New Sponsor: Fingertech Robotics

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that Fingertech Robotics has become one of the sponsors of our mechanical prototype rover, At the Foot of Pangaea, as we work towards our final flight hardware rover, Victory at Pangaea. Their lightweight, but powerful motors are making a significant difference in our efforts and we are delighted that they have joined our backers.

New Sponsor: Quality Thermistor Inc (QTI)

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that QTI is now a sponsor of our endeavor to land a rover on the Moon as part of the Google Lunar X Prize. QTI will be providing temperature sensors for use on our rocket development, flight hardware and rovers.

Quality Thermistor, Inc. (QTI) was founded in 1977 to meet the increasing demand for high quality electronic components for the aerospace industry. Since then, QTI has exceeded the requirements of some of the most stringent high cost of failure applications, changing the landscape of the supply chain for the entire industry.

Today, QTI continues to maintain its leadership position for mission-critical applications as well as for medical and industrial applications by supplying the world’s top companies with innovative products and services. In fact, QTI developed the highest standard for surface mount thermistors with the introduction of qualified surface mount parts to MIL-PRF-32192; supplying design engineers with fully qualified DSCC options for two PTC and three NTC surface mount package styles. Additionally, QTI has partnered with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for surface mount thermistors qualified to S311-P827, an industry first!

Team Phoenicia is a Google Lunar X Prize team that was launched in 2007. The team worked diligently and became an official GLXP team in February 2011. Team Phoenicia is working towards an August 2014 lunar landing date at the lunar South Pole.

New Sponsor: Measurement Specialties

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that Measurement Specialties has become a sponsor of Team Phoenicia's attempt to capture the Google Lunar X Prize. Measurement Specialties will be providing a host of sensors from the team's test stand all the way to the lunar surface.

Measurement Specialties is a global designer and manufacturer of sensors and sensor-based systems which measure pressure/force, position, vibration, temperature, humidity, and fluid properties. Our products are used as embedded devices by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) or as stand alone sensors for test and measurement to provide critical monitoring, feedback and control input. We are at the heart of many everyday products and provide a vital link to the physical world.

Measurement Specialties is an applications company and we understand that embedded solutions often require customized designs. Our portfolio includes technologies capable of measuring most physical characteristics and allows us to design the right sensor for the application. Physical property, electrical input/output and package configuration are all important considerations when developing products to meet our customers’ needs.

Team Phoenicia is a Google Lunar X Prize team that was launched in 2007. The team worked diligently and became an official GLXP team in February 2011. Team Phoenicia is working towards an August 2014 lunar landing date at the lunar South Pole.

New Sponsor: Algo-Logic

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that Algo-Logic will be joining as a sponsor for the team's pursuit of the Google Lunar X Prize. Algo-Logic will be helping by providing the data aquisition and sensor processing systems for Team Phoenicia's future test stands, rockets and rovers.

Algo-Logic was founded by a professor and PhD researchers from Stanford University and Washington University. The Algo-Logic ® team has extensive experience building routers, data center switches, and network processing circuits in ASICs and FPGA logic. Algo-Logic specializes in mapping network algorithms into hardware logic.

The founders of Algo-Logic are experts in developing, documenting, and prototyping logic and systems of reprogrammable networks. Past work is documented in over 100 articles in top journals and technical conference proceedings.

Team Phoenicia is a Google Lunar X Prize team that was launched in 2007. The team worked diligently and became an official GLXP team in February 2011. Team Phoenicia is working towards an August 2014 lunar landing date at the lunar South Pole.

New Sponsor: Hexcel

Team Phoenicia has been working on composites for over a year now. We have already produced one very strong, new composite, Cryocarb(tm) that is both cryogenic and corrosive compatible. We are now working on other composites as well for other aspects than tanks that we could use for our GLXP mission and spinout in turn.

Hexcel has stepped up to help us by becoming a sponsor of Team Phoenicia's GLXP efforts. We will be using their new and extremely strong fiber for working on greatly improving our strength of both Cryocarb(tm) and our new structural and other composites.

We are extremely excited to have Hexcel join our backers in our quest to land at the lunar south pole and capture the GLXP first place. We look forward to working with them throughout the challenge.

We Snuck in Business Week!

We made it as an image and blurb under Techshop's section of Business Week's Special Report, "Focus on Entrepreneurs."

New Sponsor: Dragon Valves

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that Dragon Valves of Norwalk, California is now a sponsor. Dragon Valves is providing the valves for our ground testing segment of our engine development.

Dragon Valves Inc., founded in 1945, manufactures instrumentation, manifold and specialty valves. Dragon manufactures power valves in accordance with ASME Section III Class 1, 2 and 3 under its "N" stamp quality program. All valves are designed, machined, assembled, and tested in Norwalk, California.

New Sponsor: Micro/sys

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that Microsys has become a sponsor in our question for the GLXP. Microsys' boards are to be used on The Wind at Dawn rockets as part of the avionics package. The Wind at Dawn is our 'training wheels' for the GLXP lander - much like the Zephyr Aurora is for the Nanosat Launcher teams - and the Micro/sys boards will be used for the within atmosphere flight testing.

Since 1976, Micro/sys has been specializing in OEM high-performance, compact, low-power industrial single board computer products suited for demanding environments. Pioneering the USB movement within the stackable computer market, Micro/sys is a leading provider of Host and Client USB microcomputer and microcontroller boards. Micro/sys embedded computers are specified by OEMs in a range of applications including semiconductor processing, medical, military, mail handling, pharmaceutical, industrial marking, process control, and many other industries. For more information, visit the Micro/sys website, www.embeddedsys.com.

New Sponsor: ASCO Valve

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that ASCO Valves are providing some of our cryogenic valves for use on The Wind at Dawn class rockets.

New Sponsor: The Graphite Store!

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that we have a new sponsor! The Graphite Store will be providing us with material to be used for experimental engines. We are very delighted to have them aboard!

TechShop Open House Again

Team Phoenicia will be once again at TechShop on Saturday in support of our sponsor. TechShop will be having an openhouse. There will be a BBQ and Dale Doughtery of Makezine (and O'Reilly and Associates) will be speaking at 3 PM. Come down and speak with us! We'll be happy to field your questions.

Team Phoenicia at the TechShop Tours on Saturday

Team Phoenicia will be at the TechShop tours and BBQ on Saturday. If you would like to come down and take a look, ask some questions, and perhaps get some answers, by all means come down!

Team Phoenicia at the Maker Faire!

Team Phoenicia will be at the Maker Fair tomorrow in the TechShop Pavilion. One of our rockets will be (partially) present. If all goes well, we will be doing a demonstration of how we use a 3 axis mill to make a hemisphere for spherical helium reservoir.

Drop by and say hi! We will have some t shirts to give away too.

PS Website update coming...and hopefully some big news.

Three Projects Really

Paul Breed of Unreasonable Rocket, we think at the SAS09, stated that building your rocket was not enough, that there was a whole separate and equally (if not more so) project of coding to make sure everything works as it should, when it should, where it should. Let's just say, we completely agreed. Those rackin, frackin little COMs...

*starts strangling a computer...*

Ahem.

Pardon me.

We absolutely agree with Paul. Yet we disagree. There are actually three projects involved here.

The first acknowledged is building the rocket. We have assembled The Wind at Dawn, are nearing so with The Pale Glow of the Stars, and we are manufacturing The Bright Flash of Chicxulub. Aluminum is your friend. Stainless steel is your sadistic bully in grade school.

The second is the coding. Even on a single rocket, if you shift things, as happens when you are working with a mock-up/prototype, you have to rework bits of the code to make sure everything stays in balance when you fire. Especially with our design.

There is still a third project though. This predates the others and is ongoing until the project is finished. This one is funding the whole endeavor. Team Phoenicia has been chasing down sponsors with a large club for a while now. We have been extraordinarily lucky. Or just plain persistent.

We have been asked by other people, sometimes from other teams and sometimes from people in other competitions, how we have been able to get so many sponsors. The truth of the matter is that we have been pounding the pavement for some time. Seeking sponsorship isn't for the faint of heart or those without endurance. You have to keep knocking on doors, asking people, and networking to get what you need. You seriously wear out your shoes. Proverbially or real. And sometimes you even suffer from burnout.

In truth, Team Phoenicia has had about a 5% success rate. For every sponsor you see on the side, we have had around 20 turn us down. 20 presentations. With 10 man-hours of work for each one. On average. Some more, some less. For each sponsor, we've invested around 210 man-hours. For our total sponsorship, that's almost 1500 man-hours.

That is a project in and of itself.

Whether it's enough, we'll see.

New Sponsor: Specialty Hose!

Team Phoenicia is also proud to announce that Specialty Hose has become a sponsor of our efforts to compete in the Second Level competition for the Lunar Lander Challenge. Specialty Hose has very generously provided Team Phoenicia with the steel braided hose for our landers. Specialty Hose's excellent steel braided hose is being used for the LOX, RP-1 and helium lines to and from the propellant tanks. Once again, Team Phoenicia is very thankful to the help we have recieved from Specialty Hose's sponsorship. Their contribution to our entry has made it possible for us to compete.

New Sponsor: TechShop!

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that TechShop is a sponsor of our efforts for the Lunar Lander Challenge.

This is a very overdue announcement, but Team Phoenicia has most definitely been building our dreams at TechShop. The Wind at Dawn, The Pale Glow of the Stars and The Bright Flash of Chicxulub were/are all being machined and assembled there. Without the help of their highly competent staff, their excellent facilities, and their excellent, hands-on classes, Team Phoenicia would not have made virtually any progress on our goals to participate in the Lunar Lander , Challenge and, ultimately, in the Google Lunar X Prize.

Our thanks is deep and heart felt thanks goes out to TechShop and all its employees.

New Sponsor: AirGas

We are proud to announce that AirGas has become a sponsor for Team Phoenicia in the Lunar Lander Challenge. AirGas, the largest U.S. distributor of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and related hardgoods, is sponsoring Team Phoenicia by providing all of the liquid oxygen (LOX) and helium that the team needs for thorough testing and participation in the LLC. Team Phoenicia's rocket design, The Wind at Dawn, uses kerosene and LOX for its propellant combination. Without AirGas' sponsorship, Team Phoenicia would be unable to do nearly as thorough a test program as will now be possible. This greatly increases our chances of winning the Lunar Lander Challenge.

Both AirGas and Team Phoenicia are both very excited by the prospects this partnership brings. This is a tremendous sponsorship and Team Phoenicia is deeply grateful!

Now a word about our sponsor:

Airgas, Inc.(NYSE: ARG), through its subsidiaries, is the largest U.S. distributor of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and related hardgoods, such as welding supplies. Airgas is also a leading U.S. distributor of safety products, the largest U.S. producer of nitrous oxide and dry ice, the largest liquid carbon dioxide producer in the Southeast, and a leading distributor of process chemicals, refrigerants and ammonia products.

Airgas Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter McCausland founded the company in 1982. Through more than 350 acquisitions and internal growth, Airgas has built the largest national distribution network in the packaged gas industry. More than 14,000 employees work in more than 1,100 locations includes branches, cylinder fill plants, production facilities, specialty gas laboratories, and regional distribution centers to serve a diversified customer base. Airgas markets through multiple channels, including its own branches and outside sales force, a Strategic Accounts Team focused on large customers, distributors and resellers, telesales, catalog and eBusiness channels.

New Sponsor: Online Metals

Team Phoenicia is proud to announce that Online Metals, a ThyssenKrupp, NA Company, has joined Wind River, Ansoft, and emachineshop.com in our pursuit of the X Prize's Lunar Lander Challenge. Online Metals has agreed to and delivered the material necessary for the construction of the structure our rocket, The Wind at Dawn. Even more graciously, they are in the process of delivering the material for a second rocket and enough for a third will follow as Team Phoenicia is ready. With this great generousity, Team Phoenicia will be able to construct test our design in an extraordinarily thorough manner.

The Wind at Dawn's first structure will be complete within a week. Without Online Metals' help, this would not have happened nearly as quickly or as well. We thank them deeply for their aid.

Now from our sponsor:

Since 1998, OnlineMetals.com has been the Web's most dependable online store for small quantities of metal plastic and more. Buy online, or over the phone. The OnlineMetals team offers their complete support, and will ship materials right to your door.

OnlineMetals' stocks a variety of aluminum, copper, brass, stainless steel, bronze, hot roll steel, cold roll steel, titanium, tool steel, zinc, nickel, and most industrial plastics. The newest additions to their inventory include expanded metal, decorative sheet, metal tiles,
tool room supplies, and patinas.

OnlineMetals specializes in cut to length materials, so you buy only what you need, and there are no minimum orders. Their products have been used in a wide variety of customer applications, and they're pleased to add Team Phoenicia's The Wind At Dawn Rocket to the list.