The final flights in the
2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge
(NGLLC) competition took place in the Mojave,
California area near the end of October.
Masten
Space Systems successfully met the Level
II requirements by flying twice back and
forth between two landing pads while remaining
airborne for 3 minutes each way, all within
a 2 hour and 15 minute time window. Their
landing accuracy bested that of Armadillo
Aerospace, which had flown
in September, thereby winning the first
place prize of $1,000,000. Armadillo won
the second place prize of $500,000.
The Unreasonable
Rocket team managed to fly one leg of
the Level I requirements (90 seconds in
the air each way) but a hard landing damaged
the vehicle and prevented them from continuing.
Their Level II vehicle had technical problems
that prevented any flights. The fourth registered
team BonNovA
withdrew from the competition.
Below are videos of the Masten Space Level
II flights and Unreasonable Rocket's Level
I flight. See the NGLLC
2009 Resources page for more videos,
photos, links to blog reports, articles,
etc. for each round of flights by the teams
in this year's competition.
|