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Armadillo Flies... Briefly
david.given writes "Armadillo Aerospace did their first untethered test flight last week, at the Oklahoma Spaceport, using their new tube-shaped rocket. Predicted height was fifteen hundred feet; unfortunately a computer failure caused the vehicle to tip over and dive into the ground from a hundred feet up, causing severe damage (i.e., it requires a rebuild, not a repair). See the report and the slightly depressing video footage."
I find it quite interesting that of all things, computers fail so often on these rockets.
I mean, I can see a seal leaking liquid oxygen, or some micro-crack in a weld... but computers? for crying out loud, it's one of the most common pieces of equipment on the planet.
sigh...
linux
doesn't say which distro, though
sorry, no blaming bill on this one.
unless..... he used his secret anti-linux storm troopers to sabotage it in the middle of the night.
The World's Worst Webcomic!
I'd like to see you strap your pc onto a rocket and see it survive the vibrations and other stresses. I doubt it would last even if it was turned off! Even the most ruggedized pc's are still very delicate and fragile pieces of equipment compared to many other rocket parts.
I believe that you stated in your write-up that you are going to go on the assumption that this one test had been successful, and move to the next model which will be capable of supersonic flight. After that, the X-prize level vehicle.
It feels a bit like you are more actively trying to get to the X-prize level sooner rather than later; earlier entries seemed a bit more relaxed about timings.
How much pressure are you feeling as far as competing with the other teams? How far ahead or behind to do you perceive yourself compared to the other teams? How do you like your chances of winning it all?
(last silly question): Do you feel those competitive "deathmatch instincts" kicking in to win against the other teams?
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
When they get up to 10 miles they're going to need to pump more fuel than an electric pump or a pressure sphere can generate. They'll need to build a turbopump and run it at its bursting point. This will require an engine redesign to recirculate propellant through the turbopump and be hundreds of times harder than what they've been doing for the last 2 years.
When they get to 20 miles they're going to need to heat the fuel beyond the melting point of their engine casing and they'll need to circulate fuel in the engine casing to cool it. This will require yet another engine redesign. There are so many problems in getting altitude that if it took 2 years to get to 100 feet it'll take hundreds of years to get to 150 miles. Anything less than 150 miles for a spacecraft just isn't practical.
Exactly.
It should be wasted on cocaine and prostitutes like any good red blooded american would.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I dont even get your joke, if thats what it was. Does it have a point? Is it relevant? On topic? Or is it just a cheap karma whore by saying something negative about microsoft?
Microsoft is dumb! mod me up up up!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
This stuff is of great interest to me, and appearantly a lot of other people who read /.
My issue is in the fact that we keep destroying these interesting sites before they can be visited by all.
There should be something done by the site maintainers to provide as little fluff as possible, while making the details interesting enough for us to read. Why waste all your alloted monthly bandwidth to put videos up when a nicely written briefing would do just as well?
I really hate the innerweb. All this wonderfull information inundated in a flood of ignorant pictures, sounds, and videos, only because its not convenient to read... oh no, we need moving pictures and sound to take us someplace that we don't have the damned gumption to go on our own.
What a sick society of Ark-B passengers we have become.
I don't sm^Hpell so good.
We built a checklist for our flight operations, which was a very good idea. Going through it before setting off caught several things we almost forgot.
Except the one thing that you did forget.
Haing a checklist is one thing. Having a complete checklist is evidently something else.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
We built a checklist for our flight operations, which was a very good idea. Going through it before setting off caught several things we almost forgot.
Hello? Do you think so? Why do you think pilots who have been flying for 30+ years go through a checklist before every single takeoff? Seems like the notion of a checklist would be so self-evident from the start -- saying "hey, we thought it would be a nifty idea to create a checklist" makes me wonder about this operation.
It also sounds like the checklist ought to be updated to include things like "check all connections thoroughly after long and rougher-than-anticipated transport of vehicle."
I like the way it flies neatly over the guy in blue jeans. You can see him just at the end of the clip. I can't tell looking at the clip if he's mission control or just some guy having a barbeque. My compliments to the Oklahoma Spaceport's range safety officer.
Equine Mammals Are Considerably Smaller