2009 Lunar Lander Challenge concludes

The last round of the 2009 Lunar Lander Challenge had everything one could wish for in a competition. The Lunar Lander Challenge had a come from behind victory and an officiating controversy that may leave a bitter taste for years to come. There were some nail biting moments, a crash of one of the lunar landers, a fire, and aggravating glitches worthy of anything that has happened in the space age.

First up was the Xoie rocket from Masten Space Systems, competing for the Level 2 prize. Communications problems foreclosed two launch attempts on Wednesday, October 28th. An electrical fire ruined a flight conducted on Thursday, October 29th.

Ordinarily two days would have been all Masten would have been allowed. But the judges for the Lunar Lander Challenge granted Master a third day to make a final attempt. This decision would later cause controversy.

The flight by the Xoie was a success, though not without its dramatic moments, including a stuck valve. But the Xoie made the three minute, fifty meter flight from a launch pad to a simulated lunar landscape and back again just under the hundred and thirty five minute time limit.

With Xoie’s success, Masten also took the lead for Level 2. The previous first place winner, Armadillo Aerospace’s Scorpius rocket, had an average landing accuracy of thirty five inches. Masten’s Xoie had an average landing accuracy of seven and a half inches, easily beating Armadillo’s Scorpius.

The fact that Masten was given a third day to complete the flight of the Xoie elicited a caustic email by Armadillo’s CEO John Carmack, who noted that none of the other teams, including his, had been given a third day to complete a flight or to better one they had already accomplished.

The awards ceremony will take place in Washington on November 5th,

The final competitor was a father and son team of Unreasonable Rocket. Unreasonable Rocket had to pass on the ambitious Level 2 flight due to a broken tank on their Silver Ball rocket. Using the Blue Ball rocket, Unreasonable Rocket went after second place for the Level 1 flight, which Armadillo had won last year. The first flight attempt on Saturday, October 31st, was not completed. A tethered flight test ended in disaster when the Silver Ball severed the tether and then crashed.

However the officiating controversy turns out, the Lunar Lander Challenge did succeed in inspiring the development of small scale, lunar lander prototypes by small teams of people. The Augustine Commission has expressed the hope that the Lunar Lander Challenge and the much more ambitious Google Lunar X Prize will inspire the development of commercial lunar landers capable of taking not only payloads but eventually people back to the Moon.

The official standings have been posted. Mastern Space Systems takes first place in the Level 2 category and a one million dollar purse. Armadillo Aerospace takes second place and half a million dollars. Armadillo had taken first for Level 1 last year and gets 350 thousand dollars. Masten takes second place and 150 thousand.
 That concludes the Lunar Lander Challenge.