Lander Challenge General Details
- Brahm Soltes
Challenge Structure
The Collegiate Propulsive Lander Challenge is a collection of 5 key milestone awards ($15k - $50k+) designed to drive elite collegiate rocketry teams to execute on self-landing rockets. Each milestone can be won by 3 teams, meaning a total of 15 awards will be distributed. The challenge is not an annual in-person event - teams will pursue the challenge and judges will be flown to attempts or they will be judged remotely.
To participate, teams submit an application, do an interview, and then are issued a legal agreement.
Judging and Logistics
Teams will handle their own launch logistics - it’s important to understand that teams participating in this challenge are experienced in navigating the relevant regulatory requirements, and forcing a specific launch location and date would heavily constrain them.
The judging team will travel to attempts or judge remotely where appropriate. Open-door policy and transparency will be championed with the intent of the rules being enforced. Teams will be in constant communication with each other and the judging team.
Safety & Compliance
The CPLC has a fantastic judging & safety council composed of Mark Holthaus, Adam Trumpour, Madison Telles and Rick Wills. Teams will have to go thru an application process to pursue the challenge. Per the below, this is not an endorsement or an assumption of any responsibility over any team’s activities. In addition, we provide a Safety Guide (linked below), require all team members to complete a safety training, have regular safety officer meetings and require a Safety Council member be present in teams’ final reviews.
We’ve also worked with multiple legal experts to provide guidance on ITAR compliance. See the document below.
IMPORTANT:
The Safety Guide and the Team Agreement contain rules that are intended solely to protect the interests of Definity and certain sponsors of the CPLC (“the Sponsors”). By reviewing a Team’s operations for safety and/or providing feedback, neither The Definity Project Inc., any Sponsor, or any judge will be deemed to have a legal obligation to ensure the safety of such operations or otherwise supervise such operations, nor will they have any liability arising out of any deficiency in such review, feedback, or training. Definity and its agents are not safety experts, and no act or omission of Definity or its agents will be deemed an endorsement of the Team’s safety measures or an assumption of any responsibility with respect thereto.
General Documents and information about the challenge