News

Berlin, Germany (April, 2010) – Today, Team Part-Time Scientists announced the SolidLine AG as an official partner of the team. The team uses SolidWorks 2010 to handle all design work, from the lunar lander prototype to their rover called “Asimov Jr.”. Team Part-Time Scientists, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with 45 team members is among 21 teams from 11 countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse.

“Only through the use of a modern and highly productive software like SolidWorks it is possible for us to stay ahead in a race against the clock. With the SolidLine AG as our partner it is not just possible for us to lower the costs but also to minimize complex field testings. When choosing a CAD solution quality is the most important criteria. While choosing a partner is all about reliability. That is why we have been working with SolidWorks right from the start,” said Team Leader Robert Boehme.

ABOUT SOLIDLINE
SolidLine AG was founded in 1996, and started with 160 employees. Today, SolidLine AG and their partner, the Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation, have become Europe’s biggest distribution partner. SolidLine is offering services in the fields of Computer Aided Design (CAD), Product Data Management (PDM), SAP Integration (PLM), Analysis (FEM), Simulation (MKS), Construction (CAM) and technical documentation. SolidLine AG – … design your success. SolidLine.de

Today we got the chance to visit the studio of one of the most extraordinary radio stations in Germany: MotorFM.

We saw how fresh music, interesting shows and news were put together with passion and turned into a very pleasing radio signal. During this tour, we gave an interview on the Google Lunar X-Prize and our team participating in it.

Talking about your own team and the GLXP in interviews is always a good thing. You will get to see the subject from an all new perspective. Besides, it really helps spreading the word about the coolest, but so far only little-noticed competition on earth!

Speaking of good music, our team just started a series of short introductions on each of the team members. Just visit our Hell yeah, it’s rocket science fan page! About every third day one of our members will present themself along with their favorite choice of music for conquering the Moon!

Audio recordings (German)
Interview mit Silke Super, 30.03.10 (MP3)
Interview mit Silke Super, 30.03.10 (M4A)

Robert Boehme
A Part-Time Scientist

Guess who we just met?

Mr. Microsoft himself: Bill Gates!

It was very exciting to meet someone who has accomplished so much in his life. He achieved what most people just dream about their entire life. And yet he hasn’t stopped. With his foundation he is tackling the most severe problems of our world.

We had a nice short chat on the Google Lunar X-Prize, our team and of course time to take a picture. Most important to note, he really is the cheerful geeky person as you would figure him! :-)

Many greetings and the best of luck to the “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation“ in their effort to improve the world we live in!

Robert Boehme
A Part-Time Scientist

On the 1st of March we got the chance to present our team and the Google Lunar X-Prize in a very interesting manner. I personally held my very first Ignite presentation, at the O’Reilly Global Ignite Week.

Think about it ...
5 minutes
20 slides
15 seconds!

The audience was absolutely great. There was a lot of interesting chatter after the presentation.
I can only advise everyone to also seize the chance to advertise his project with a lecture to Ignite.

Robert, Team Leader

This month, nine members of the Part-Time Scientists visited CeBIT in Hanover. We got to meet our partners and sponsors, gathered new information about cutting edge technologies, talked a lot, and finally gave a lecture on “The Part-Time Scientists and the Google Lunar X-Prize” at the WebCiety.

The feedback after the talk was very positive and showed us once more how important it is to continously deliver information on the Google Lunar X-Prize.

Robert
Team Leader

Berlin, Germany (February, 2010) – Today, Team Part-Time Scientists announced Dropbox Inc. as an official sponsor of the team. The cloud based storage provider connects shared folders across platforms and continents. Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android and web, it syncs files on all platforms. The cloud takes care of sharing, syncing and backups. Team Part-Time Scientists, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with 38 team members is among 21 teams from 11 countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse. “As a SAN (Storage Area Network) expert myself, I am very excited that Dropbox decided to sponsor us. Collaborative working on such a scale needs a reliable and easy way to let people work on files simultaneously. Our engineers are scattered across the hemispheres. When a U.S. member updates a file it is instantly available to every member in the world, while dozens of generations from that file are available for recovery in the background. I can’t think of a better way for collaborative work over the internet than Dropbox”, said Team Leader Robert Boehme. ABOUT DROPBOX Dropbox was founded by Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi in 2007, and received seed funding from Y Combinator. Today, Dropbox is well-funded by Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Amidzad. Since launching publicly in September of 2008, Dropbox attracted over four million users and are growing rapidly. It has been featured in the New York Times and on TechCrunch, and won awards from places like PC Magazine and CNET. Their passion is making a product that rocks and putting it in millions of people’s hands. For more information, go to their site: http://www.getdropbox.com

Join us in Hamburg, Audimax 1, for another presentation of your favorite team: on Wednesday, Feb 17th, 1900 MET. Topics include: * our team * an overview of the state of development of the FPGAs and our rover * modifications on „Asimov Jr.“ Duration: 60 minutes plus a relaxed small talk afterwards! Take a look at our facebook page ...

Berlin, Germany (January 28, 2010) – Today, Team Part-Time-Scientists announced Xilinx Inc. as an official sponsor of the team. The semiconductor industry leader is the world’s biggest provider of programmable platforms. As inventor of the first commercially viable field programmable gate array (FPGA), Xilinx provides the Part-Time Scientists with technology and know-how that put rovers on Mars and helped create ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at CERN. Team Part-Time Scientists, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with 38 team members is among 21 teams from 11 countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse. “We’re happy to have a sponsor like Xilinx which approaches innovative projects with the same enthusiasm like us. Together we want to set a new standard for embedded development and high-frequency communication. We always use the most cutting edge technology available on the market. Having Xilinx as a sponsor is tremendous. With the wide variety of space grade circuits on their resumé, our development will improve even further,” said Team Leader Robert Boehme. ABOUT XILINX Xilinx is the worldwide leader in complete programmable logic solutions. For more information, go to their site: http://www.xilinx.com.

On Monday, Team Part-Time Scientists held an extensive presentation on the Google Lunar X-Prize and their approach of winning it. The 2 hour long presentation was streamed live via the 26C3’s own website. Excerpts of it will be made available over the next couple of days.
Main parts of the presentation included:

• the GLXP in general

• an overview of the state of rover development

• the unveiling of the first rover prototype “Asimov Jr.”

• a special appearance by Jack W. Crenshaw

• first details on the PTS communication solution Earth-to-Moon and beyond