14 DAY TRIAL // The 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X Prize Challenge (LLC) has finally come to an end last week, as the final two teams tried their best to complete the first and second stages of the match-up. Already in the cards was Rockwall, Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace, a company that managed to complete both stages of the tournament, but two contenders disputed its supremacy last week. Mojave, California-based Masten Space Systems and Unreasonable Rocket both tried to complete the two tasks in back-to-back flights. Only Masten Space Systems succeeded.
In fact, the MSS performance was so good, that it won the $1-million grand prize, even if Armadillo had completed the tasks first. On Thursday, some $1.65 million in prize money will be split between the two contenders, with the Texas company scheduled to receive about $500,000 for its contribution. The award ceremony, a press release on NASA's official website informs, will take place at 12 pm on November 5, in room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, DC.
“The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge has had its intended impact, with impressive performances by multiple teams representing a new generation of aerospace entrepreneurs. These companies have demonstrated reusable vehicles with rapid turnaround and a surprising degree of precision in flight, and they have done all this at a much lower cost than many thought possible,” NASA's Centennial Challenge Program Manager, Andrew Petrio, from the agency's headquarters, says.
In a dramatic turn of events, MSS met the Level 2 requirements, by managing to land its spacecraft during the second flight with an accuracy of 7.5 inches, as opposed to Armadillo's 34 inches. The flight, which took place on October 30 at the Mojave Air and Space Port, in California, brought the company the $1-million prize, in addition to the $150,000 it had already won for completing Level 1 in the LLC. Armadillo also received $150,000 for completing Level 1, and $350,000 for finishing Level 2. In the end, more than $2 million in prize money was awarded to all competing teams, the organizers announce.