Will the prize be won?

We are counting ourselves out now due to a number of reasons but will stay tinkering with rocketry.
http://www.kiwi2space.co.nz/Site/news/Thoughts.aspx

Best of luck to all other teams, and if there is anything I can help with, drop me a line.



Iain

Best wishes to all participants!
Joshua

Go! Wikisat! Josh you rock dude, faith can move mountains it really can. But you have to bring the shovel! Godspeed friend.

Monroe

Iain, your welcome to join Team Prometheus we could use you. Need help with dispersion analysis! Need help finding help! lol. I truly enjoy watching your work. Keep flying Kiwi!

Monroe

Monroe,

Have you talked to the FAA about helping you with the dispersion analysis? It looks like the FAA did the dispersion analysis for the Lunar Lander X-Prize. There's a 2006 document online that was authored by two people from the FAA. Maybe they can help you with it, or at least provide you some guidance.

The other possible source of help would be from JP Aerospace. Have you talked to them?

Dave

I did talk to the AST guy's. I'd rather get it done and bring it to them. I think that's a better approach.

Monroe

T minus five months and counting. Wikisat seems to be the front runner at this point. They have made several posts on YouTube showing their progress. None of the other teams have demonstrated any progress during the past six months.

Yes, kudos to WikiSat, they seem to still be in the game. However, don't count out Team Prometheus just yet. I don't want to steal Monroe's thunder, but we are currently planning two launches with rockets fired at high altitude. The flight hardware is being assembled right now and we hope to conduct the first launch soon.

The second launch will have to be coastal and Monroe is taking care of the details of that. We also have most of the hardware necessary for that launch already.

Stew

Stew,

Monroe posted on the N-Prize forum that he won't have clearance for the orbital shot in time for the N-Prize deadline. So that effectively takes Team Prometheus out of the running unless something changes.

Wikisat is the only other team that has shown progress. However, they haven't posted any updates for about a month.

This poll asks the question "Will N-Prizes be won by 19 September 2011 with the rules functionally equivalent to what they are now, including the current cost requirements?" With only 4 months left, I can't see how anybody would vote for anything but "Neither will be won".

Dave

Dave,

You are correct about the N Prize and the timeframe, I was unclear in my post. What I meant to communicate is that Team Prometheus is still a going concern and hasn't given up the space race in the larger sense. We hope to do an actual space launch soon and don't plan on quitting there, but we do not have an orbital launch solution yet, or indeed any time soon.

I voted for "neither"....

Stew

I wonder how many teams would be in a better position to give it a go if there was a third prize for getting to space but with a much lower prize, then extending the orbital prizes by a year.

I look forward to seeing who gets to space first Wikisat or Prometheus

Guy's I'm reduced to cellphone internet out here in the stix at the moment and I dont like cellphone internet! Lol but soon we should do the rockoon launch. Got 2 of the trackers now with the special "bee sting" from Greg for ignition. Still have testing to do in the vacuum chamber and still need to work out programing on the altimiter for recovery, but we are close! Expect ground launch test next week and balloon launch within 72 hours of that test.

Dave
The Arducopter did not matter anyway! We needed that system mainly because it will be used in one form or another for guidance and stabilization of whatever system we use. It may be using different sensors and filters but the basic plan I had in mind was guidance using that platform. If we attempt an N-Prize launch it will be done with the Quadcopter. What remains to be seen is what Dr. Dear does. For the N-Prize launch the quad makes sense. For the NASA Centennial Challenge it doesn't.
We are working on a Boosted Ramjet launcher for the Centennial Challenge a model for testing is being constructed by another team member right now.
The core group we have going right now is working on this rockoon launch nothing else. Then the space shot, depending on what Paul Dear does we may continue the N-Prize attempt or switch to the NCC. Right now what we are doing is the right direction any way we choose to go. The space shot will bring us the credibility and experience we want.
Anything that defocuses us from the job at hand is considered negative and counter productive.

Monroe

Guys,
Less than 100 days for the end of the N-Prize. Still we have some hopes.
Keep on!
Joshua Tristancho

It's less than 100 days till the original deadline, but it's 456 days to the new deadline. The N-Prize has been extended for another year.