Network Challenge, described as

a competition that will explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems. The challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. The balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads.

AUVSI Student Competitions - Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International - The site look has been updated, and dates and times are given for next year's competitions.

Singularity University, Day Two: Peter Diamandis Thinks Big - Wired

MiniSpaceWorld update - Space for All - It's interesting that one of the worlds includes an "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard", which might be considered a fairly obscure reference in today's movie and TV driven SF market. It looks pretty much like what I'd imagined, too.

@paulsrobotics: Moonraker is now on display in the #WPI Campus Center for the next couple weeks! Go check it out! http://fb.me/34WAux8

Scholarships for Space Studies - Out of the Cradle covers numerous scholarships, competitions, and awards for students.

The Teaching with Contests.com site has lots of information about student prizes. Here are some example posts from the last few days:

2010 Thacher Environmental Research Contest - ... awards cash prizes to secondary school students (grades 9-12) whose projects demonstrate the best use of satellites and other geospatial technologies or data to study Earth. Remote sensing, aerial photography, GIS and GPS are included in the eligible geospatial technologies.

Alan Shepard Technology in Education Awards

Team America Rocketry Challenge

KIDS’ SCIENCE CHALLENGE! 2010 - One of the categories is Sports on Mars.

New York Times Energy Prize Article

2009-11-07T18:57:00.028-05:00

Here's a roundup of some energy and environment prize news I've come across:

Using Prizes to Drive Energy Innovation - New York Times

The New York Times article mentions several different prizes. I've put together some links and updates on some of the prizes mentioned in the article.

The Progressive Automotive X PRIZE - I've posted on this many times, so you're probably familiar with this competition to encourage marketable highly fuel efficient vehicles. You can see the latest news on this X PRIZE here:

Meet the Qualified Teams at SEMA Next Week - Progressive Automotive X PRIZE blog - Actually the week in question ended on November 6; I'm a bit late with this link.

SEMA 2009: Progressive Automotive X-Prize Contenders - AutoBlog

@progautoxp twitter account also has numerous updates from SEMA.

$5.5 Million in Funding from U.S. DOE to Further Goals of Competition - X PRIZE Foundation press release - The X PRIZE Foundation, a world leader in conducting incentivized competitions to stimulate innovation, today announced it will receive up to $5.5 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). ... The DOE funding will provide for technical expertise that ensures each vehicle design is reviewed correctly and consistently. Funding will also support expanded outreach and education efforts that will focus on promoting public awareness of the science and engineering behind energy efficient vehicle designs.

Virgin Earth Challenge - The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth's climate.

I haven't seen a lot of activity on the Virgin Earth Challenge site over the years, but there's a post in the News and Press releases section on "846 ideas and counting" (actually over 900 according to the text) and geoengineering in general.

H-Prize - The H-Prize, enacted by Congress, authorized the Secretary of Energy to create a program to competitively award cash prizes that will advance the commercial application of hydrogen energy technologies by dramatizing and incentivizing accelerated research. ... There are several H-Prize categories, including production, storage, distribution, utilization, and prototypes and transformational technologies. The 2009-11 prize will be awarded in the area of storage materials in mobile systems for light-duty vehicles.

L Prize - Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the L Prize is the first government-sponsored technology competition designed to spur lighting manufacturers to develop high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb.

Philips Submits First L Prize Entry - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition has received its first entrant, a product from Philips Electronics. Philips has developed, manufactured and will bring to market an LED replacement for the common 60-Watt incandescent light bulb. Philips developed this product in response to DOE's industry-wide challenge, and was today recognized by DOE as the first company to submit an entry.

Twitter Management

2009-11-07T10:12:00.015-05:00

In recent months I've found myself swamped scanning various twitter accounts for prize news. My first attempt to solve this was a page full of twitter accounts, but clicking each one was too time-consuming. Only a few would have updates on a given day, so I needed a method to just get the updates, preferably organized by theme. I tried some twitter widgets within blogger (on the right here and here). These have been helpful, but they seem to have refresh limitations. I also tried some canned twitter searches, and these are also proving to be helpful. For example, for the X PRIZE Foundation, I have

X PRIZE Foundation Accounts

For student prizes, I have

Student Prize Accounts

For Google Lunar X PRIZE, I have

1 Google Lunar X PRIZE Accounts
2 Google Lunar X PRIZE Accounts
3 Google Lunar X PRIZE Accounts

These solve the problems with the widgets, but I'm not completely happy with these, either. First, I would rather have 1 Google Lunar X PRIZE search, not 3, but there's a 140 character limitation to twitter searches. Another issue is that it seems like Twitter Search doesn't do what I would intuitively expect it to do. For example, let's say I go to twitter and look up "GoZeroG" or "pkhomer":

twitter.com/gozerog
twitter.com/pkhomer

For pkhomer, I see updates from a couple weeks ago, and for GoZeroG, I see updates from a few hours ago. However, when I use Twitter Search:

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=from%3Agozerog
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=from%3Apkhomer

I get "No results for from:gozerog" and the same for pkhomer. It seems to happen for some accounts, and not others. I'm sure there's some esoteric but rational reason for this, but it's not what I want. That's why I was interested in the follow tweet from Doug Comstock from NASA IPP, the organization that, among other things, runs Centennial Challenges on the NASA side:

@Doug_Comstock: I started a new list of NASA Prize Winners on twitter. Four so far. Let me know if there are others. @Doug_Comstock/nasa-prize-winners

Here's a link to that list: nasa-prize-winners. Currently it has @dmasten, @LaserMotive, @paulsrobotics, and @plhprod1 (Peter Homer).

Apparently "Twitter Lists" is a new feature that is being rolled out. See Hands-on with Twitter Lists - CNet News. I'm looking forward to trying this new feature, and hoping it solves the various problems I've encountered with my patchwork of twitter management attempts.

For the NASA prize winners list, and just sticking with Centennial Challenges, I'd probably use @pkhomer, since that twitter account seems to be the active one for Peter Homer. I'd also include @armadillogadget. For Masten, I'd probably be torn between using @mastenspace and the whole Masten team (which, as far as I know, means adding @mojaverocketguy, @wikkit, @colinake, and @mmealling to Dave Masten's account above).

Looking Back at the Lunar Lander Challenge

2009-11-06T08:27:00.003-05:00

With all of the recent space prize activity, I've been barely able to keep up, let alone post on all of the events. I just went through over 100 notifications in my email about prize news articles, blog posts, and so on. Whew! That takes a while, and it's only 1 information path.

My advice is to check sites like RLV News. You can see news on the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge events, the awards ceremony for the winners, and how some of the teams are continuing after the prize. If you follow this blog, you'll know some of the other sites to check, too. I'm not going to duplicate all of that, but I do have a few items I thought were interesting:

Masten Space Systems Wins NGLLC LII - Donna's Journey

Parting thoughts as the NGLLC fades to black - TrueZer0

Did Ask for a Photo? - Team Phoenicia
New Photo - Team Phoenicia

@unrocket - Starting Clean up from LLC my entropy maximization efforts got out of control. Started with my Primary computer,new 1Tb Hdrive, $69.00!

Here's a well-deserved vacation:

@wikkit: I saw two oceans and a gulf in one day. My new record. Wandered around Miami Beach a bit, tomorrow is more exploration here.

I made a couple canned twitter searches for the Lunar Lander Challenge (yes, uh, just in time). Actually, I think the teams will continue to be active in some way, so there will still be content there after the Challenge. The searches are at the top right of Space Prizes blog. There are 2 because Twitter seems to take its 140 character limit idea to its searches, too:

Lunar Lander Challenge Accounts
More Lunar Lander (Masten)

LaserMotive Qualifies!

2009-11-04T18:18:00.004-05:00

I got home at just the right time ... and got to see LaserMotive qualify for the Beam Power / Tether Climber challenge money. Then they tried again, as the speed of the climbs factor into how much money is won. The results also depend on how well the other teams do.

Here's a post from LaserMotive on their pre-games setup work: Power Beaming Results, Nov. 3rd 2009.

Update (later the same evening):

MKKare: RT @EENugent AP report: http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/success-frustration-in-space-1...

Space Elevator Games Setup - Part 2

2009-11-03T20:15:00.012-05:00

In addition to the canned twitter search I mentioned earlier today, hashtags are also useful. However, not everyone uses them - they may not know about them or remember them at the right time. In the case of the Space Elevator Games, it looks like the following 2 hashtags are being used by some (but not all) accounts participating in, or following, the Games:

#TPNASA
#segames

Some twitter accounts using these:

EENugent (related to Tom? I don't know)
MKKare (related to Jordan? I don't know)
b0yle (Alan Boyle, MSNBC.com science editor)
spaceelevator (Space Elevator Reference)

As a result, I made another Space Elevator Games twitter search with these tags:

Space Elevator Games Accounts and Tags

This search is also at the top right of the Space Prizes blog. At the moment the search gives 5 or 6 pages of tweets from the last 24 hours, and the main event hasn't started yet. Here's one that gives background on the games and some ways to follow them:

b0yle: Another $2 million NASA-backed contest ramping up, this one for laser-powered, cable-climbing robots: http://bit.ly/3NKgkI (expand) ... #segames

The Space Elevator Blog had some posts today, too, in spite of what I'm sure is a lot of other work to get ready for the Games. In addition to the status of the setup, there's a lot of information in these posts on how to follow the games:

Status - doing a dry run…
Dry run; so far, so good
No more video today
Re-installing rotor blades on a helicopter

Power Beaming/Climber Competition Setup

2009-11-03T07:04:00.007-05:00

The setup for the 2009 Space Elevator Games Climber/Beam Power competition is already happening, with the main event starting tomorrow.

Payload... - The Space Elevator Blog

Current Status (11/1) from Space Elevator Games: Completed first day of setup at Dryden, and all is well. First games day is Wednesday, though a potential schedule change might prompt us to squeeze in a few climbs on Tuesday. Putting finishing touches on live coverage screen (above) - stay tuned!

Happy Halloween - The Space Elevator Blog - This one is obviously a few days old. Among other things, it gives a twitter account for @USST, one of the 3 remaining teams this year.

Speaking of twitter, I'm in the process of setting up some canned twitter searches. Right now they're at the top right of the Space Prizes blog, although I could move them to the Space Prizes twitter pseudo-blog. There's a canned search for Space Elevator Games Twitter Accounts at the top of the list - that's one of the (hopefully) finished ones. At any rate, it includes tweets from the twitter accounts I know about. It's easy enough to adjust the search using Twitter's search engine once you click on the canned search (eg: if you want to search for more than just those accounts, or tweets based on messages "to:" those accounts, or the string "power beaming challenge"). Here are some recent Space Elevator Games tweets from yesterday:

NASAPrize: Preparations underway for Power Beaming Challenge this week! Competition scheduled for Nov 4 & 5

LaserMotive: Lunch on the lakebed. http://yfrog.com/emfy6j

SEGames: status: Horizontal laser test now occurring. KCSP first up, then LaserMotive and then USST.

LaserMotive: Current temp and humidity. http://yfrog.com/dyp5gj

USST: We've made arrangments to hopefully pickup a new antennae from the factory in LA today. Hopefully we can get back in time with traffic.

SEGames: Go to http://live.spaceelevatorgames.org for latest pix.

Where to find Lunar Lander Updates; Space Elevator Prep, ARCA, Google Earth/Sketchup Contest, More

2009-10-31T09:05:00.032-05:00

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

There's been a lot of activity with the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge that I haven't kept up to date on in the Space Prizes blog over the last few days. Although I have been watching the events, I don't have more to add to the excellent coverage already available. Some good places to keep up to date include RLV News, the X PRIZE Foundation's The Launch Pad, some of the twitter accounts at the twitter list I set up (for example, accounts under the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge and X PRIZE Foundation headings), and the NGLLC twitter tag. If those aren't enough, these point you to more information sources. Note that the RLV News and Launch Pad links are to specific posts; they have many more and more will probably be on the way.

Space Elevator Games

Only 5 more days… - The Space Elevator Blog (and that was a couple days ago) - In addition to setup for the games, this includes a number of links to posts at the Space Elevator Games site.

KC Team Competes to Build an Elevator to Space - fox4kc.com

@lasermotive - The truck has stopped for the night, almost halfway to Mojave.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

Helen loaded onto ship - ARCA at the Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams page

Here's another Google Lunar X PRIZE Forum.

Other Prizes

Your 3D buildings arrive in Google Earth and Shelter Competition winners announced - Google Earth Blog

MIT Elevator Pitch Contest ~ Finale Thurs 10/29! - Maximizing Progress

U.S.-European Space Cooperation: Go Boldly, and Go Together - The German Marshall Fund blog proposes that NASA and ESA join forces to offer major space exploration prizes. The space agencies would also continue to fund science missions. The government would also provide common launch facilities and space communication networks for the private explorers.

Prize Roundup: 2009 Lunar Lander Challenge and Space Elevator Games Even Closer, GLXP Variety, X PRIZE Meeting, Regolith Reviews, New Mexico News

2009-10-27T19:35:00.040-05:00

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

@nasaprize - on the way to california for the final lunar lander attempts of 2009

@dmasten - We have been testing so much our Pad A looks worse than the lunar pad. http://twitpic.com/n5mjn

I think we are ready for #ngllc level 2. All tests are done. Last was a nice stable hover of 195sec in 30+ knot winds.

@mojaverocketguy - In at the shop, bright and surly. At least not 4:50am like last Tuesday.

Bad news: Missed seeing the flight because I someone had to stay for the UPS delivery. Good news: Xoie's fine and I heard it from the shop.

Doing concrete work in 50mph wind gusts--not fun. Good thing I got myself a college edjumacation so I wouldn't have to do jobs like that...

@ngllc09 - #NGLLC news update on The Launch Pad: http://bit.ly/lLWxm

NGLLC 2009: And Here They Come Down the Final Stretch! New post on The Launch Pad: http://bit.ly/I3QSI #ngllc

Tune in tmrw for webcast of Masten Lvl 2 #NGLLC attempt starting at 9am PST/16:00 UTC: http://bit.ly/ngllc09

Unreasonable update - RLV News

BonNova recap - RLV News

Briefs: Speed Up hybrid test; Source of rocket grade H2O2 - RLV News

I'm posting these Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge updates on Wednesday morning:

Unreasonable ups and downs - RLV News

Masten Space Level II attempt - Oct..28.09 - viewing info - RLV News - Using the #ngllc twitter search on this page, you can already see a lot of tweets on the event as people get ready to go, like these:

alias_amanda: Only for a rocket launch could I be up at 4am and be somewhat happy about it #ngllc

ikluft: I'll be tweeting from Mojave today for the @mastenspace flight in Level 2 of the Lunar Lander Challenge #ngllc

Pomerantz: Made it to Mojave (& gave #NGLLC team SpeedUp's Bob Steinke a ride on the way up). Excited for tmrw's @mastenspace flights! Godspeed, Xoie

Space Elevator Games: Power Beaming/Tether Climber

@lasermotive - The designing, building and testing is finally done. Today the packing begins. We are ready.

@segames - Very good - just organized a commentary team for the live cast. (Live video has a lot of boring moments, and while we have some B-roll+ ... material, there's nothing like play-by-play descriptions.)

NASA Centennial Power Beaming Challenge to Feature Three Teams - The Space Elevator Reference

Games updates - The Space Elevator Blog

Briefs: Power Beaming Challenge; Regolith scraper - RLV News

Regolith Excavation Challenge

@doug_comstock - Check out cool Gigapan images (a nasa spinoff http://tinyurl.com/bm3pl6) from the Regolith Excavation Challenge: http://tinyurl.com/yk45lmf

@paulsrobotics - WPI Reception for the team is currently scheduled for Wednesday at 2PM in HL005 (we think). Feel free to stop by... http://bit.ly/1Y75C

Also see the RLV News link in the previous section for another Regolith Excavation Challenge article.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@team_selenokhod - The first Selenokhod mockup rollout: http://selenokhod.com/en/node/44

The first Russian private-built-rover at Mission Control Center: http://selenokhod.com/en/node/45 That was amazing!

@nextgiantleap - Nice day for a drive to Louisville, CO, but looks like snow for the way home. ... Looking forward to meetings at SNC tomorrow!

@omegaenvoy - With our rover naming contest coming to an end, will you be the one to break the tie? http://bit.ly/POiyi #GLXP

Notice the new name (with an underscore) on the twitter address for this next one:

@Odyssey_Moon - Odyssey Moon Chief Scientist Dr. Paul Spudis on lunar lava tubes: http://bit.ly/19GDbc

@arcaspace - Octomber 23, 2009 - CONSTANTA The first launch attempt of Helen vehicle will take place starting with October 29... http://bit.ly/2NEU5n

Other Prizes

Economy, rule change ground X Prize plans - Las Cruces Sun: Landeene said the X Prize Cup does spur interest in aerospace among students.

"Ultimately, what I'd like to do is have X Prize-like events at the spaceport and surrounding community," he said.

Spaceport Visitor Center Approved - - KRWG TV: The Board of Directors of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has voted to establish a welcome center for Spaceport America in downtown Truth or Consequences... A welcome center is also planned for the village of Hatch which is on the southern approach to Spaceport America.

@fineri (N-Prize team) - http://twitpic.com/mzn62 - Plumbing all done, cone needs finishing, electronics and engine need integrating.

@peterdiamandis - Great X Prize Trustees dinner at Elon Musk's home... great crowd, Sergey Brin, Ansari Family, Beyster's, Mike Boustridge, Jim Gianopulos... great to also host Esther Dyson, Peter Bloom, Rob McEwen, Erik Lindbergh and Peter Ferrel

i am searching for a strong Director/Chief of Staff to work with me as CEO of X Prize, MBA desired. LA base @ XPF HQ

2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Approaches

2009-10-25T11:24:00.013-05:00

Unreasonable progress - RLV News

Briefs: Unreasonable progress; NGLLC in The Economist - RLV News

@NGLLC09 - Two Moon related prizes - the @NGLLC09 and the @Regolith_Chal - get write-up in the Economist! http://bit.ly/2o9Xii

Briefs: Masten propellant tanks; BonNova on NGLLC stage - RLV News

From Seeking a Human Spaceflight Program Worthy of a Great Nation (PDF) (i.e. the Augustine Committee's final report):

All three variants [of the Committee's Flexible Path option] also include a hybrid lunar lander that is smaller than the Altair. (See Figure 6.2.2-2.) The ascent stage is developed by NASA, but the descent stage is assumed to be commercially developed, building on the growing industrial capability pursuing NASA’s Lunar Lander Challenge and the Google Lunar X-Prize.

@wikkit - This year it didn't rain before the wind picked up, so we worked in a dust storm for most of the day. Going to be a gray shower tonight.

@mastenspace - RT @rbranly: Designing educational payloads to fly aboard Masten Space Vehicles.

Preview of final week of NGLLC 2009 - RLV News shows a press release from the X PRIZE Foundation on the week of events.

Update (Sunday evening):

Armadillo flies higher - RLV News

NGLLC: BonNova bows out; Unreasonable update; Masten update - RLV News

@nasaprize - No Lunar Lander Challenge attempts on Mon or Tuesday but Masten and Unreasonable Rocket are still on for Wed-Saturday attempts

Update (Monday morning):

@wikkit - If you're interested in coming to our LLC flights this week or other tests, send me an email at ben@masten-space.com .

@mastenspace - RT @rbranly: The MSS payload capsule demonstrator project includes a multispectral imager as a flight option.Aiming 4 imager mass of 500g

2009 Beam Power/Climber Competition Approaches

2009-10-25T10:55:00.007-05:00

Power Beaming Challenge ready to shine - RLV News - This has a lot of essential links for the games, including links to the teams. It also gives an overview of what the status is for the games.
LaserMotive is doing a countdown ... note that this one was from Oct 22:

@lasermotive - T minus 9 days until we leave town for Dryden.

Pre-competition update from the Kansas City Space Pirates - The Space Elevator Blog shows some of the testing the KC Space Pirates are doing.

Space Elevator Games - Current Status (10/24) - The "Current Status" is in box on the right side of this site; the link I've given is to the overall site. Here's the currrent status:

One week to go... Everything on schedule so far. Flying to Washington to prep the helicopter on Thursday, then driving to Dryden to meet the teams on Sunday. Setup begins Monday morning.

After the 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge, Getting Ready for Big Lunar Lander Challenge Week, Automotive X PRIZE Downselect, More

2009-10-21T18:38:00.031-05:00

Regolith Excavation Challenge

@regolith_chal - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden talks about how @regolith_chal winners help to inspire the next generation: http://moourl.com/irp75

@doug_comstock - It looks like all 3 prizes for Regolith Excavation Challenge will be awarded!! See pictures of the competition: http://tinyurl.com/yh37a3f

@paulsrobotics - We won! Special thanks to our sponsors: WPI, Barnstorm Cycles, Hydro-cutter, AIAA New England, and Hacker Dojo! #WPI http://bit.ly/5x5Rp

article on msnbc http://bit.ly/26MLCR great photo of the team with the #WPI flag

This article includes a video of us excavating from the New Scientist http://bit.ly/C0aEm

Big Win - $750,000 in Prize Money for Lunar Excavators - The Launch Pad

From Regolith Excavation Challenge 2009:

Photos by Jamie Foster are here: Regolith-Media.
Many more photos by Jamie Foster are here: Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

(I've already pointed out some of the other links there to Regolith Excavation Challenge photos, videos, news, and more.)

@pkhomer - ... We were allowed a demo run in the sandbox after the final presentations. Our bot delivered JSC-1A at a rate of over 2 kilos per second!

... We didn't, and the teams that did put it all together won fair & square. One thing we got very right is the digger...

Will post video & details in a few days when i get home.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@teamfrednet - Some of our members are working on a high altitude balloon to be launched soon. Here is a video showing some tests: http://bit.ly/27hRNP

@arcaspace - ARCA message in the World Kids Stories E-book no 3, after the Obama family introduction http://bit.ly/4a6LAL

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

Unreasonable update - RLV News

Briefs: Unreasonable update; NGLLC schedule. - RLV News

@unrocket - On site at 630

@wikkit - http://twitpic.com/mdfno - MSS Strategic Helium Repository, or the source of Talk Like a Tween Tuesday.

http://twitpic.com/mdkld - I sent a bit of text to the AV press, and they ran a nice article.

Progressive Automotive X PRIZE

@progautoxp - Auto X Prize cuts green-car contest pool in half http://ow.ly/vhQ1

Check out this multimedia news release for details, videos, slideshow and more http://ow.ly/vhXW

ThinkWrap, Auto X Prize partner for "near-real time" race vehicle monitoring - Autoblog Green

Students build green cars for $7.5M in prizes - Today Show (link from X PRIZE Foundation)

Design Judging Complete: Over Half of All Entries Eliminated - Progressive Automotive X PRIZE blog

Space Elevator Games - Power Beaming/Climbing

@lasermotive - Autumnal illnesses are striking many of us. I hope we're all healthy for the competition!

Power beam climbing at the local REI store - RLV News

Other prizes

Cheap Contest II - Selenian Boondocks

@glxp - Calling all coders! @_TopCoder_ announces NASA challenge to benefit human spaceflight: http://bit.ly/20zcQ4 (thx @spaceguy)

@pomerantz - RT @tim846: NASA FIRST Robotics Grants Available - applications due Nov. 2! More info at http://bit.ly/Bz83i (via @defygravity0G)

NASA Chief Praises Commercial Spaceflight, Suborbital Science, & Innovation Prizes in Speech - Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Continuing Regolith Excavation Challenge Coverage

2009-10-17T22:03:00.011-05:00

Here's a continuation of the Regolith Excavation Challenge coverage I started in this post:

Regolith Challenge Update: Braundo Rancho Qualified for Prize - Parabolic Arc summarizes the events of the day.

Lunar Regolith Challenge Photos - Parabolic Arc (the post above also has some nice pictures)

Video: Lunar Excavator in Action - Parabolic Arc

@pkhomer - Tech Ranch has lost their camera! Digging well by blind reconning, but missing the collector.

Rock paper digger. Paper covers rock, rock beats digger! C2 Technologies, also driving blind, runs over rock and gets stuck.

@paulsrobotics - http://twitpic.com/lz0cd Moonraker from our quick photoshoot the other night

@spacemansam - This is what happens when you don't design a lunar rover to handle rocks and soft soil. http://twitpic.com/lyu7e

NASA 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge Kicks Off - California Space Authority press release at SpaceRef

NASA 2009 Regolith Excavation Games Continue Into Second Day - California Space Authority press release at SpaceRef

Regolith Excavation Challenge 2009 has a number of updates from the competition and shortly before it started:

pictures
video
2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge Presenters (PDF)

@glxp - now that's dust! #regolith2009 http://twitpic.com/m1ex0 http://twitpic.com/m1ezo (via @spacemansam)

The Moonraker officially qualified! Nice job, @paulsrobotics #regolith2009

@nasaprize - Paul's Robotics run was a qualifying one with the highest mass so far

@spacemansam: Prepping a regolith garden requires the skills of a Zen Master. #regolith2009 http://twitpic.com/m1d3k

Moonraker filled up the bin! The scale overloaded! OMG! #regolith2009 http://twitpic.com/m1jk0

Update (Sunday evening):

@pkhomer - Team Terra delivers 270.6 kilos to take 2nd place.

@spacemansam: Team Terra works TOO well. Overloads its own bucket. #regolith2009 http://twitpic.com/m30bz

@spacemansam: Updated photos from 8am to 1pm today http://bit.ly/4bPe3B #regolith2009

Regolith Excavation Challenge update - RLV News - As this post notes, Parabolic Arc has numerous posts on the event. The one I linked has the latest update showing that with 1 team left there are already teams qualified to take first, second, and third places.

Regolith Excavation Main Event Starts Today; NSS SE Team Videos, Robots

2009-10-17T06:39:00.040-05:00

Regolith Excavation Challenge

The Stage is Set - Regolith Excavation Challenge

As the main regolith competition approaches, the Regolith Excavation Challenge twitter is for obvious reasons sending out a lot of messages. Here are just a few of them.

@regolith_chal - Here is a gigapan image from earlier today: http://gigapan.org/gigapans/34874/

Thanks @spacevidcast for the fun and well researched video about the regolith challenge. http://moourl.com/0as0f

... We will be posting video clips during event and lots of video will be recorded for distribution later.

@paulsrobotics - #WPI robot has arrived at NASA Ames! Waiting for check-in... http://twitpic.com/lrt8a

#WPI robotics team is @ NASA competition this weekend http://bit.ly/4bP3Qm (via @WPIAlumni)

@nasaprize - In Mountain View CA for Regolith Excavation Challenge today and tomorrow - met with judges last night - teams & venue look great

Update (Saturday afternoon):

A Regolith Challenge team qualifies for purse - RLV News - This also includes a tag that some of the twitter updates are using:

@Regolith_Chal: BTW, the official tag for flickr and other media is #regolith2009.

Here are some of the updates I see using that tag:

@motorbikematt: Check out the Lunar Regolith Excavation Challenge robots #regolith2009 http://www.flickr.com/photos/motorbikematt/sets/72157622480723227/

By the way, that picture collection from motorbikematt is well worth checking out.

@spacemansam: Roboexcavators! This is gonna get messy! http://twitpic.com/lw3a3

Team has an impressive control interface, including stereoscopic cameras! #regolith2009 http://twitpic.com/lw8f2

GLXP has a number of updates already, and most of them come with links to pictures. Here's one; click on the glxp link or the tag for more:

@glxp - http://twitpic.com/lxsfa - Team Astrobotic is up in about a half hour with their Moondiggers A robot. Good luck! #lunarRC

Peter Homer of Astronaut Glove Challenge fame is also making some updates:

@pkhomer - 6 of 20 teams done, only 1 successful. We don't know when our turn until 1/2 hour before. I'm updating via Twitter @pkhomer

He also has a number of updates on the status of other teams that have made attempts.

Paul's Robotics is keeping us up to date:

paulsrobotics - Auric and Next Step both moved zero. Top Hat in the box with technical difficulties. Lunar Arc up next...

Top Hat and Lunar Arc also moved zero. Laurentian Rock setting up. Moondiggers A on-deck.
NASA's Doug Comstock has some pictures of the robots:

@doug_comstock - http://twitpic.com/lx6a2 - Some of the robotic excavators in the 2009 regoligh excavation challenge.

http://twitpic.com/lx74f - More of the robotic excavators at the regolith excavation challenge.

Space Elevator Games Power Beaming/Climber Competition

And now, the movie - The Space Elevator Games (look in the "blog" section for the content specific to this post)

There is cool and then there is Über-cool… - The Space Elevator Blog has more video of the first day of the NSS team's recent qualification tests, including the "reflectivity test", the "climber melt test", and the "optics melt test".

A different sort of climber (NSS - plan B) - The Space Elevator Games - This is the 2nd part of the "plan A" story I linked to yesterday.

Other Prizes

@conradawards - Opportunities for Aerospace Innovation, webinar, David Thompson, Pres of AIAA and CEO of Orbtial, Mon., 10/19, 3pm PDT www.conradawards.org

MIT takes the wrappers off autonomous, robotic helicopter with intelligent navigation - Engadget

MileHiCon 41 - - October 23-25, Denver - One of the guest authors for this Science Fiction convention is Nancy Kress, and I happen to be reading her Probability Moon at the moment. That follows yesterday's post that included a contest involving Alastair Reynolds' Zima Blue - and I just finished his Revelation Space. It's all just coincidence. The reason this appears on this blog, though, is the Critter Crunch - a robot battle contest.

Gathering for Regolith Challenge, More NSS Beam Team Details, Mars Fiction, Meetings, Conferences,and Festivals

2009-10-16T07:44:00.036-05:00

Regolith Excavation Challenge

@regolith_chal - Updated event schedule: http://regolith.csewi.org/schedule

@paulsrobotics - At the Hacker Dojo (http://hackerdojo.pbworks.com/) in Mountain View, checking out that the robot made the trip safely.

Workin at the awesome Hacker Dojo (thanks #WPI alum Mike Lundy). Prepping bot for the weekend! http://twitpic.com/lnean

@alias_amanda - Broken free from the bonds of LA gridlock, now swiftly making my way to the Bay Area.

NASA Hosts National Lunar Robotics Moon Excavation Competition - NASA media advisory

NASA ARC Internal Memo: 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge at Ames, Oct. 17 - 18, 2009 - SpaceRef

Google Lunar X PRIZE

@arcaspace - Echipa ARCA s-a intalnit cu jurnalistii in Rm. Valcea si Bucuresti. In aceasta seara va ajunge in Constanta. http://bit.ly/wVixq

@omegaenvoy - Omega Envoy to Hold Open House Meeting in Orlando, Fl. http://bit.ly/2wvT68

According to the above link, the open house is on October 28, 8:00am at the University of Central Florida.

@pomerantz - Google Lunar X PRIZE teams has a job posting up on the forum: http://bit.ly/3NM82z #GLXP

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge

@wikkit - Xoie now has duck tape on it. I knew it was missing something.

Days like this, with WK2 showing off, are ones I'm glad our shop faces away from the flightline. We'd never get anything done.

@jeff_foust - NASA funds the Lunar Lander Challenge prizes http://is.gd/4lgwD and then MSFC goes and builds its own lander testbed: http://is.gd/4lgrF

@mojaverocketguy - @jeff_foust FYI, MSFC is paying Orion Propulsion to build those. One of our previous interns did the testing/debugging of the one linked to

though it is definitely amusing. I wonder how much they've spent on that over the past few years...

QOTD, from IIIan on chat after verifying Xoie's computer was reading pressure sensors correctly: ~~my presssuresss~~ they take it from me

@unrocket - Wk2 with long ez chase flew over the site. Our lunar pad got poured mon, looks nice done by same person as mastens.

Focused on helicopter and pad 2 pad navigation, good results today. Silver on fri, big customer static on sat

Unreasonable Rocket's approach? Do they have any plans beyond NGLLC? - NASA Spaceflight forum question - Jon Goff has an answer.

Space Elevator Games - Beam Power/Climber Competition

A different sort of climber (NSS – plan A) - The 2009 Space Elevator Games

NSS testing at TRUMPF - Day 2 - The Space Elevator Blog

Other Prizes

@progautoxp - If you are in the NYC area on 10/19, stop by the Classic Car Club to check out some of the teams competing in the #PIAXP @algore #PIAXP has some exciting news to announce on 10/19 in NYC. Thanks for your support as we move ahead with the competition.

@peterdiamandis - now in Houston speaking on X Prize and Zero G at the UP Experience Conference

@michaelbelfiore - My report on the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards last night--Dean Kamen, a flying car, and the future of gaming: http://bit.ly/3srGbN

The Quantum to Cosmos Festival's live streaming events start today. I'll be on Oct. 22 at 8 ET to talk about robots: http://bit.ly/1y7DNu

The Quantum to Cosmos Festival post linked above mentions a talk by Peter Diamandis at the festival. Many other interesting speakers are also on the schedule, including at least one Google Lunar X PRIZE Team member.

Piece on Mars submitted to New Scientist magazine’s Flash Fiction Competition - Marooned: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror books on Mars

Win a copy of Zima Blue, a new anthology by Alastair Reynolds that has three Mars novelettes - Marooned: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror books on Mars

October Competition - Antipodean SF - SF Downside-Up (note: This competition is for Australian readers):

To enter, all you need to do is listen to the audio in the player (below) and tell the editor which movie each quote is from. The last one may be difficult. Hint — the last movie is based on a story by another talented SF writer in the Gollancz stable, Philip K Dick.