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Armadillo Aero One Step Closer To Space
RobertB-DC writes "The folks at Armadillo Aerospace have taken another step toward the X-Prize, dropping their re-entry vehicle from 2000 feet with no major problems noted. As usual, the Armadillo crew documented the event with text, pictures and video, and the story is also covered by Space.com (though without as many cool technical details). It's a bumpy ride, though -- instruments recorded some 10 G's on touchdown."
Were their inertion dampening fields down?
Perhaps they dropped their server from 2000 feet also!
Now they're getting somewhere. John Carmack finally quit trying to win the prize by running at brick walls and firing a Stinger missile at the ground.
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I'm not sure how much it costs to put this thing up. But, at 10 G's per touchdown, a bunch of more of these and they may get close to breaking even!
From the website:
Too many users... blah blah blah
Probable cause: http://www.slashdot.org
Try again in a few seconds...
-xian@idsoftware.com
..it'll be a while before any boyband rock stars make this trip. Sigh.
At least contests like this *slightly* increases the chance I'll ever see space travel for the masses in my lifetime.
I've seen a dead armadillo, but I've never seen a dead armadillo cooked in rocket fuel. That would be new.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
apparently on their webserver.
Is the site slashdotted already or did they drop the vehicle on their web server?
Good thing they only recorded some 10 G's. If those 10 G's had been present all over the craft, who knows what kind of complications could have arisen. I'm sure the design team will find a way to spread those 10 G's throughout the craft, reducing the overall readings to a manageable 2 or 3 G's.
Stop playing with those rocket thingys and go finish your job!
Anyone else think this is wrong? When touching down 10 G's? The most G's would be on lift off, not touch down, and 10 is just plain nuts. Come on. If you think of a plane, and touchdown, you are going in the same direction of gravity, not against it.
I mean conceptually, the article doesn't make sense, and I hope people will realize that.
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Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
I choose to base my logic on the movie Armageddon where people can cheerily pull 18 G's on the backside of the moon.... before landing on an asteroid... and blowing it up...
perhaps i need to find a new base for my logic...
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
Yeah, but they are probably in pretty good physical condition. Your average geek gets woozie just bending over to pick up that stray cheese doodle.
Yeah, 'G' as in 'Geek.'
seems like a lot of trouble to squach an armadillo. Usually speeding cars do just fine.
"dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope"