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Quantum3 Withdrawing from Competition

Quantum3 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:20:12 -0700

To all those who have been following our team and the X PRIZE competition, we regretfully announce that Quantum3 (Q3) has decided to withdraw from further participation in the Google Lunar X PRIZE.

Q3 still believes in the vision and goal of private sector space exploration and wants to thank Google and the X PRIZE Foundation for taking the initiative in encouraging support for innovation and discovery in outer space. We wish all the other teams the very best in their quest for the X PRIZE.

We hope that one day, we will be able to see the Earth and the Moon in high-def video from a robotic lander built, launched and operated by a private enterprise company. Great accomplishments come from entrepreneurs and we hope that spirit will take the winning team to the Moon and beyond. In this effort, we offer our full support to the goals and vision of the Google Lunar X PRIZE and all those who share the vision of space exploration. All the best to everyone.

So farewell from Q3 and good luck to the remaining teams... and may the best team win!

Paul Carliner,
President, Quantum3 Ventures, LLC

Hometown Paper Features Quantum3 Founder

Quantum3 — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:23:15 -0700

Quantum3 founders Courtney Stadd, Paul Carliner and Liam Sarsfield were featured in the Bethesda Business Gazette, a newspaper based in Stadd's hometown of Bethesda, Maryland.

Clink the link below for the story:

http://www.gazette.net/stories/050908/businew182942_32355.shtml

Deale's Man in the Moon

Quantum3 — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:33:06 -0700

Quantum3 cofounder and senior vice president Liam Sarsfield was featured in The Capital, his hometown daily newspaper published in Annapolis, Maryland.

Read the article here:

www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/04_28-10/CSC

-- posted by Rachel MacKnight, Quantum3 communications director

It’s All Really About the Human Spirit

Quantum3 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:58:46 -0700

Being a fan of motion pictures has its pluses and minuses. You can safely indulge your fantasies. You can watch anything happen. Make anything real. The collective fantasies of a culture roll across the screen. But in a larger sense motion pictures are more than that.

Hollywood certainly is that great maker of myths, but in fulfilling that role, it is also a mirror. A mirror that reflects not simply what is, but what we as a culture hope can be. The success of the science fiction genre is testament to that fact. Long before we set foot on the moon, Captain Kirk had already been to Rigel.

In the film, “Apollo 13”, we see a character study of how the flawed and fallible people who made up that historic team came together for a larger goal. The characters were believable. The scenes struck a chord. That crew and that mission are more remembered for what they did not achieve than for what they did. Or perhaps a better way of putting it is that the Apollo 13 team is remembered for its achievements within the human spirit and not for the number of stated mission objectives that they set out to accomplish.

When what would become the Quantum3 team sat down around a conference table in Sterling, Virginia to discuss this venture, one of the first questions asked was, “Can we do this?” I remember leaning back in my chair and recalling those words from the mini-series “From the Earth to the Moon”. When America first set its sights on the moon, the first question NASA asked itself was “Can we do this?” If you don’t have to ask yourself that question, then your endeavor does not involve exploration.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE does not break new ground for where we are going, but rather for how we are going to get there. The X PRIZE doesn’t ask us to explore the limits of mankind’s technology. Instead, it inquires about the collective state of our human spirit. How we ultimately answer that question will speak volumes about the spirit and resourcefulness of our generation.

-- posted by Dorrance Dickens, Quantum3 general counsel and a partner in Luxenberg, Johnson & Dickens

Bad Monkey, No Banana

Quantum3 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:59:20 -0700

A bunch of bananas are hanging inside a cage full of monkeys with a box beneath it. Pretty soon one of the monkeys jumps on the box to snatch a banana; the zookeeper sprays the other monkeys with ice cold water. After a few repeats of this behavior every time a hungry monkey tries to snatch a banana the other monkeys attack him. A week later the zookeeper replaces a monkey with a new hungry monkey who immediately tries to snatch lunch. To his shock he's attacked by the other monkeys for no apparent reason. One by one the original monkeys are replaced by new monkeys, and each new monkey quickly discovers the terribly high price of bananas in this cage. Hunger aside, no monkey reaches for a banana . . why? Because that's how its done around here. And all it took is a little ice cold water at the very beginning.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a large and tantalizing banana. Innovation required... no ice water. This is the wild and crazy side of space exploration, the place where dreams can rather quickly become a reality that just as quickly changes how people think; the boundary between what can and can't be done gets pushed way back.

Okay, maybe private ventures to the Moon seem a little strange at first blush. Afterall, private businesses are designed to make money, so why not just build condos at the beach? Hey, there's nothing wrong with that, but why not find a way to make money and do something really outta here at the same time? And imagine involving young people in the doing of it, immersing kids in the world of hands-on science and engineering.

I'm a proud graduate of Aviation High School in NYC. It seems like a century ago looking back, but I was taught very well by an amazing group of teachers. This was a public vocational high school that combined dirty fingernails with a tough curriculum of math and science - there was little separation between classroom physics and the flightline. Quantum 3's approach relies on this close bond between theory and immediate application - we intend to use our journey to educate and inspire, and to bring back the "can do" attitude as we grab those bananas!

-- Posted by Liam Sarsfield, Quantum3 cofounder and senior vice president

Competition Inspires Excellence, Whether the Field is Architecture or Space Exploration

Quantum3 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:40:40 -0700

I deeply regret that I was unable to join my colleagues, Paul Carliner and Liam Sarsfield, at the February 21 event where details of our company's and nine other teams' efforts to win the Google Lunar X PRIZE were publicly announced.

Though I missed seeing the X PRIZE folks in California, I was able to catch up with them in Washington, D.C., last week. Paul Carliner and I attended the annual Arthur C. Clarke Foundation's awards event where Peter Diamandis, cofounder of the X PRIZE Foundation and the Zero-G Corporation, among other ventures, received the Sir Arthur Clarke Innovator's Award. In his acceptance remarks, Peter mentioned the exciting news that numerous other teams will also be joining the race. Our attitude is that the more competition the better!

I should add that another hero of mine, David W. Thompson, cofounder and Chairman, Orbital Sciences Corporation, received the Clarke Award for Lifetime Achievement. Based on a personal dream, David built a company that today, 25 years later, generates nearly $1B in gross revenue, employs 3500 people and has developed and deployed a stunning array of rockets and satellites. He's an inspiration to all space entrepreneurs.

The February 21 announcement event at Google headquarters also was inspiring. Since then, we have been building our interdisciplinary team, refining our engineering concepts, fundraising –- orchestrating the multiple variables on a 24/7 basis that make the difference between an idea that remains captive to a PowerPoint chart vs. successful execution.

This brings me to where I was on the day of the historic announcement at Google HQ. I was participating in a long-scheduled trip to Rome and the Vatican City. In some ways, I was about as far removed from the sleek high tech Google campus as one can imagine. But in other ways, I found that the extraordinary architecture of the Renaissance period was a profound and relevant reminder of how faith in an idea can inspire a talented team to do the seemingly impossible. True, the architects and the artisans had, comparatively speaking, unlimited resources within which to translate their patrons' ideas into marble and stone. But it all started with an inspirational concept followed by effective leadership and an incredible work ethic to bring together diverse teams, in the context of intense competition, to produce a more magnificent structure than one's counterparts in a neighboring city-state.

In the same manner, the Google Lunar X PRIZE is acting as a catalyst to make our competitors and us strive for a level of excellence that will benefit us all. I truly believe that we are at the beginning of a new way of breaking out of earth orbit and laying the groundwork for human-built legacies on other worlds that will be as grand and magnificent, in their own way, as the Duomo of Florence or St. Peter's Basilica.

-- Posted by Courtney Stadd, Quantum3 senior vice president and cofounder

Innovation in the Private Sector Created the Foundation for Space Exploration

Quantum3 — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:02:35 -0700

I was reminded of the private sector's role in space exploration when I attended the Goddard Memorial Dinner in Washington last week. The dinner is an annual event held to honor Robert Goddard, the father of liquid-fueled rocketry and the namesake of the Goddard Space Flight Center. Goddard was an academic. He was a scientist, a university professor and an inventor with hundreds of patents to his name.

Former astronaut Neil Armstrong provided the highlight of the evening by honoring us with an address that included recollections only the first human to walk on the moon can provide. He spoke of Goddard's contribution to early rocketry and reminded us of the private sector's legacy in space exploration. It was the private sector's drive to develop innovative rocket technology that formed the foundation of our government's space programs.

Armstrong's history lesson was spot on and very relevant to what we are trying to accomplish today. The teams of the Google Lunar X PRIZE are the logical heirs to Goddard and his team of early aerospace engineers.

-- Posted by Paul Carliner, president, Quantum3 Ventures

Quantum3 Ventures Lifts Off in Race to the Moon

Quantum3 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:18:21 -0800

Contact: Rachel MacKnight

rmacknight@quantum3ventures.com

Quantum3 Ventures Lifts Off in Race to the Moon Nimble Washington, D.C., Team Pledges an All-American Mission to the Moon

(Mountain View, Calif.) – Quantum3 Ventures, a private enterprise headquartered in Washington, D.C., today became an official contestant in the Google Lunar X PRIZE. The competition will produce the first landing on the lunar surface by private citizens and is the latest in a series of challenges sponsored by the X PRIZE Foundation to foster privately-funded technological innovation.

Leaders of Google and the X PRIZE Foundation welcomed the Quantum3 team into the race today during an announcement event at the headquarters of the Internet search engine giant in Mountain View, California. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit video, images and data back to Earth.

Quantum3, with its spacecraft Moondancer, is uniquely positioned to be the team that continues America’s tradition of innovation and leadership in space exploration. Three seasoned executives, Paul Carliner, Courtney Stadd and Liam Sarsfield, founded the venture in January 2008. Together, they share more than 50 years of leadership experience in the aerospace industry and government.

The Quantum3 founders believe the X PRIZE presents an opportunity to showcase American ingenuity at its best. Just as Charles Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean transformed aviation, the Google Lunar X PRIZE will change the way the world looks at space exploration.

“The original human landing on the Moon was an American-led mission carried out in the best tradition of our nation’s pioneering spirit,” said Paul Carliner, cofounder and president of Quantum3. “As we approach the 40^th anniversary of that mission, Quantum3 will field an American-led team using American technology to win this challenge.”

Carliner brings to the Quantum3 team 17 years of experience in the federal government, previously serving as the staff director of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that managed NASA's $17 billion annual budget. He is currently founder and president of Carliner Strategies, L.L.C., a strategic consulting and government relations firm located in Washington, D.C.

In addition to rising to the challenge of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, Quantum3 is developing a business model designed to sustain a revenue stream throughout the mission and to establish post-mission profits.

“Quantum3 is an independent, handpicked team of entrepreneurs with the ability to respond quickly to new opportunities,” said Courtney Stadd, Quantum3 senior vice president and cofounder. Stadd is a veteran of the aerospace industry with more than 30 years of public and private sector experience. He has twice served as NASA chief of staff and also served on the White House National Space Council. Stadd currently is executive vice president of TerreStar Corporation.

Rounding out the team in his role as a Quantum senior vice president and cofounder is Liam Sarsfield, former NASA deputy chief engineer and one of the nation’s foremost experts in spacecraft design, mission planning and aerospace engineering. Sarsfield brings to the team more than 30 years experience as a space systems engineer. He previously has managed small spacecraft development for Lockheed Martin and authored Cosmos on a Shoestring, a primer on low-cost spacecraft.

“Quantum3’s mission is a demonstration of how low-cost lunar operations can create viable off-world commercial opportunities,” Sarsfield said.

At the heart of Quantum3’s Google Lunar X PRIZE effort is Moondancer, a small spacecraft that will land on the surface of the Moon at the Sea of Tranquility, the historic site of the world’s first manned moon landing. Moondancer will take off on its lunar journey from an East Coast range using a launch-coast-burn trajectory that will culminate in a propulsive soft landing on the Moon.

The Quantum3 team is reaching out to the private sector and to academic communities, including minority-serving institutions, to create partnerships among the nation’s best and brightest minds and resources.

“Quantum3’s goal is to make the most of our nation’s unique intellectual capital and technological capabilities,” Sarsfield said.

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