Armadillo Aerospace Super Mod rocket free flight 2010-09-16

[websuspect]

What would be the requirements to launch an Enterprise class shuttle at 50,000 feet versus sea level.

[websuspect]

@websuspect Say from mach 2 at 58,000 feet to 1277760 at 17,000 MPH.

[websuspect]

No shenanigans. The big defense contractors had this technology in the 90s it was top secret. I would love to work for this company but I dont have an engineering degree. Anways it has variable thrust and variable direction. This is Part of NASA x prize.

[BeamRider100]

Must have good variable thrust. Great work.

[lolahavasuaz]

gotta love the gyro guided thrust control system .... perfection in miniature form VS the final design of this vehicle .

Arizona , usa .

[nastynate600]

Wadsworth constant

[b0rg69]

NASA can't achieve such perfection

[bellyflop0]

I'm calling shenanigans.

[ASSEMblerEX]

Landing is more admirable than launching. Anyone can launch, not everyone can land / recover successfully.

[tekkenjam]

need to give that rocket some spider legs

[RavenCrowSixx]

OMFG!!! Why aren't you working for NASA???

[Auhydride]

i thought the video was playing reverse

[BouvToTheMax]

GOO GOO JOHN CARMACK!

[darksim]

that is craziness

[epit0me]

fuckin sweet

[FizzBhaal]

@aarobc youre right. Maybe its counteracting fuel moving in the tanks? That has been an issue before. Otherwise the control loop must be borderline stable in the beginning of the flight.

[aarobc]

Looks like They need to tighten up their feedback loops, maybe it's because of the small size, but that sure seems like a ton of nozzle movement.

[TheCertifiedAsian]

@aarobc its to controll the rocket.

[TWeaK819]

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!!

This really reminds me of the way the models of Thunderbird 1 'flew'. The only problem I see with this (particularly the landing) is how you'd cope with a much more massive (read: heavy) craft, particularly carrying passengers.

[jackhalfaprayer]

John Carmack = genius.

[Jeros267]

What was the altitude reached and what was the percentage of total mass dedicated to fuel?

[v8media]

What's the scale of this rocket? It seems small due to the bouncing at the end, but I suppose the legs look like they might have shocks on the end maybe.

[aaronjsherman]

@v8media There is a fire extinguisher in the foreground at the start. From that, I'd guess this craft is 10-15 feet tall.

[v8media]

@aaronjsherman Wow, you're right. I just noticed too that there were different legs on launch and on landing. The big legs from launch get blown out of the way, and the little tiny legs come out of the rocket itself right before touching down. This thing looks and behaves very much like one of the rockets on a string from the earliest sci-fi movies, except that it's real.

[elmalakai75]

@prickett233 It's not designed by NASA. They are working on a few NASA related projects. One deals with methane gas hybrid rocket motors. The other is as a platform to test integration and other engineering issues with navigation and additional sensors. The Super-Mod, and the other Mod style rockets are all fully design, tested, and built by Armadillo. No NASA engineering.

[scasey1960]

Nice!

[bogdan0iordache]

I was expecting to see a parachute open, then i was expecting a crash when i thought the parachute failed. Totally awesome unexpected landing ! :)

[technobill2k7]

@chilapa, how was Ares I a failure? If you're talking about the contact/rotation after staging, that was a known possibility with the test, due to the low altitude and resulting increased dynamic pressures. This was not a failure of the system, but I'd love to know what you mean in your post.

[ChilapaOfTheAmazons]

@technobill2k7 I wasn't talking about Ares I-X, that's not really an Ares I rocket and I don't care about it. It was a big waste of money but it's history now.

I was referring to the whole Ares I program: duplicating EELV capabilities for an higher per-flight price and huge development costs for no other reason than trying to help the stillborn Ares V.

See the "nasaspaceflight (dot) com" forums for many details. Sooner or later someone will write a very interesting book about the Ares debacle.

[CptMandible]

Beautiful!

[sjstreeting]

Fantastic - I was amazed it could land again so smoothly in such a small target area.

[prickett233]

nice job, but the structure design of the rockets flat out looks wrong (like a flying brick), need to lower the center of gravity. also got to sort out the bounce on touch down!

[ChilapaOfTheAmazons]

@prickett233 pretty much all existing rockets (from small models to the big ones from NASA, Russia, ESA, etc.) try to have a center of gravity as high as possible. One of the many reasons why Ares I was an easily predictable and predicted failure was that it had a low center of gravity, below its center of pressure.

That's like trying to fly a paper plane backwards: it's instable and tends to rotate.

[prickett233]

@ChilapaOfTheAmazons

So was does a design like NASA's here watch?v=AA1e33lRNs4 have a low center of gravity? you can see when it lands it bounces a little but doesn't look like its going to tip over like armadillo's designs do.

[ChilapaOfTheAmazons]

@prickett233 that's not something designed by NASA in that video, it's another Armadillo rocket ("Pixel", IIRC) originally designed for the LLC. And, yes, it has a very low center of gravity, to the point that the control loop is likely inverted.

It also means that it can't fly at high speeds, it can only do slow flights near the ground.

[prickett233]

@ChilapaOfTheAmazons

it is designed by NASA, it is one of their prototypes they built in conjunction with Armadillo using Armadillo's technology.

[ChilapaOfTheAmazons]

@prickett233 search it on Google or on the Armadillo Aerospace website

[ambruskis]

Seksi nogice, još jednom :-)

[Wahooney]

That is completely awesome :D I wasn't expecting it to land afterwards o_O

[thornwind]

Sweet! Is there a news post accompanying this?