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With only four minutes to go, the scrappy little rocket team of Masten Space Systems fought through a series of problems and disappointments to qualify Friday morning for the $1 million Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X-Prize. Mechanical and electrical glitches had dogged the company’s efforts to qualify Wednesday and Thursday even though the rocket had flown flawlessly on Tuesday.

Thursday’s attempt ended with the company’s rocket in flames, but assisted by volunteers, some of whom work for competing rocket companies, the Masten team repaired and modified their rocket.

It went on to make two successful flights with sufficient accuracy to put the team in first place for the Lunar Lander competition.  That purse is worth $1 million.  Second place is worth $500,000.  Only one more team, Paul Brede’s Unreasonable Rocket, is scheduled to fly its entrant for the Level 2 purse on Saturday.

Masten Space Systems, a six-man rocket company based in Mojave, saw its rocket, XA0.1E, nicknamed “Xoie,” (pronounced Zoh-ee) make two flights to qualify for the X-Prize.  The combined purse of $2 million is provided by NASA. The primary sponsor of the contest is Northrop Grumman.

The prize is designed to spur development of the technology needed to land and take off from the moon.  The easier Level One contest, involved take off from a flat platform, climbing to an altitude of 50 meters (over 164 feet) moving sideways — in rocketry this is called “translation” — 60 meters and descend to a predetermined spot on another flat surface. The vehicle then can be refueled, and repaired if necessary, but then it must make a return trip to the pad from which it departed.

Both flights must last at least 90 seconds, and have to be performed within a time period of 2 hours and 15 minutes.  In the event of two teams qualifying, the tie is broken on the basis of landing accuracy.

The Level Two competition involves flying from a flat pad to one modified with craters and boulders to resemble a lunar landing site.   The rocket must also stay aloft for three full minutes during each flight.  Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace won the first place purse of $350,000 for the Level One competition in 2008, and was the first to qualify for the Level One competition by making two successful flights in September. It landed with an average accuracy of 89 centimeters, or 35 inches.

Greg Jones of Mojave, and Brian Bernard, of Los Angeles, are both with Orbital Expeditions and worked all night with the Masten crew.  So did Keith Stormo, a molecular biologist from Moscow, Idaho, who started the High Expectations rocket team with his adult son.  “I took a week vacation to come watch the rocket launches, but it turned out to be a working vacation,” he said with a weary smile.  “I wanted to see someone fly, even if it couldn’t be us, so it was good to be a part of the Masten team in this effort.”

By Friday morning, an exhausted team rolled Xoie out to the test site.  The rocket made its first flight with an unofficial accuracy of 28 cm, and returned with a ten cm meter accuracy.  The average was 19 cm or 7 and a half inches. The team now has to wait out the flights of Unreasonable Rocket.  But in true rocket community fashion, most of the Masten team piled into some vehicles and headed out to the secluded Cantil launch site.  If needed, they will help Unreasonable with their effort.

After the two flights were finished, company founder Dave Masten said, “I can’t say enough good about the Masten team.  They take my crazy ideas and make them work.”

“I also have to say this shows the high caliber of people in the rocket community.  People from High Expectations, Speedup, , XCOR, Orbital Expeditions and others volunteered and pitched in on the all-night effort to repair Xoie, and prepare her for flight.”

“Our next stop?  We’re going to go for higher alittude flights as we begin designing and building our suborbital launcher.”

“Contests such as this are a very cost-effective way to spur interest in aerospace engineering, developing new technology, and building the foundation of talent and experience that America needs to remain competitive in space,” Masten said.
 

The San Joaquin Air Polution Control District issued a warning today advising south valley residents, especially those with chronic health problems, to take steps to avoid dust being kicked up by high winds.

Here's the release:

Strong, gusty winds causing increases in particulate matter in the southern part of the Valley have prompted local air-pollution officials to issue a health cautionary statement through Tuesday evening.

Winds in Kings, Tulare and the Valley portion of Kern counties may produce areas of blowing dust and unhealthy concentrations of particulate matter 10 microns and smaller in size (PM10).

"Take precautions to protect your health if you are in an area of blowing dust," said Scott Nester, Planning Director for the Air District.

Exposure to particle pollution can cause serious health problems, aggravate lung disease, trigger asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, and increase risk of respiratory infections. For people with heart disease, short-term exposure to particle pollution has been linked to heart attacks and arrhythmia, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents in affected areas are advised to use caution through midnight Tuesday.  People with heart or lung diseases should follow their doctors’ advice for dealing with episodes of unhealthy air quality. Additionally, older adults and children should avoid prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged exposure, strenuous activities or heavy exertion.

For more information about the Valley Air District, call a regional office: in Fresno, 559-230-6000; in Bakersfield, 661-392-5500; and in Modesto, 209-557-6400

With three deaths and 26 new cases of H1N1 flu documented just last week, Kern County health officials said Tuesday they are addressing the flu threat with an increased level of urgency.

Unfortunately, vaccines to guard against the H1N1 swine flu are not yet available in large numbers -- and no one is sure when they will be ready.

Instead, heath officials have elected to attack the other flu -- the seasonal flu -- as a way to guard against that virus, while helping to prepare for the potential onslaught of H1N1.

The Kern County Department of Public Health, Bakersfield College and Cal State Bakersfield will join forces next week to offer free drive-thru seasonal flu vaccines to thousands of area residents.

At a press conference held Tuesday at the health department, county health officials and the presidents of the two schools said the purpose of the Oct. 30 clinic is twofold.

The first is to provide as many as 3,460 seasonal flu vaccines to area residents in a quick, convenient and efficient manner.

The second is to help prepare health and safety professionals for a potential emergency scenario that could require the mass vaccination of a large population in a short period of time.

Will you elect to get a seasonal flu vaccination?

What about the H1N1 vaccination (when they become available)?

Bill Sekeres of Bakersfield is in a bit of trouble with the U.S. Secret Service.

The 73-year-old retired executive may or may not have threatened to "take out" the president of the United States during idle dinner conversation recently at a Bakersfield restaurant.

Sekeres says he can't recall whether he also included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in his alleged threat because he isn't sure he made a threat, and if he did make a threat, well, he didn't really mean it.

"Truthfully, I can't remember if I said this or not -- that if I ever get a terminal illness, I'm going to take out Obama and Pelosi," Sekeres said. "I may have. I may not have. I don't know," he said. "If I did, it would have been in jest."

In any case, someone apparently overheard him and took him seriously enough to alert authorities. On Friday, two agents from the Secret Service office in Fresno drove to Bakersfield to have a not so idle chat with Sekeres.

"It is our job to investigate all threats against the president," said Gil Lejarde, resident agent in charge of the Fresno office. "We did speak to him. Right now we're still investigating."

Read the full story by clicking HERE.

In the meantime, the blog question remains: Should the Secret Service have investigated Sekeres' alleged threat to the commander in chief?

The small group of family and friends had no warning.

One moment they were enjoying a quiet Saturday beneath the shade of their open garage door. The next, two snarling pit bulldogs were biting and tearing at the underbelly of their 9-month-old "pound puppy" Gracie.

"They went right for her gut," said Gracie's owner, Curtis Dalton, of Bakersfield.

By the time the attack was over, Gracie had suffered multiple bite wounds to her belly and chest, amounting to hundreds of dollars in emergency veterinary care.

Mr. Dalton also received a bite that bloodied his left hand -- suffered when he tried to pull the bigger pit bull off of Gracie.

Last week, the dog that led the attack went on trial -- sort of.

At an administrative hearing held Sept. 5  in Bakersfield's City Council chambers, the larger of the two pit bulls was found to be a "vicious dog" in a ruling by administrative hearing officer Mike Yraceburn.

Dog ownership, Yraceburn said, is regulated by local government in the interest of public safety. People have a right to be safe in their own neighborhoods -- safe from uncontrolled dogs running loose.

Yraceburn ordered the dog's owner, 25-year-old Luis Robles, to construct a separate kennel enclosure in his back yard in southwest Bakersfield. He further ordered that the pit bull will only be allowed out of the back yard on a leash if the dog is under Robles' full control -- no one else's.

No other animals are allowed on these walks, Yraceburn said, to minimize the chance that the pit bull will take on a dangerous "pack mentality."

No doubt, this was serious business. But one might have cause to wonder: Do we hold dogs and their owners less responsible in unprovoked attacks than we do people?

If a man had randomly attacked the group, causing great bodily injury to another human, he would cetainly be facing significant prison time. But the offending pit bull gets to remain at home, to go on walks and to enjoy a life not so different from before the incident.

Are we tougher on human offenders than we are on canine criminals?