CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
19 January 2011
Company News
Siemens PLM Software Partners with World-Class Team Competing for $30 MILLION Google Lunar X Prize
Siemens PLM Software announced it has become a supplier of computer-aided design and engineering analysis (CAD/CAE) software to the Rocket City Space Pioneers (RCSP), a team of Huntsville businesses, academic institutions and non-profit organizations competing for the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to Earth. The RCSP team will use Solid Edge® software and Femap™ software with NX™ NASTRAN® software in the design and analysis process. Team leader of RCSP is Tim Pickens, who was also the lead propulsion engineer for the SpaceShipOne team which won the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private suborbital space flight in October 2004. Pickens is chief propulsion engineer and commercial space advisor for Dynetics.
Siemens PLM Software will partner with the RCSP on the “Engineering Meets Education” program. Through this outreach initiative, the RCSP partners are helping develop the engineering leaders of tomorrow. One of the RCSP partners, the Huntsville Center for Technology (HCT), is a key player in this initiative which will allow the partnership to engage high school students with engineers and scientists to assist in designing, building and flying aerospace hardware.
“We are honored to have the opportunity to become the first privately funded team in history to reach and explore the surface of the moon,” said Pickens. “I know from my experience on important projects such as Dynetics’ design and development of the forward thruster system for Bigelow Aerospace’s Sundancer, that quality, precision and efficiency are critical to the design and development process; so we are delighted to have access to state-of-the-art product development software like Solid Edge and Femap with NX NASTRAN, and to the industry leading training and support of a world leader like Siemens PLM Software. And as a former student at the Huntsville Center for Technology, I am very excited that Siemens PLM Software is a partner on this education initiative.”
The HCT is the technical training center for Huntsville City schools, serving students from all seven area high schools in 14 skilled training areas. Last summer, CAD students from HCT won first place in a national design contest using Solid Edge software as their exclusive 3D design tool, and the school took third place at the national competition with a chapter display depicting an ARES rocket floor system. The school’s moonbuggy racing team has won numerous honors, including three first-, two second- and two third-place wins within the past five years. In May, the school received the NASA Educational Partnership Award.
“The Huntsville Center for Technology is always striving to provide our students with new and exciting challenges that will prepare them to become tomorrow’s technology leaders,” said Joy Dukemineer, school counselor for the Huntsville Center for Technology. “By partnering with RCSP and providing access to state-of-the-art CAD tools like Solid Edge, the Engineering Meets Education initiative will provide our students with a once in a lifetime experience that is ‘out of this world’.”
In addition to the team leader Dynetics and the Huntsville Center for Technology, the RCSP team consists of Teledyne Brown Engineering, Andrews Space, Spaceflight Services, Draper Laboratory, the University of Alabama Huntsville and the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation. RCSP joins more than 20 other teams who have registered to compete before the deadline which was December 31, 2010. Each competing team must be at least 90 percent privately funded.
RCSP will use Solid Edge for 3D CAD related development and 2D drafting, and will employ Femap with NX NASTRAN for finite element modeling coupled with digital product simulation and analysis. These product development tools, which are part of the Siemens PLM Software Velocity Series™ portfolio of mainstream PLM solutions, will help the team ensure their designs are not only created accurately and efficiently, but also that their performance meets or exceeds the design specifications.
“It is with great pride that we begin our relationship with the remarkably experienced partners that make up the Rocket City Space Pioneers,” said Bill McClure, vice president of product development for Velocity Series, Siemens PLM Software. “Our software solutions are used throughout the global manufacturing industry to help produce some of the world’s most sophisticated products, but this project is in a class by itself. It will serve as a unique example of how bright minds using advanced software tools can produce innovative new solutions that can change the world.”
To learn more about RCSP’s use of Solid Edge and Femap with NX NASTRAN and their journey to the moon, go to their website: http://www.rocketcityspacepioneers.com or follow them on Twitter @RCSpacePioneers. Follow Siemens PLM on our blog or on Twitter: @SiemensPLM.
About the Google Lunar X PRIZE
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90 percent privately funded and must have registered to compete by December 31, 2010. The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million; the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million. The second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $5 million will be awarded in bonus prizes. The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2014.
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