Will Try To Complete Level 1 Challenge... And Maybe Level 2... Sunday

Saturday was a trying day for the folks at Armadillo Aerospace... so close, and yet so far.

Before a crowd of eager attendees at the 2007 Wirefly X Prize Cup at Holloman AFB in Alamogordo, NM, the Armadillo crew -- led by company founder John Carmack -- worked to send its MOD rocket lander on a brief, but important, trip... and came oh-so-close to accomplishing its goal.

Competing in the $2 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, MOD was to lift off vertically from a smooth launch surface, and reach an altitude of 50 meters; fly horizontally for 100 meters; and land on a second pad, all in over 90 seconds.

An igniter problem scrapped the first attempt, Saturday morning... but the second attempt went much better, as the MOD took off as designed, flew its required course, and landed on the pad with gusto.

In order to win the Level 1 challenge -- and the associated $350,000 prize -- the team had to turn around and do it again... and quickly, within two-and-a-half hours. After struggling with another igniter problem (more on that in a minute) the Armadillo team launched MOD on its second trip, at 1430 MDT.

The second trip looked good to start... but at about 85 seconds in, troubles cropped up. The lander's motor apparently cut out, just a few meters above the pad surface. Two of the lander's legs caught the edge of the concrete pad, sending the lander tumbling down on its side.

There are differing accounts what may have happened. Some have theorized the significant dust cloud kicked up by MOD's rocket motor may have led to the problem; others report seeing a piece of the rocket falling off as it came down to land.

Carmack himself gave a very detailed account to Wired.com. According to that report, workers on the ground used a filed-down paper clip to free a blockage from one of MOD's igniters... an on-the-fly repair that appeared to have done the job, but may have led to unattended consequences during MOD's second flight... specifically, leading to an increase in fuel flow rate.

The video-game designer and "Doom" creator said he realized his lander was having problems early into its flight... when MOD rocketed up from the pad much faster than intended. Carmack says he tried to complete the flight anyway.

"I was afraid the engine might blow," Carmack said. "We saw we had a hurt engine, so we hustled it over the pad."

Carmack says the damage incurred in the hard landing is relatively light, and easy to fix. The team plans to try once again to complete the Level 1 challenge Sunday morning.

If successful in accomplishing Level 1, the team plans to also try flying its Pixel landing craft in the Level 2 challenge, later in the day. To claim that $1 million award, the team must land and then take off from a pad simulating the lunar surface... a tougher task than landing on the smooth pad in Level 1.

As ANN reported, the Armadillo Aerospace team also tried to take the prize at the 2006 X Prize Cup.

FMI: www.armadilloaerospace.com, http://space.xprize.org/x-prize-cup/