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$10 Million X Prize Competition Expected to Jumpstart the Space Tourism Industry
By John C Ennis (Published 3/04)
"The X PRIZE is a masterstroke, a brilliant idea. What the X PRIZE could very well do is to jump-start a part of space exploration that is based on the active participation of regular Americans."
Tom Hanks, Actor, Director & Producer
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"If we are to become a truly space-faring nation in the next century, we need to look at ways to stimulate greater private sector interest in space travel... The X PRIZE's approach of providing an award to stimulate this interest is both creative and innovative."
John Glenn, former Astronaut & Senator
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"I think the X PRIZE should be viewed as the beginning of one giant leap, and that giant leap will involve the participation of citizens in the exciting venture outward into space."
Dr. Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 Astronaut
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In 1927, with the entire world watching, Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly non-stop between New York and Paris.
Not only did Lindbergh instantly become the most famous person on Earth, but he and his Spirit of St. Louis organization claimed the coveted Orteig Prize after nine different teams had previously failed to complete a similar flight. Offered by hotel magnate Raymond Orteig, the $25,000 Orteig Price was just one of hundreds of aviation prizes offered between 1905 and 1935 which stimulated the advancement of aircraft technology and proved to be a critical force in launching the golden age of aviation, which directly triggered the multi-billion dollar commercial aviation industry of today.
Roughly 77 years later, no less than two-dozen teams from seven countries are competing for a trophy inspired by the Orteig Prize. Only this trophy, called the X Prize, comes with a $10,000,000 bounty and is expected to usher in the golden age of spaceflight.
"Less than 450 astronauts and only a handful of piloted space vehicles have flown during the past 42 years," explains Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and Founder of the X PRIZE. "It is our intention that the X PRIZE usher in a Golden Age of spaceflight creating thousands of private astronauts flying aboard dozens of privately owned and operated spaceships."
Founded in 1996 by Diamandis to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between the most talented entrepreneurs and rocket experts in the world, the X Prize will be won by the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a spaceship carrying three people to 100 km (62 miles and the height recognized by the US as being worthy of astronaut status) and returns them safely to earth only to repeat the launch and mission with the same ship within two weeks.
The contest is endorsed and supported by a number of organizations including the National Space Society, U.S. Space Foundation, National Space Society and the Clear Lake-based Association of Space Explorers.
Some of the competing teams are on shoe-string budgets and organized by individual amateurs while other teams employ stables of well-known rocket scientists and aerospace experts who previously worked for the best national space programs. With names like the Gauchito, the Lucky Seven, the Spirit of Liberty and the Green Arrow, the spaceships use conventional runways, rocket launch pads, airplane tows, sea-based sites, parachutes and parafoils for take off or landing. For propulsion they rely on everything from liquid oxygen to natural gas to kerosene engines to turbo fans.
The multimillion dollar purse has resulted in a resumption, of sorts, of the space race between Russia and the United States as a number of well-known Russian aerospace engineers are competing in the contest against mostly American competitors although Great Britain, Canada, Argentina, Israel and Romania are also represented.
Although not all are registered as X Prize competitors, one noticeable trend in the private space industry is the number of wealthy tech titans who are financing their space dreams with their personal fortunes. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos now runs a mysterious Seattle-based space-research company called Blue Origin. PayPal founder Elon Musk is the CEO of the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Former high-tech entrepreneur Jim Benson is CEO of SpaceDev which developed a hybrid motors for the Scaled Composites team, and videogame godfather John Carmack, creator of Doom and Quake, is the founder of Texas-based X Prize competitor Armadillo Aerospace.
The X PRIZE is expected to be won by the end of this year as a number of teams report to be making significant progress. Just within the last couple of months, Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites flew its tenth test flight of SpaceShipOne, Starchaser Industries unveiled its new Thunderstar X PRIZE Competition vehicle design, the Canadian Arrow team successfully tested their full-scale 57,000-lb. engine, the Israeli team ILAT added one of their country's top scientists Professor Claude Oiknine to the team and Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace reported making significant advances in engine technology resulting in successfully testing a new propellant and engine design.
But less is known about the progress for other teams registered for the competition and there still remains the possibility that some teams are secretly developing their spacecraft and launch technology, waiting until the last minute to register for the competition and make an attempt at history.
Meet X- PRIZE team: Armadillo Aerospace
Armadillo Aerospace founder John Carmack is no rocket scientist. He is a computer programmer, owner of id Software and best known for bringing gamers "Doom," "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" and "Quake." Although it started as a side project, Armadillo Aerospace has become Carmack's primary focus as his team – including mascot and armadillo Widget – pursues the X PRIZE.
Armadillo's vehicle, the Black Armadillo, has evolved into a powered landing "vertical takeoff/vertical landing" ship and features a hybrid design incorporating features of the DC-X and the British Black Knight vehicles. The team invented a new propulsion system because the original system required a 90% rocket grade hydrogen peroxide which was only manufactured by one company in the United States that was hesitant to supply it to anyone except the federal government because of concerns over litigation. The new system uses a bi-modal, monopropellant fuel that is more potent, one tenth the cost and more readily available than the original fuel. Engine testing is ongoing and the full scale 12" engine is in fabrication.
Immediately after completion of the engine test program, Armadillo will be testing a full scale boilerplate X PRIZE vehicle with a captive hover test at their 100-acre test facility, followed by some low altitude hover tests to 3,000 ft. With these tests completed, it's their intent to do some additional low altitude launches. The next phase of successively higher altitude tests and ultimately manned X PRIZE flights will be dependent on what the team calls its biggest challenge: the launch license application and accompanying environmental review. Technically, Armadillo claims they will be ready to fly X PRIZE missions well before the end of the year, but Team members are fond of referring to the Wernher von Braun quote: "We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming."
Meet X- PRIZE team: Scaled Composites
Founded in 1982 by aviation maverick Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites is considered by many as the favorite to win the X PRIZE. Rutan is best known for previously performing an aviation first when his Voyager aircraft flew around the world nonstop without being refueled.
Scaled Composites recently made news again late last year with the first manned supersonic flight by an aircraft (SpaceShipOne) developed by a small company's private, non-government effort.
The Scaled Composites' plan for getting into space is a two-step process that begins with the spindly, jet-powered White Knight carrier airplane, which releases the egg-shaped, stubby-winged SpaceShipOne rocket plane at 50,000 feet. The spacecraft's novel hybrid rocket--burning rubber-based fuel and nitrous oxide--launches it to a height of more than 60 miles, not into orbit but far above the atmosphere and into the realm of zero gravity.
As SpaceShipOne coasts over the top of its arc, its wing/tail rotates up before the craft falls back into the atmosphere. This configuration slows its descent and reduces aerodynamic load and entry heating. At around 80,000 feet, it starts to fly like an airplane again, and returns to land on a normal runway.
Although the White Knight and SpaceShipOne were only unveiled in April of last year, progress has been fast with 11 flights of White Knight and SpaceShipOne including the history-making supersonic flight in December when a speed of near 1.2 Mach (930 mph) and altitude of 68,000 feet was reached.
It is expected that the next six to nine months will involve a number of rocket powered flights of SpaceShipOne, with each flight involving a longer and longer burn of the hybrid engine. Sometime in 2004 SpaceShipOne is expected to demonstrate a full 60+ second burn time rocketing from 50,000 feet to an altitude of 328,000 feet to win the X PRIZE competition.
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