Will the prize be won?

FAA approval pending. Still asking for March 10th. Busy

Monroe

It's good to be busy. If you're still shooting for a March space shot you must have run quite a few tests in preparation. Can you share any information on how your tests went?

Good luck with the cutting the red tape.

Ha, just noticed that someone deleted my post about FAA deadlines. Interesting.

With some 4 months till the new deadline expires, I'm expecting one of the following:

A. Another extention of the deadline.

B. Cancellation of the Prize.

Can anyone add realistic addtional options?

Hi everyone.

First, sorry for my long silences - real life keeps biting me in the backside.

One team have told me that they are aiming for a launch attempt on July 29th of this year. I am waiting for a reply from them to tell me if they're happy for me to release this information: that's why I am not yet naming the team or giving any more details. I also have to check a number of details regarding their attempt and their tracking proposal.

However, I do appreciate that teams who are unlikely to make the 2012 deadline need some indication of what will happen thereafter, if either or both of the prizes remain unclaimed.

So, I have decided that, in the event that one or both prizes have not been won by the current deadline, I will extend the deadline for one further, final calendar year. During this final year, the N-Prize will be closed to new entrants, but entries from teams which have registered before the 2012 deadline will remain eligible. There will be no further extensions - i.e. the extension into 2013 will be the last.

I would dearly love to be £9,999.99 poorer (or, better yet, £19999.98) in 2012!

Great to hear from you Paul!

Exciting stuff

It seems that any team attempting an orbital launch in 3 months would have already won the Carmack prize and done a sub-orbital launch into space by this time. Has anybody won the Carmack prize yet? I know that a few people have gotten higher than 100k feet, but I recall there were problems with the flights that DQ'd them.

I think one N-Prize team has gone over 100k feet with their balloon (during tests - it will be used as the launch platform for their N-Prize entry), and got GPS data to boot...

WikiSat and Team Prometheus have launched weather balloons to over 100k feet, but they are not ready for an orbital launch. There's been no evidence that they could even win the Carmack prize, which is probably 2 orders of magnitude easier than the N-Prize.

All of the other N-Prize teams haven't really done anything except for presenting a vague plan.

Question Paul, would optical proof of nine orbits be allowed?

Hi Rick,

Any form of proof is acceptable, as long as it's agreed in advance.

Best,
Paul

Is there a repository of the information of the physics and engineering required for such a feat?

I would like to see things like what is the minimum launch mass to reach orbit with using current technologies.

I mean lets say we only have a tank of propellant, an engine and just an aerodynamical shell. What is the minimum mass of such a rocket to reach orbit from the ground.

And then how does launching from a balloon help with putting it up above the dense parts of the atmosphere?

Anyplace where these calculations can be viewed by anyone?

I tried wikipedia and it didn't have much there. Hoping somebody here already knows and could cut my search time by significant amounts.

Well, air resistance penalizes small rockets disproportionally (which is one reason I didn't put a lower limit on launch mass). That means that rockoons make much more sense for smaller rockets than for larger ones.

I am just curious about the dimensions of a rocket that could do this on paper. As in just the calculations to see if it's feasable to begin with.

Size, mass ratio etc.

I might need to more of the research myself, i was hoping somebody in the forum already knows where to get this information.