(Armadillo's Pixel rocket demonstrating hover. Courtesy: Armadillo Aerospace)With all the political attention that Spaceport America has received following the resignation of the executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Rick Homans, I felt it was necessary to shed some light on one of the lesser known companies that plans on using the facility when it becomes operational this year, Armadillo Aerospace.
Armadillo is headed by a rich geek with a dream (much like other private space companies that are popping up) named John Carmack, who developed notable video games like Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake. Using his money and his enthusiasm for rocketry, Cormack founded Armadillo Aerospace as sort of an ultra science fair winning powerhouse. Using low cost, rapid build rockets, his group of engineers and enthusiasts have done well in several X-Prize competitions as well as the NASA Lunar Lander Competition. With these successes, Armadillo has set it's sights on suborbital space tourism and eventually orbital space travel.
What makes this company exciting is their ability to think outside the box when it comes to developing unique rockets. They have experimented with a variety of cheap fuels that dramatically lower the cost of lift off, and have demonstrated vertical ascent and descent. This fall, they will launch their Super-Mod vehicle to an altitude of nine miles, and bring it back vertically. This winter, they will aim for a 25 mile ascent.
It can be agreed on that the one major factor that is limiting space exploration is the high cost of breaking from from Low Earth Orbit. With this relatively low cost system, it will be interesting to see how this company helps pave the road for the next Renaissance into space.
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