Armadillo Aerospace continues winning streak with lunar lander

Pixel: Armadillo's first little lander that could.

John Carmack’s brilliant little company Armadillo Aerospace has now won both level 1 and level 2 of the “Lunar Lander Challenge” a contest by the X Prize Foundation to encourage companies to develop new technology for moon landings.

Carmack, who originally made his fortune developing the computer game Doom, and continues to spend most of his time in the software industry, put together a brilliant team of engineers who, so far, have created 2 amazing little “lunar landers.”

In October 2008, Armadillo won the Level 1 contest when the tiny vehicle, Pixel, flew two successful flights. The vehicle took off vertically, moved horizontally some distance, and landed on a designated landing spot twice.

A few days ago, Armadillo did it again, albeit a more difficult challenge, covering a longer distance, and landing on a more difficult (i.e. rocky) spot. The new lander is called Scorpius.

John Carmack offers a more detailed look at the flights of Scorpius here.