I talked briefly with John Carmack of Armadillo Aerospace late this afternoon to find out what happened with their failed bid to win Level 1 of the Lunar Lander Challenge. He said that while they had a fine flight on the first leg of their bid, they found the injector clogged again during preparations for the return flight. They tried to clean it out in the field, but when they finally ignited the engine they had a hard start. Carmack said he initially feared that the hard start destroyed the engine, but it continued to fly, so he decided to get the vehicle over to the other pad as fast as possible and hover, hoping the engine would last 90 seconds. It turns out the engine finally failed at the 82-second mark, causing the vehicle to crash-land but not causing any major damage. Dust did not play a factor in the failure, he said; they’re able to fly by instruments very accurately.
Carmack said they will have to replace the engine chamber and a gimbal actuator, but that can be done easily using the spare parts on the other Mod vehicle. They’re also trying to get to the root of the injector problem, which may be caused by fuel contamination. Among the solutions they’re considering is using a filter provided by another LLC team, Unreasonable Rocket. Carmack remains confident that they can win at least Level 1, with a 70% chance of success tomorrow. If they succeed in the morning window, they’ll try for Level 2 in the afternoon; he estimates that they have “only” a 30-40% chance of winning Level 2 if they try Sunday afternoon.
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