NASA's Centennial Challenges

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NASA Announces Lunar Lander Analog Competition Agreement

The press release is reproduced below:

May 5, 2006

Michael Braukus/ Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington
(202) 358-1979/1753

Ian Murphy
X PRIZE Foundation, Santa Monica, Calif.
(310) 689-6397

RELEASE: 06-211

NASA Announces Lunar Lander Analog Competition Agreement

NASA's Deputy Administrator Shana Dale announced Friday the agency's Centennial Challenges program has signed an agreement with the X PRIZE Foundation to conduct the $2 million Lunar Lander Analog Challenge.

"NASA's Centennial Challenge program is using the tool of prize competitions, so successfully demonstrated by the X-PRIZE, to plant the seeds for future space commercial activities," Dale said. "We're confident the Lunar Lander Analog Competition will stimulate the development of the kinds of rockets and landing systems that NASA needs to return to the moon, while also accelerating the development of the private sub-orbital space flight industry."

Dale made the announcement at the International Space Development conference in Los Angeles. The challenge will take place at the X PRIZE Cup Expo in Las Cruces, N. M., Oct. 20-22.

NASA is sponsoring the challenge, offering the competition's largest cash prize yet for developing a versatile space vehicle that one day may support exploration of the moon. The X PRIZE Foundation is administering and executing the competitions at no cost to NASA, providing the venue for the competition and encouraging involvement by a diverse field of competitors.

"The X PRIZE Foundation is pleased to collaborate with NASA in this important milestone of space flight,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman of the X PRIZE Foundation. "This is a collaboration that works because the X PRIZE Foundation and NASA share the goal of pushing new technologies for space exploration. We look forward to hosting this competition at our X PRIZE Cup Expo."

The Lunar Lander Analog Challenge will take place in the vicinity of the Las Cruces International Airport. Competing teams will demonstrate their vehicle's ability to launch vertically, hover in mid-air, land on a target more than 100 yards away and then repeat the feat.

NASA's Centennial Challenges promotes technical innovation through a novel program of prize competitions. It is designed to tap the nation's ingenuity to make revolutionary advances to support the Vision for Space Exploration and agency goals. NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate manages the program.

The X PRIZE Foundation is a not-for-profit educational organization that uses competitions to create innovative breakthroughs in space and related technologies for the benefit of mankind. The foundation captured world headlines when Mojave Aerospace built and flew the world's first private spacecraft to the edge of space to win the $10 million ANSARI X PRIZE.

For information about Centennial Challenges, visit

http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/home

For information about the X PRIZE Foundation, visit:

http://www.xprize.org

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Source: NASA Press Release 06-211

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Peter Homer Wins NASA's Challenge for Improved Astronaut Gloves

The press release is reproduced below:

May 3, 2007

David E. Steitz/Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1730/4997

Alan Hayes
Volanz Aerospace, Inc., Owings, Md.
202-498-6804

RELEASE: 07-101

Peter Homer Wins NASA's Challenge for Improved Astronaut Gloves

WASHINGTON - On Thursday, May 3, Peter Homer of Southwest Harbor, Maine, won $200,000 from NASA for his entry in the Astronaut Glove Challenge. The competition was one of NASA's seven Centennial Challenges and took place May 2-3 at the New England Air Museum at Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks, Conn.

To win the prize, Homer's glove design performed better overall than the competition in tests that rated the glove's strength, flexibility and comfort. Homer's innovations in finger dexterity could enhance NASA's future astronaut gloves. Competitors from Saint Cloud, Fla., Yonkers, N.Y., Logan, Utah, and New York also registered for the challenge.

When performing a space walk, NASA astronauts use their hands as their primary way to move around and complete tasks. After many hours of working inside the pressurized gloves, the force required by the astronauts to move their fingers and wrists back and forth repeatedly often results in blisters, abrasions and damaged fingernails. New technologies would reduce discomfort and make the astronauts' jobs easier and safer.

During this same competition, $50,000 was offered for Mechanical Counter-Pressure gloves, but there were no entries in this category.

At no cost to NASA, Volanz Aerospace, Inc., Owings, Md., administered the challenge. Hamilton Sundstrand of Windsor Locks, Conn., NASA's prime contractor for the current space suit, and ILC Dover of Frederica, Del., were sponsors of the contest.

The Astronaut Glove Challenge will be conducted again next year. With the unclaimed $50,000 from the 2007 contest, the award for the 2008 competition will increase from $350,000 to $400,000.

Centennial Challenges, an element of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program, promotes technical innovation through prize competitions to make revolutionary advances to support the Vision for Space Exploration and NASA goals. For more information about the Innovative Partnerships Program and Centennial Challenges, visit:

http://www.ipp.nasa.gov/cc

For more information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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Source: NASA Press Release 07-101

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NASA's Centennial Challenge to Excavate Moon Dirt Set for May 12

The media advisory is reproduced below:

May 3, 2007

David E. Steitz/Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1730/4997

William Simon
California Space Authority, Santa Maria, Calif.
805-349-2633

MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-48

NASA's Centennial Challenge to Excavate Moon Dirt Set for May 12

WASHINGTON - On Saturday, May 12, teams from around the nation will compete for a total of $250,000 from NASA for an autonomously operating system to excavate simulated "lunar regolith," or the moon's soil. The Regolith Excavation Challenge, one of NASA's seven Centennial Challenges, will take place at the Santa Maria Fairpark, Santa Maria, Calif. The competition on May 12 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. PDT is free and open to media and the public.

NASA is offering $250,000 to the team whose system can excavate and deliver as much regolith as possible in 30 minutes. Competitors' machines must use less than 30 W of power, weigh less than 40 kg and excavate more than 150 kg of the simulated moon dirt. The unique physical properties of lunar regolith make excavation a difficult technical challenge, but it is a necessary first step toward uncovering the moon's resources.

Teams from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Livermore, Calif., Berkeley, Calif., Fulks Run, Va., Rolla, Mo., Berkley, Mich., Milwaukee, and Vancouver, British Columbia, have registered to participate in the challenge.

The California Space Education and Workforce Institute, an organization of the California Space Authority, Santa Maria, is administering the challenge at no cost to NASA.

The California RoboChallenge for students in kindergarten through 12th grade also will take place at the fairpark, in coordination with the Regolith Excavation Challenge. The RoboChallenge runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. May 12 and features speakers Air Force Col. Stephen Tanous, 30th Space Wing, and Director of NASA's Ames Research Center, S. Pete Worden.

For more information about the Regolith Excavation Challenge, visit:

http://www.csewi.org/regolith

Centennial Challenges, an element of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program, promotes technical innovation through prize competitions to make revolutionary advances to support the Vision for Space Exploration and NASA goals. For more information about the Innovative Partnerships Program and Centennial Challenges, visit:

http://www.ipp.nasa.gov/cc

For more information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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Source: NASA Media Advisory M07-48 Edited May 3, 2007 by Waspie_Dwarf

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Wirefly X PRIZE Cup 2007 and the Lunar Lander Centennial Challenge

10.23.07

As rock(et) festivals go, this year's Wirefly X PRIZE Cup in New Mexico will bring together the public and the scientific and technical communities to explore how today's dreams become the realities of tomorrow in the realm of space exploration.

Image above: This 1964 photograph shows the Lunar Landing Research

Vehicle (LLRV) Number 1 in flight at the Edwards Air Force Base. When

Apollo planning was underway in 1960, NASA was looking for a simulator

to profile the descent to the moon's surface, and of the three prototypes,

the LLRV became the most important.

Image Credit: NASA.

The Wirefly X PRIZE Cup in New Mexico opens on Friday, Oct. 26, where teams will compete for a $2 million Centennial Challenges Lunar Lander prize purse. Featured will be Education Day events at Holloman Air Force Base, where astronauts Cady Coleman and Anna Fisher will meet with students and tour exhibits throughout the day.

Centennial Challenges seeks novel solutions to NASA's mission challenges from non-traditional sources in academia, industry and the public. The Challenge is designed to accelerate commercial technological developments of a new generation of lunar landers capable of ferrying astronauts and payloads between lunar orbit and the lunar surface.

For more information about the Wirefly X PRIZE CUP, visit:

_http://space.xprize.org/x-prize-cup/

For more information about NASA's Centennial Challenges program, visit:

_http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/

Source: NASA - The Vision for Space Exploration - Moon, Mars & Beyond

Edited October 24, 2007 by Waspie_Dwarf
Opps! Forgot the source link.