Very Cool.
by
JabberWokky
·
· Score: 4, Informative
It was only a handful of feet off the ground, and it was in a frame cage with the rocket nozzles around them, but it had a person in the chair, and it went up, then down, and didn't go off "thataway". Good initial flight, and it took guts to do that.
I question if the work they are doing there will scale up to a full sized rocket, but that's an armchair question, and they are the ones doing the work, so I'll assume they know what they are doing until I have a rocket scientist say otherwise.:)
Congrats to the Armadillo team. Ad Astra Per Aspera.
--
Evan (no SF reference, kinda)
-- "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
This is just a small rocket to test out the control system and get experience building and controlling rocket engines; this launch vehicle uses only hydrogen peroxide.
The final system they are working on will achieve 100km altitudes (i.e. space) and return to earth with fare-paying passengers. The final launcher will also use a 'bipropellent' such as peroxide and kerosene; that gives almost twice the delta-v per kg of fuel. They've done tests with such motors, and they've achieved good results- good enough performance to achieve their goals I would think.
They're making good progress- though they thought they'd get to this point last year, but they had catalyst issues which I think are a bit better understood now; but they are ahead on other fronts.
--
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
Re:Very Cool.
by
JabberWokky
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
So in other words, they have split the project into flight control (testing that with the lower power, but presumably safer and cheaper simple peroxide rockets) and propulsion (the heavy thrust engines). Makes sense to me - you can test the flight control stuff cheaper, meaning more trials, and the experience and refinement there will clearly apply to when they use the flight controls on a heavy thrust rocket.
So, how much longer before they stop issuing new news, and Carmack suddenly shows up as having a security clearance and rank in the Air Force - but nobody hears anything public from them? (*cough* Rocketplane *cough*).:)
No, I'm not actually a conspiracy theorist - this stuff is honestly hard enough to do without some shadowy supression program. But the tin foil hat writing makes for entertaining reading simply because it does make sense if taken at face value.
Ahem... as long as the Green Party doesn't get in control and we don't enter an Ice Age... wait... aren't we due for one of those?
--
Evan
-- "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
It just makes me nervous...
by
dr00g911
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· Score: 3, Funny
My personal favorite quote from the article:
We had an ambulance on site, just in case. This is surprisingly inexpensive, and should be considered by anyone doing something potentially dangerous.
Not sure if that was sarcasm, doe-eyed naivete or what, but it sure made me hella-nervous while I was waiting for the/.ed video feed to load.
Congrats, guys! Precautionary ambulances or not, it takes some big brass balls to do this stuff, much less succeed -- no matter how small the increment.
Re:It just makes me nervous...
by
Alsee
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· Score: 3, Funny
had an ambulance on site, just in case
Seems kinda pointless to me.
Experimental rocketry is one of those cases where everyone walks out without a scratch, or you do your crew recovery with an industrial wet-dry vacuum cleaner.
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-- - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Radiation hardening?
by
TheLink
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The X prize target is 100km up (or even normal airliner altitudes) where there's lots more ionizing radiation. The radiation can cause electronic devices to malfunction.
Seems there are radiation hardened i486 based single board computers. But it is not clear on the site if the PC/104 they are using is one of them.
I suppose they could do initial tests using the cheaper SBCs and then migrate to a radiation hardened one.
Maybe they won't need the computer by the time they reach that height - only critical for the initial phases?
Not enough radiation to worry at 100 km. The ISS is higher and doesn't have any radiation shielding AFAIK. It gets worse the higher you go, 300 km is starting to get more interesting from there the Van Allen belt goes beyond Clarke orbit (>37000 km).
No radiation hardening is needed at 100km, I don't think the Space Shuttle worries unduly over it either, and that goes higher.
Slashdot Mirror
I question if the work they are doing there will scale up to a full sized rocket, but that's an armchair question, and they are the ones doing the work, so I'll assume they know what they are doing until I have a rocket scientist say otherwise. :)
Congrats to the Armadillo team. Ad Astra Per Aspera.
--
Evan (no SF reference, kinda)
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
My personal favorite quote from the article:
Not sure if that was sarcasm, doe-eyed naivete or what, but it sure made me hella-nervous while I was waiting for the /.ed video feed to load.
Congrats, guys! Precautionary ambulances or not, it takes some big brass balls to do this stuff, much less succeed -- no matter how small the increment.
The X prize target is 100km up (or even normal airliner altitudes) where there's lots more ionizing radiation. The radiation can cause electronic devices to malfunction.
Seems there are radiation hardened i486 based single board computers. But it is not clear on the site if the PC/104 they are using is one of them.
I suppose they could do initial tests using the cheaper SBCs and then migrate to a radiation hardened one.
Maybe they won't need the computer by the time they reach that height - only critical for the initial phases?
Link.