Here we go....

[pauldear]

N-Prize teams around the world, we are now in the final year of the challenge!

I just wanted to say how constantly amazed I am at your commitment, imagination and hard work, and to wish all of you the very best of luck in the months ahead.

Go for it!

Paul

[Monroe]

Paul
I must say it's been a hell of a pull this far! Wow what an exciting two and a half years or so, it's been a heck of an adventure this far. I get to do N-Prize almost every day all day so it's been pretty interesting living for a while. Hahahahahahaha oh man I cant wait to sit back some day and chat about this whole ordeal, makes me smile. Looks like the competition is getting pretty serious about doing things in this last year. I hope we win but I've said it before and I'll say it again. Whoever wins we all win it's been a great contest and what all the teams have done boggles the mind. I saw the Google video and the interesting fella you chose to do it with was perfect! Good show! and I hope CU gets a rockoon going soon. They may beat us if they hurry up and fly one! It's going to be close
There's going to be a null from us while we iron out the platform but I can say if we make this work your going to love it! I'm trying to keep my mouth shut but you know how hard that is for me! lol Soon it will be flying and I wont be able to hide it anymore. I'm really hoping it works it's kinda a long shot but I believe it will work either way I've committed us to it. If it doesn't fly we might be in trouble but we have to have a stable platform so we are taking our best shot at it. Some of the Phd's on the team quit because they think im nuts to try it. But the team that is left seems to believe in me and I really hope I don't let them down. It will be difficult and it's risky and it's rather expensive compared to some of my other plans.
What's really strange is there has been a lot of outside people helping since they quit and somehow the money's been there so far, I cant explain that so I wont try. So thoes that will, cross your fingers cause here we go on another adventure.

Godspeed everyone

Monroe

[Monroe]

Get off you duff and at least start posting somewhere about this contest! You guy's are not helping youself's or anyone else by being so effin quite! Start a website! Post on a blog do something! FLY A ROCKET! even a little one! Send a balloon up for pete's sake do something! Make some drawings! Come on you guy's help out a little! I'm struggling my arse off and I'm not hearing #^%$ HELP!

Monroe

Come on guy's make some noise will ya?

[rick m]

Looks like we have 5 months (September 19) to try to do this. We will be testing one or two of our new motors this Saturday (April 23). When will be the last day to get our team registration in?

[pauldear]

Hi Rick,

You can register at any time, right up to the wire!

Good luck with the tests on Saturday - let us know how it goes.

Best wishes,
Paul

[DaveHein]

We haven't gotten very many updates from the teams. It seems that Wikisat and Prometheus are the only teams reporting any progress. Wikisat has posted some interesting videos on YouTube. Prometheus posted a motor test video a few months ago, but we haven't heard from Monroe for a while.

It seems like any team that has a chance to win the prize should have hit a few milestones by now, such as achieving a 100k-foot altitude and a suborbital space shot. Armadillo Aerospace has a new rocket called Stig that they plan to reach 100k-feet with. However, they weren't able to launch it during their first attempt, and now they are waiting to get approval for another launch attempt.

The Sugar-Shot to Space that Rick is involved with is planning on doing a launch soon. I don't recall if this rocket is designed for 100k-feet or not. Their suborbital space rocket is still a ways off. It just shows how difficult it is to even achieve 100k feet.

Dave

[Monroe]

It's not over yet fellas and Team Prometheus is working better than it ever has. Me not posting should be telling you something.

Monroe

[pauldear]

I get it. Post less....launch more....

But do let me know when things are getting close, especially for a prize attempt - I'll be there!

As for the other teams, my experience throughout this has been that silence can mean either that nothing's happening, or that everything is happening. There are a few dark horses here who are further ahead than reports might indicate...

[DaveHein]

[Monroe]

Yep, I turned it on for a test before we sent it to Greg. It pinged the repeater but no data. We have a launch scheduled this month but it looks like the wind is going to delay it. Not too worried about that though these are just teas we are building the bigger rockets now.

Monroe

We got new funding too!