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Armadillo Aerospace Flight Paves Way For Science Payloads

Posted by timothy on from the how-much-for-a-spacemail-stamp dept.

Matt_dk writes "Armadillo Aerospace conducted two groundbreaking atmospheric test flights this weekend with their 'Mod' vertical-takeoff-vertical-landing rocket, a vehicle familiar to anyone who has followed NASA's Lunar Lander Challenge competitions. Flying from their test facility in Caddo Mills, Texas, Armadillo Aerospace first completed a milestone flight under a NASA contract, using methane fuel and liquid oxygen as propellant. Later that same afternoon, a second successful low-altitude flight was performed using a 'boosted hop' trajectory of the same type that will be used for suborbital flights to space."

2 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Video Link by malloc · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the Space Fellowship forum page: http://spacefellowship.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=396&start=1710

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_rqVBhwx6I

    Also on the SF page, a bit of commentary from Matthew Ross, including that they've internally decided on a date for LLC 2.

    -malloc

    --
    ___________________ I want to be free()!
  2. Re:Story lacks all detail by foolish · · Score: 3, Informative

    From a post by Matthew Ross: http://spacefellowship.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=38466#p38466

    "Both of those were "LLC-style" hops where the mod flies gently up to about 55 meters and then gently back down.
    Since both of those went well, we decided to do a "boosted hop," where instead of gently flying up and down, it goes full throttle for about three seconds, coasts to apogee at low throttle, falls quickly back down and then throttles up before touching down"

    A 5 second serch on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_loop

    "A closed-loop control system is one in which an input forcing function is determined in part by the system response. The measured response of a physical system is compared with a desired response. The difference between these two responses initiates actions that will result in the actual response of the system to approach the desired response."

    So, engine generates thrust X, desired target of which is X+Y. Throttle is increased until measured response is X+Y. At which point the throttle is maintained or decreased, depending on what part of the flight profile the vehicle is in.