Please help me ID what I saw on Discovery Wings

I am going to describe something I saw on Discovery Wings and I hope you
can help identify it. It was footage of an experiment that was not
fully described in the story on use of satellites to assist allied
soldiers in wartime.

Here is what I saw.

A device, which I can only describe as resembling an automobile
transmission, had what appeared to be 4 rocket exhaust nozzles mounted
around the circumference about mid-body pointing radially from the
centerline one at each 90 degrees (one pointing down, one up, one left,
one right). There also appeared to be several much smaller rocket
nozzles at one end of device pointing away from the centerline.

So now the experiment begins. The video tape is running and you hear a
countdown. At zero, the entire device (again, picture an auto
transmission with its long dimension oriented horizontally) leaps into
the air and hangs there in a hover as the rocket nozzle pointed down
fires in a pulsing fashion; looking almost like a machine gun muzzle.
The left and right pointing nozzles fire periodically as if to steady
the "aircraft" while the smaller nozzles at the end of the thing fire
smaller jets up, down, left, right to stabilize it. Then as the rockets
all fire in a particular rapid sequence, the device rotates along its
length by 90 degrees in a roll and one of the nozzles that had
originally been pointing out to the side is now pointing down and it
takes on the role of being the primary provider of lift as it fires
spectacularly in a pulsing fashion. You hear the voice in the
background calling out "hover", "rotate", "hover" as this thing goes
through its maneuvers. Finally after either all planned moves are
completed or the fuel is exhausted, all rocket motors shut off and the
thing falls into a net. Cheers can be heard from the guys conducting
the flight test.

I don't know if you can even begin to visualize what I am trying to
describe here but I must say this few seconds of footage is one of the
most spectacular flight tests I have ever seen.

My question is, what was this thing? Surely, someone out there has seen
this footage as I, an avid watcher of Discovery Wings, have seen it more
than once. Thanks for clearing this question up for me. If this
footage happens to be posted on a web site somewhere, share the address!
Thanks!



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EVD wrote:

My question is, what was this thing? Surely, someone out there has seen
this footage as I, an avid watcher of Discovery Wings, have seen it more
than once.

I think it was a kinetic kill vehicle, used for exoatmospheric ballistic
missile defense. Part of SDI (or its renamed successor).

Paul

yeah, it was a demo for a Star Wars defense program kinetic kill vehicle. It
was the aprt of a soace interceptor that was supposed to lock onto incoming
ICBS warheads and steer to a collision or near enough a warhead's shrapnel
could cause fatal damage. You saw footage of an indoor test of the thing to
see if it could track something and remain stable autonomously.
It only hovered in the film footage because it was in a hangar, not in orbit.
This depleted it's tiny fuel reserve much more quickly than it would have in
space. but then again, it takes a lot of fuel in space to change a ballistic
trajectory in a hurry, too.

On Sun, 25 Apr 2004 19:00:09 -0500, (EVD)
wrote:


I am going to describe something I saw on Discovery Wings and I hope you
can help identify it. It was footage of an experiment that was not
fully described in the story on use of satellites to assist allied
soldiers in wartime.

Here is what I saw.

A device, which I can only describe as resembling an automobile
transmission, had what appeared to be 4 rocket exhaust nozzles mounted
around the circumference about mid-body pointing radially from the
centerline one at each 90 degrees (one pointing down, one up, one left,
one right). There also appeared to be several much smaller rocket
nozzles at one end of device pointing away from the centerline.

So now the experiment begins. The video tape is running and you hear a
countdown. At zero, the entire device (again, picture an auto
transmission with its long dimension oriented horizontally) leaps into
the air and hangs there in a hover as the rocket nozzle pointed down
fires in a pulsing fashion; looking almost like a machine gun muzzle.
The left and right pointing nozzles fire periodically as if to steady
the "aircraft" while the smaller nozzles at the end of the thing fire
smaller jets up, down, left, right to stabilize it. Then as the rockets
all fire in a particular rapid sequence, the device rotates along its
length by 90 degrees in a roll and one of the nozzles that had
originally been pointing out to the side is now pointing down and it
takes on the role of being the primary provider of lift as it fires
spectacularly in a pulsing fashion. You hear the voice in the
background calling out "hover", "rotate", "hover" as this thing goes
through its maneuvers. Finally after either all planned moves are
completed or the fuel is exhausted, all rocket motors shut off and the
thing falls into a net. Cheers can be heard from the guys conducting
the flight test.

I don't know if you can even begin to visualize what I am trying to
describe here but I must say this few seconds of footage is one of the
most spectacular flight tests I have ever seen.

My question is, what was this thing? Surely, someone out there has seen
this footage as I, an avid watcher of Discovery Wings, have seen it more
than once. Thanks for clearing this question up for me. If this
footage happens to be posted on a web site somewhere, share the address!
Thanks!

I know the footage you refer to. I believe it was a ground test of an
engineering test bed for the "Brilliant Pebble" space based
antimissile defense system. Basically, there would be lots of those
things put in orbit, and they maneuver radically to collide with ICBM
warheads. The very high closing speeds involved require very fast and
nimble course corrections.

Peter

I don't know if you can even begin to visualize what I am trying to
describe here but I must say this few seconds of footage is one of the
most spectacular flight tests I have ever seen.

My question is, what was this thing? Surely, someone out there has seen
this footage as I, an avid watcher of Discovery Wings, have seen it more
than once. Thanks for clearing this question up for me. If this
footage happens to be posted on a web site somewhere, share the address!
Thanks!


My understanding is that this was a test of a "brilliant pebble" from
many years ago when pres. Reagan funded the star wars program.

I think this was a kinetic kill vehicle that could destroy targets by
colliding with them.

Zoltan

EVD wrote:

snip
Here is what I saw.

A device, which I can only describe as resembling an automobile
transmission, had what appeared to be 4 rocket exhaust nozzles mounted
around the circumference about mid-body pointing radially from the
centerline one at each 90 degrees (one pointing down, one up, one left,
one right). There also appeared to be several much smaller rocket
nozzles at one end of device pointing away from the centerline.
snip
originally been pointing out to the side is now pointing down and it
takes on the role of being the primary provider of lift as it fires
spectacularly in a pulsing fashion. You hear the voice in the
background calling out "hover", "rotate", "hover" as this thing goes
through its maneuvers. Finally after either all planned moves are
completed or the fuel is exhausted, all rocket motors shut off and the
thing falls into a net. Cheers can be heard from the guys conducting
the flight test.
snip
My question is, what was this thing? Surely, someone out there has seen
this footage as I, an avid watcher of Discovery Wings, have seen it more
than once. Thanks for clearing this question up for me. If this
footage happens to be posted on a web site somewhere, share the address!
Thanks!

I believe this to be a test of some aspects of the "brilliant pebbles"
system.

I think the intention in this case was for it to be part of an ABM system,
part of the result of what star-wars became, after it became clear that
the insane levels of funding were not going to happen.

It never attracted funding to be fielded, though elements were used on
Clementine, a test of some other hardware that went to the moon.

(EVD) writes:

I am going to describe something I saw on Discovery Wings and I hope you
can help identify it. It was footage of an experiment that was not
fully described in the story on use of satellites to assist allied
soldiers in wartime.

Actually, it was developed as part of the SDI program (AKA "Satr WQars")
as a ballistic missile interceptor.


Here is what I saw.

A device, which I can only describe as resembling an automobile
transmission, had what appeared to be 4 rocket exhaust nozzles mounted
around the circumference about mid-body pointing radially from the
centerline one at each 90 degrees (one pointing down, one up, one left,
one right). There also appeared to be several much smaller rocket
nozzles at one end of device pointing away from the centerline.

So now the experiment begins. The video tape is running and you hear a
countdown. At zero, the entire device (again, picture an auto
transmission with its long dimension oriented horizontally) leaps into
the air and hangs there in a hover as the rocket nozzle pointed down
fires in a pulsing fashion; looking almost like a machine gun muzzle.
The left and right pointing nozzles fire periodically as if to steady
the "aircraft" while the smaller nozzles at the end of the thing fire
smaller jets up, down, left, right to stabilize it. Then as the rockets
all fire in a particular rapid sequence, the device rotates along its
length by 90 degrees in a roll and one of the nozzles that had
originally been pointing out to the side is now pointing down and it
takes on the role of being the primary provider of lift as it fires
spectacularly in a pulsing fashion. You hear the voice in the
background calling out "hover", "rotate", "hover" as this thing goes
through its maneuvers. Finally after either all planned moves are
completed or the fuel is exhausted, all rocket motors shut off and the
thing falls into a net. Cheers can be heard from the guys conducting
the flight test.

I don't know if you can even begin to visualize what I am trying to
describe here but I must say this few seconds of footage is one of the
most spectacular flight tests I have ever seen.

My question is, what was this thing?

As I said, it was developed by the SDIO as a ballistic missile interceptor;
do a websearch on "brilliant pebbles." The test was supposed to simulate
some of the terminal maneuvering the "brilliant pebble" would perform
as it guided itself toward a head-on impact with an incoming missile
or an orbiting satellite.


-- Gordon D. Pusch

perl -e '$_ = \n"; s/NO\.//; s/SPAM\.//; print;'

(EVD) wrote in
.com:


I am going to describe something I saw on Discovery Wings and I hope
you can help identify it. It was footage of an experiment that was
not fully described in the story on use of satellites to assist allied
soldiers in wartime.

What you've described is a homing kill vehicle for use against
incoming warheads. The thrusters are for trajectory correction.
The footage was just of ground testing; I don't know how far it got
in development, but I assume it did flight testing.

--Damon

(EVD) wrote in message e.com...

So now the experiment begins. The video tape is running and you hear a
countdown. At zero, the entire device (again, picture an auto
transmission with its long dimension oriented horizontally) leaps into
the air and hangs there in a hover as the rocket nozzle pointed down
fires in a pulsing fashion; looking almost like a machine gun muzzle.

I've seen that video. It's a "Brilliant Pebble" from Raygun Ronnie's "Star Wars."

http://www.periscope1.com/demo/weapo.../w0003565.html

(The following is actually the Rooskie equivalent, but very similar...)

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/rp.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/r/rkkpebbl.jpg

Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

A hover test (at Edwards AFB, I think) of an SDI kill vehicle.



Matt Bille
)
OPINIONS IN ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THOSE OF THE AUTHOR