The Lunar Lander Challenge involves building and flying a rocket-powered vehicle that simulates the flight of a vehicle on the Moon. The lander must take off vertically then travel horizontally and land accurately at another spot. Then the same vehicle must take off again, travel horizontally back to the original take off point and land successfully. The challenge requires precise control and navigation as well as precise control of engine thrust, all done automatically. Furthermore, the rocket engine must be started twice in a short time with no ground servicing other than refueling. This represents the technical challenges involved in operating a reusable vehicle that could land on the Moon. Such a vehicle might also be used to travel from point to point across the rugged terrain of the Moon. The difficulty of perfecting a reusable, high-performance rocket engine cannot be underestimated. The Space Shuttle has reusable rocket engines, but they require extensive servicing on the ground between each mission and that kind of servicing will not be an option on the Moon. The prize purse is divided into first and second prizes for Level One and Level Two. Level One requires a flight duration of at least 90 seconds on each flight and Level Two requires a duration of at least 180 seconds. Furthermore, one of the landings for a Level Two attempt must be made on a simulated lunar terrain with rocks and craters. In October 2008, the Level One 1st Prize of $350,000 was won by the Armadillo Aerospace team. The remaining prizes are as follows: Level two 1st Prize: $1,000,000 and Level Two 2nd Prize: $500,000 and Level One 2nd Prize: $150,000.
Lunar Lander Challenge Results Level Two First Place: Masten Space Systems (October 30, 2009) $1,000,000
Level Two Second Place: Armadillo Aerospace (September 12, 2009) $500,000
Level One First Place: Armadillo Aerospace (October 24, 2008) $350,000
Level One Second Place: Masten Space Systems (October 7, 2009) $150,000
› View Feature › View Lunar Lander Award Ceremony Lunar Lander Award Ceremony Photos on Flickr→ Lunar Lander Award Ceremony Photos on the VIP Web Gallery→ › View Image Gallery › View Press Release In the final week of the competition period
- BonNova cancelled their attempts on October 26 and 27, 2009.
- Masten Space Systems successfully qualified for Level 2 on October 30, 2009 with an average landing accuracy of 19 cm. (Armadillo Aerospace’s accuracy on their September 12 flights was 87 cm.)
- Unreasonable Rocket conducted Level 1 flight attempts on October 30 and 31, 2009. On their second attempt, they flew from one pad to the other with a time aloft of 85 seconds but could not continue. Testing of their Level 2 vehicle on November 1, 2009 was not successful.
Masten Space Systems qualified for the Level One 2nd prize on October 7, 2009.
› Read More › View Image Gallery Masten Space Systems made unsuccessful Level One attempt on September 16, 2009.
› Read More › View Video Armadillo Aerospace qualified for the Level Two prize on September 12, 2009.
› Read More For more details, see the X-Prize website as they are our allied organization for this competition.
View Site→ Results of 2008 Competition On October 24-25 the Lunar Lander Challenge was hosted at the Las Cruces, NM Airport. On October 24, two teams made flight attempts for the Level One prize. A new team, TrueZero, had a successful launch but crashed after a brief flight. Armadillo Aerospace completed two successful flights with their “Mod” to win the Level One First prize of $350,000. On October 25, Armadillo Aerospace made an attempt for the Level Two prize with their “Quad” vehicle but had mechanical problems on their first takeoff.
