Rocketeers take lead in $1 million race

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OCTOBER 31, 2009 5:06AM

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Masten Space Systems' Xoie rocket prototype has apparently taken the lead in a nail-biting race for a million-dollar prize from NASA. The Masten team's "try, try again" effort at California's Mojave Air and Space Port was aimed at winning the top prize in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge's Level 2 contest. Although the official results are still pending, it looks as if today's flight was good enough to best Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace, which qualified for the prize with its Scorpius rocket last month. A dark-horse team in the race, California-based Unreasonable Rocket, still has a chance to snare the prize, either later today or on Saturday. In any case, Xoie's performance appears to ensure that all the prizes in the three-year-old, $2 million Lunar Lander Challenge program will be given away. This morning's successful outing by the remote-controlled Xoie produced the latest twists and turns in a roller-coaster ride for the Masten team, as well as for onlookers in Mojave and on the Web. "The drama has just been unbelieveable," Stuart Witt, general manager of the Mojave Air and Space Port, told me. Communication glitches ruled out two launch attempts on Wednesday, and a fire that broke out on the launch vehicle spoiled Xoie's maiden flight on Thursday. The blaze was quickly put out, but not quickly enough to avoid doing damage to Xoie. That damage meant Xoie couldn't get all the way through the required course. The rules for the Lunar Lander Challenge require rocketeers to guide their remote-controlled craft through a complete round trip between one launch pad and a different boulder-strewn pad more than 50 meters (164 feet) away. Each leg of the flight has to last at least 180 seconds, and the rocket has to rise at least 50 meters above the ground. All this has to be done - and the rocket has to be returned to its starting position - before time runs out on a 135-minute period. Doug Graham, a spokesman for Masten Space Systems, said manufacturing flaws in the rocket's composite fuel tank allowed alcohol to seep out and ignite during Thursday's fiery landing. The Lunar Lander Challenge judges said they would let the Masten team make repairs to the tank overnight and give them one more chance to fly. The team worked all night to get Xoie back in shape. Today's nail-biter After some technical delays, Xoie took off this morning and touched down successfully on the boulder-strewn pad. Then the Masten team prepped the rocket for its return flight. A stuck valve required some last-minute fiddling, and the rocket took off again to complete the course. However, there were only six minutes left in the 135-minute window to finish all the close-down tasks. One last snag left the outcome in doubt: The truck being used to transport Xoie got stuck in the Mojave sand for a few seconds, but broke free. Masten team members scrambled to get the rocket back in position. In the end, there were about two minutes to spare. If Xoie's success is confirmed, the Masten team would apparently qualify for either the $1 million first prize or the $500,000 second prize. How do judges decide among multiple qualifiers? It comes down to how close the rockets land to the pads' center targets. Scorpius' average landing accuracy was about 35 inches (89 centimeters). The accuracy for Xoie's first flight was around 11 inches (28 centimeters). Based on unofficial measurements, it appears as if Xoie did well enough on the second flight to take the top spot away from Armadillo's Scorpius.

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