Broadcast 1002 (Special Edition)

Guests: Will Pomerantz, Todd Squires, Scott Zeeb, and Neil Milburn were the guests for this show which focused on the 2008 NASA Centennial Challenge Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge with $2 million in prize money to be won. We started the discussion with Will telling us about the Challenge, the rules, how the prize money is divided up, and how members of the public can follow this year's program as Holloman AFB will not be open to the general public. We then talked with Todd and Scott concerning their entry from TrueZer0 (see www.truezer0.com/ for details, pictures, and more information). Todd and Scott explained their vehicle, its engine, fuel, tests, the AST process, and much more. You will definitely hear their excitement about their vehicle and being involved in this year's contest, don't miss it. Our next guest, Neil Milburn of Armadillo Aerospace, brought us current as to their difficulties in last year's Challenge and what they did differently this year to make the strongest possible showing to win. We also talked about the Holloman AFB emergency and safety crews and rules, driving rocket parts and fuel across state lines, the AST process for a continuation of an existing vehicle, altitude differences between Burns Flat in Oklahoma and New Mexico and much more. We talked about volunteering and internships with Armadillo as well as how the team self-motivates to stay up and devoted to the program even after their setbacks the last few years. Neil also talked about future plans for the company, new projects and new customers. As you will hear, the Armadillo team is energized and ready go, extremely devoted to winning this year's Lunar Lander Challenge. At the end of the show, Neil talked about future arrangements with the New Mexico spaceport which may include several hundred flights in a year or over a short term and he told us to look for this announcement soon. This year's Challenge stands to be a good one with ten entries and hopefully, a winner. As soon as the X-PRIZE Organization tells me how we can view and follow the Challenge, I will announce it on air. For more information about the X PRIZE, please visit http://space.xprize.org/ and http://space.xprize.org/ng-lunar-lander-challenge.