Thrills and spills at the X-Prize Cup
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6087088.stm
Thrills and spills at the X-Prize Cup
By Martin Redfern
BBC Radio science unit
Is it an air show or a circus? A commercial trade fair
or simple entertainment?
The X-Prize Cup held on a desert airfield at Las
Cruces in New Mexico last weekend was all of these.
Now in its second year, it is the premier event for
space enthusiasts, attracting tens of thousands of
visitors of all ages and a chance for very rich boys
to show off some very big toys.
Two years ago, above the Californian desert, SpaceShip
One became the first privately funded, reusable craft
to fly people into space, winning the $10 million
Ansari X-Prize.
Richard Branson ordered a small fleet of SpaceShip Two
vehicles for Virgin Galactic, to give thrill-seeking
tourists the ride of their lives into space for an
opening fare of $200,000.
But that was not the end of the story. Many of the
other teams that entered are still working on their
own route to space and the X-Prize Foundation realised
that, for comparatively little sponsorship
prize-money, they could stimulate a whole new industry
in personal space flight. The X-Prize Cup was born.
Space-age show
The X-Prize Cup is unlike any race meeting you've ever
attended. There are commercial stands and displays but
it is not like any trade show.
There are exhibits of rocket technology, past present
and future, but it is certainly not like a museum. And
there are real rocket launches, but unlike the
formality of a Nasa launch, with thousands of kids
joining in for the count down.
"I have a belief that we have to make space a personal
experience," says Peter Diamandis, founder and
chairman of the X-Prize Foundation.
"For too long it's just been something you've seen on
TV. You may have heard about someone who knows an
astronaut. Kids have to believe that it is something
they can do, something they can aspire to and dream
about, just as we did when we were kids."
And nothing stimulates the dreams more than a race for
big prize-money. The Lunar Lander Challenge, sponsored
by Northrop Grumman has a potential prize from Nasa of
$350,000.
The challenge is for a craft with at least 25 kg of
payload to take off vertically, hover for 90 seconds,
travel a hundred metres horizontally and land
precisely on a small concrete pad, then refuel and
make the return journey.
There was only one entry this year, from team
Armadillo, under videogames inventor John Carmack. But
it was still a nail biting race to see if it could
complete the course in the time limit or at all.
liquid fuel
The vehicle, called Pixel, is essentially four big
spherical fuel tanks - two of alcohol and two of
liquid oxygen - with a single rocket engine in the
middle and a box of electronics on top. Visitors got a
chance to see it up close before it was taken a safe
distance into the desert for the count down.
I think all of that shows that the face of the space
industry is changing. It's not just government's
flying to space
Anousheh Ansari, sponsor and private space explorer
Controlling it must be a bit like trying to ride a
unicycle. But, with his videogames experience, John
Carmack was the best person to work the remote
control. On the first flight, the rocket jet kicked up
so much dust that he couldn't see what he was doing.
Next time, he had a downward pointing camera on the
craft. But one leg missed the landing pad and Pixel
tipped over at 45 degrees.
"The actual flight went perfectly" said Carmack. "This
was the first time we'd gone to 50m altitude. When I
got to 50m I did a little bit of positioning to see if
the camera was over the pad and the trouble was I set
it down where I thought the pad was supposed to be and
it was 10ft off to one side."
On the next attempt, the outward flight worked
perfectly, but a weight had fallen off and, after
refuelling the craft was unbalanced and crashed on
takeoff.
But the Armadillo team say they will be back next year
after putting in a bit more practice. Then, they hope
to go on to the second phase of the challenge, landing
on a rocky terrain that simulates the lunar surface.
And perhaps they will have other teams to compete
against.
And it's not just about winning, says John Carmack.
"There is a lot to be said for the inspiration factor
here. We do look like this sort of garage operation
and people have called us the cowboy space people and
stuff like that.
"But I think the biggest benefit of what we do is to
do it from the point of view where people can say 'I
could probably put this together. I can turn a wrench,
I could learn how to weld'. That brings it into the
realm of the sort of thing where people can go ahead
and do it."
Space 'elevator'
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Las Cruces
airfield, the Space Elevator Challenge was under way.
The idea of the space elevator was immortalised in
science fiction by Arthur C Clarke.
In principle, because a satellite 36,000km above the
equator orbits at the same rate as the Earth turns, if
you had a strong enough material, you could lower a
tether all the way to the ground and use it to climb
into space with much less energy then you need for a
rocket.
Such a tether is still a long way off, but with ultra
strong carbon nano fibres, it is theoretically
possible. For the X-Prize cup this year, 50m of nylon
conveyor belt was suspended from a giant crane and
robot crawlers had to reach the top against the clock.
The snag was they could carry no fuel.
The answer, according to Mathew Marcuchi of the
University of Michigan team, is to ride a beam of
light. "We have a set of large searchlights down at
the bottom underneath the solar arrays.
We going to be shooting up as much light as we can. We
have to climb about 50m high, average about a metre of
second and carry as much payload as possible."
A father and son team from Kansas used a huge bank of
mirrors on the ground to concentrate sunlight on their
craft, risking frying their expensive solar cells.
Other teams planned to use lasers or microwave beams,
but could not sort out safety issues in time. But four
crawlers got to the top of the tether, though none
within the time limit to win the prize. Two of the
successful teams were from high schools, with members
aged 17 or 18, one team from California and one from
Germany.
Higher and faster
Next year, the word is that the tether will be twice
as high and the crawlers will have to go twice as
fast.
Also next year there should be rocket races with real
rockets. This year, the technology was demonstrated by
a Learjet flying a horizontal course. Next year, says
Peter Diamandis, the course will be vertical and the
rockets spectacular.
"We wanted to create a real visceral experience" he
told the BBC. "We're building a new generation of
rocket powered aeroplanes. We put a 1500-pound liquid
oxygen and kerosene engine in the back that produces a
12ft-long flame.
"And 10 of them will be racing in this
three-dimensional racetrack. The pilot will see this
head-up display of rings and you on the ground will
see superimposed on the giant screens augmented
reality, the Raceway painted in the sky. It's Formula
1 racing in the sky, the Rocket Race League."
But the real challenge is to go all the way to space
and several teams were at the X-Prize Cup displaying
their plans and their technology to do just that.
Anousheh Ansari, who sponsored the original X-Prize,
has just become the first female private space
explorer with a 10-day trip by Soyuz rocket to the
International Space Station (ISS). In spite of a post
flight party in Moscow the night before, she flew in
to the X-Prize Cup for an exhaustive series of
celebrity appearances.
"Today, when I walked around here, seeing all these
children running around with all these pictures and
bags in their hands, all excited, it was really worth
the long trip that I had" she told our reporter. "I'd
like to see more and more prizes.
"We'll have the rocket racing next year. And I think
all of that shows that the face of the space industry
is changing. It's not just government's flying to
space, there are a lot more people doing work in this
area and it's very encouraging to see that."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6087088.stm
Published: 2006/10/26 11:17:10 GMT
© BBC MMVI
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