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Armadillo Flies... Briefly

Posted by michael on from the lawn-dart dept.

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."

3 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. Long way to go by heroine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Long way to go by silentbozo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Huh? Their "fuel" is hydrogen peroxide, which converts to steam when it hits the catalyzing screens just prior to the engine nozzles. The screens should be plenty hot when they hit higher altitudes, and a pressure sphere will increase in performance (up to a point) as the the outer atmospheric pressure decreases. I really don't see how a turbopump comes into the equation, as you don't have separate fuel/oxidizers to combine and ignite.

  2. We built a checklist by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.