Space

A rival team is crying foul after a competitor's mock lunar lander was allowed to make an extra flight, putting it in first place for a $1 million prize. But a spokesman for the X Prize Foundation, which organised the competition, said no rules were broken.

The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is intended to promote innovative ideas for a new generation of vehicles that could land humans on the moon.

It is divided into two levels. For the lesser $350,000 level 1 prize, a rocket must rise 50 metres from its launch pad, move 100 metres horizontally and land on a concrete pad, staying in the air for a total of at least 90 seconds. It must then repeat the feat, returning to its starting point within 2.5 hours. Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace won that prize in October 2008.

To qualify for the $1 million level 2 prize, a rocket must make a similar flight, but this time it must stay aloft for 180 seconds and land on a bumpy surface that simulates that of the moon.

Armadillo became the first team to qualify for the prize in September.

But on Friday, Masten Space Systems of Mojave, California, was poised to wrest the prize from Armadillo, after making qualifying flights that outperformed its rival in landing accuracy.

While Armadillo's vehicle landed on average 90 centimetres from its target in the second-level tests, Masten's two Friday flights appeared to be only about 25 centimetres away, according to William Pomerantz of the X Prize Foundation. Judges have yet to release official numbers for the Masten flights.

Third day

Masten was originally offered just two days – Wednesday and Thursday – to attempt the competition flights. They were unable to start the vehicle's engine on Wednesday, and were able to make only one of the necessary two legs of the flight on Thursday, hampered by a fuel leak that caused the rocket to catch fire as it landed (see a video of the flight here).

Lunar Lander Challenge judges then decided to allow Masten another opportunity to fly on Friday beyond the two they had originally scheduled, prompting a protest from Armadillo president John Carmack. Similar extensions have not been afforded teams in past years.

"The rules have given the judges the discretion to do just about anything up to and including awarding prize money for best effort if they felt it necessary, so there may not be any grounds to challenge this, but I do feel that we have been robbed," Carmack wrote in an email sent Friday to the X Prize Foundation.

Judgement call

He added that it would not be possible for Armadillo to make an impromptu attempt to best Masten on accuracy because their vehicle's flight permit from the Federal Aviation Administration was only valid for a few days in September.

But Pomerantz of the X Prize Foundation said the judges made a fair call. "There is a clear exception in the rules for the judges to make determinations about offering additional time periods," he told New Scientist. "In my opinion, it was not bending or breaking the rules." (See additional explanation of the rules here (pdf.)

Another team, Unreasonable Rocket, will also attempt both levels of the challenge.

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