Would be rocket scientists will be in attendance at the X Prize Cup, which runs today through Sunday at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. "Organizers expect more than 60,000 attendees, up from last year's 25,000. The Lunar Lander competition will be the center of attention, but the show will also include robotics displays, hands-on spacecraft exhibits and fly-bys courtesy of the U.S. Air Force." according to Wired. The big attraction will be the $2 million lunar lander challenge with $1 million going to "the craft that can hover for 180 seconds and land on a pad that simulates the moon's surface, with craters and boulders." The odds on favorite is video game maker John Carmack (creator of Doom and Quake), and his team at Armadillo Aerospace who according to Wired "holds the record for the longest-hovering vehicle, beating the Japanese space agency and NASA,". Check out this video from Armadillo.
