|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
We did the helicopter drop test of our X-Prize vehicle with parachute
system and crushable nose on Saturday. Full report, with lots of video and images, at: http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n....ws?news_id=215 The vehicle oscillated under the parachute a bit more than we hoped (+/- 13 degrees), which caused the vehicle to roll back up a bit after landing, but overall it went well. We are going to make a few modifications to improve things before the first free flight, which should be in a couple months. John Carmack www.armadilloaerospace.com |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
Are you going to put a bigger spill hole in the canopy, or change the shroud
lengths? |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
John Carmack wrote:
We did the helicopter drop test of our X-Prize vehicle with parachute system and crushable nose on Saturday. Great video! Congratulations on your progress and I look forward to reading about more of your exploits! I have one question, though. If there had been a man in the vehicle during that drop test, would he have been severely injured? The landing looked rough-- much rougher than in the SA'03 nose cone test, for instance. -- Direct access to this group with http://web2news.com http://web2news.com/?sci.space.policy |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
"M. Scott" wrote in message ...
John Carmack wrote: We did the helicopter drop test of our X-Prize vehicle with parachute system and crushable nose on Saturday. Great video! Congratulations on your progress and I look forward to reading about more of your exploits! I have one question, though. If there had been a man in the vehicle during that drop test, would he have been severely injured? The landing looked rough-- much rougher than in the SA'03 nose cone test, for instance. The acceleration spikes were only 10G, which is not much of a problem with a harness and padding. The roll-up-and-fall-back-down behavior would certainly be pretty rough, so we hope to reduce that behaviorwith some changes to the cabin top lip, the parachute, and the tail supports. The X-Prize could be had with the landing as-is. John Carmack |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
|
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
"John Carmack" wrote in message om... We did the helicopter drop test of our X-Prize vehicle with parachute system and crushable nose on Saturday. Full report, with lots of video and images, at: http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n....ws?news_id=215 The vehicle oscillated under the parachute a bit more than we hoped (+/- 13 degrees), which caused the vehicle to roll back up a bit after landing, but overall it went well. We are going to make a few modifications to improve things before the first free flight, which should be in a couple months. Hi John, Your vehicle looks a little small IMO, especially the capsule-to-engine/propellant ratio seems a bit off. |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
|
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
"Ultimate Buu" wrote in message .. .
"John Carmack" wrote in message om... We did the helicopter drop test of our X-Prize vehicle with parachute system and crushable nose on Saturday. Full report, with lots of video and images, at: http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n....ws?news_id=215 The vehicle oscillated under the parachute a bit more than we hoped (+/- 13 degrees), which caused the vehicle to roll back up a bit after landing, but overall it went well. We are going to make a few modifications to improve things before the first free flight, which should be in a couple months. Hi John, Your vehicle looks a little small IMO, especially the capsule-to-engine/propellant ratio seems a bit off. Only because you are used to looking at orbital rockets, which impart 6x+ the velocity. Final propellant choice is still somewhat up in the air, so we may yet wind up with a longer tank. The current vehicle has a mass ratio of 4.5 with a full 850 gallon tank, which will make it if we get our mixed monoprop system working well. If not, we need to use a 1600 gallon tank fabricated in carbon fiber, which brings the vehicle mass ratio to 7.6, allowing it to make it on monoprop peroxide. John Carmack |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Armadillo Aerospace drop test
(John Carmack) :
(Tim Behrendsen) wrote in message . com... (John Carmack) wrote in message The vehicle oscillated under the parachute a bit more than we hoped (+/- 13 degrees), which caused the vehicle to roll back up a bit after landing, but overall it went well. We are going to make a few modifications to improve things before the first free flight, which should be in a couple months. Hi John, Just of curiosity, what's left? If you had the propellent, and threw caution/testing/permission out the window, could you launch? I haven't seen any pictures of the full-size engines, so maybe those aren't done yet. Certainly there is a lot of testing ahead, but is all the major research basically done and it's a matter of fine tuning? Tim P.S. Congratulations on the successful test. Our 2' diameter subscale vehicle is ready to test almost all the primary required systems -- servo valve differential throttling (as opposed to the solenoid based differential throttling used on our previous systems), drogue cannon stabilization after burnout, and main canopy release at a particular altitude. We should also be able to fly that transonic. We would have flown it by now if our propellant issues were resolved. Wow, to think you are being held back only because of a lack of fuel. We have had a ~5,000 lbf engine basically ready to fire for something like eight months, but we have been conserving propellant. About 20 liters of peroxide a second? How much run time do you need to test this engine properly? We have a final (we hope) list of demands from FMC for buying 90% peroxide, but it will take a notable amount of money and effort to comply. We are still holding out hope that our mixed propellant schemes work out, which would get FMC out of the loop, at least until we need to by tank car loads of 50%. We should have some new tests on that this weekend. Can you say how much all thier demands have cost so far? There are lots of little bits that still need to be developed, but we don't see show-stoppers. When the big vehicle leaves the ground under its own power, a lot of people will think we are very very close, but it could still take a year after that to get everything really worked out. Well, you are putting a human being in the final design, better safer to do a number of test flights than be sorry. And you already have seen lots of crashes for many diffirent reasons. Better to be safe. I am expecting to have to do a half dozen flights of the subscale vehicle, a half dozen pre-launch-license flights of the big vehicle, then up to ten launch licensed flights of the big vehicle to end with the two X-Prize flights. This will take quite a bit of time, and I still consider it a very good chance that we will completely destroy a vehicle sometime along the way, forcing a rebuilding period. I wish I had the money to rebuild like you do. Personally I have made very little progress because I can't afford a large number of rebuilds of even my old engine designs. One very great thing about your website is that you show the failures as well as the successes along the way. Our launch license application may be the gating factor. Even getting an environmental impact statement at White Sands Missile Range, where they have done all this many times before, has been quoted at taking $250,000 and not be finished until August of next year, which is absurd. An EIS is a prerequisite for a launch license, which can take six months longer. The default proposed timeline for a launch license didn't have us launching until after the X-Prize expired. We obviously hope to be able to compress this. AAAAARRRRHHH! How are we going to develop CATS when the paperwork itself ends up costing more than the other marginal costs of the flight? John Carmack Earl Colby Pottinger -- I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos, SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Engineers test the first engine for NASA's return to flight mission | Jacques van Oene | Space Shuttle | 1 | July 19th 04 06:45 PM |
ATK Conducts Successful Full-Scale Space Shuttle Motor Test | Jacques van Oene | Space Shuttle | 0 | June 11th 04 03:53 PM |
Successful test leads way for safer Shuttle solid rocket motor | Jacques van Oene | Space Shuttle | 0 | June 11th 04 03:50 PM |
NASA Administrator Accepts Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Resignations | Ron Baalke | Space Shuttle | 3 | September 24th 03 07:19 AM |
Humans, Robots Work Together To Test 'Spacewalk Squad' Concept | Ron Baalke | Space Station | 0 | July 2nd 03 04:15 PM |