Quad Credit - Armadillo

Prototype lunar lander developed by Armadillo Aerospace with private funds. Quad was the only entry in the 2006 competition for the X-Prize Cup Lunar Lander challenge. Two VTOVL vehicles, Pixel and Texel, made three unsuccessful landing attempts.

The vehicle used four cold gas thrusters for attitude control. The main XPC-06 engine was pressure fed, and fitted with a 2:1 ratio nozzle for sea level operation (the specific impulse shown here was for operation with that nozzle; vacuum performance would be significantly higher). The uncooled thrust chamber was of carbon fiber reinforced graphite, built by Cesaroni Aerospace, and could handle burn times of over 180 seconds. The vehicle was autonomously controlled by a software program using GPS and fiber optic gyroscopes for position and attitude inputs.

Quad demonstrated technology that was to lead to a single-crew suborbital VTOVL prototype for the full-scale Black Armadillo.

Length: 1.90 m (6.20 ft). Basic Diameter: 1.90 m (6.20 ft). Mass: 680 kg (1,490 lb). Main Engine Thrust: 13.400 kN (3,012 lbf). Main Engine Propellants: Lox/Alcohol. Main Engine Propellants: 390 kg (850 lb). Main Engine Isp: 200 sec. Spacecraft delta v: 1,600 m/s (5,200 ft/sec).