The Armadillo Aerospace team gave the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge a crack… and, unfortunately, failed. They used a new rocket called Pixel:
Pixel is comprised of four spherical fuel and oxidiser tanks that are each about 1 metre in diameter, while the entire rocket is a squat 2 metres tall. It cost a total of about $50,000, with about $40,000 going just for the computer.
HARK — CAN YOU hear it? Borne on the wind, can you hear the sounds of construction — of hammers hammering and woodsaws sawing? And do you detect a note of panic? I do. The good ship Neocon is going down. She has struck the Iraqi rocks, the engine room is awash, and on the deck in anxious pursuit of something to float them away is a curious assembly.
This morning there was a hiccup with the database server that is behind my blog. I needed to submit a support call to the Dreamhost team. As part of describing the problem they ask you for a description of the importance of the problem and a rating of your skills:
I like the idea of getting people to chuckle when they are submitting a problem.
