I would sooo like to intercut that with video of a junior high student looking up while holding an 8-channel Futaba radio control, his fingers delicately working the joysticks. ^_^
They could have performed that test in Texas if not for the meddlesome Texas legislators regulating… oh wait.
Ha, this is nothing.
Have you seen the latest high resolution CGI-animations of the SLS launching to… to… to somewhere REALLY exciting.
Missed the animations, but I did see the latest Project Morpheus test (also held in Texas). Nice to see someone working on an autonomous landing vehicle, although in the latest it didn’t really land (it sort of just hung in its cradle).
Yeah, it’s great to watch NASA spend millions to achieve (part of) what Armadillo Aerospace declared to be a big waste of time years ago.
And what NASA itself accomplished decades ago…
Uh, weren’t the Lunar Surveyors and Vikings autonomous landing vehicles? Or don’t they count since they were designed and built in the old “slide rule” days 🙂
Surveyors perhaps, but not Vikings, unless you consider tanks parachuted out the back of airplanes as autonomous landing vehicles as well. If you do, then we can go back to organizations in WWII.
Vikings too, unless your parachuted tanks let their parachutes go at 5,000 feet and land on rocket power.
Impressive as hell.
Now imagine the same thing, only with nine engines going at once instead of just one.
I’ve said it before: Grasshopper + wings/fins = RAH
Screw 9. 27.           Â
As I understand it, and I may not, the idea is to land the mostly-empty and therefore light F9R core with its nine engines using only the center engine. So Grasshopper is a reasonable approximation of that.
I think the actual touchdown was the most impressive part. You could have had a China set on the top (If it were flat) and not lost a cup.
Elon Musk builds a rocket launcher. Very impressive with SpaceX being a startup and everything, but this has been done over 50 years ago.
Elon Musk builds an electric car. Very impressive, especially since Consumer Reports thinks it is a fine automobile and it has passed (Federal — haven’t seen the tougher IIHS test yet) safety tests with flying colors. But cars go back to the time of Daimler and the gummint has built high-tech electric car prototypes.
Elon Musk builds Hyperloop. Now that would be something to talk about. Vac-trains have been talked about for a long time, but no one has built any kind of prototype to base his low-ball 6 billion LA-SF estimate.
I say Mr. Musk is simply flapping his arms (about Hyperloop — I coined this term to mean an instructor meeting a classroom section with minimal preparation — my colleagues long called this “winging it” — meaning that one is moving one’s arms in imitation of flying but not engaging in any process that can result in actual flight).
“Very impressive with SpaceX being a startup and everything, but this has been done over 50 years ago.”
“But cars go back to the time of Daimler and the gummint has built high-tech electric car prototypes.”
I can’t believe you only made a post on an internet forum, that was so done 20 years ago…
What is it about Musk that brings the “conservative” detractors out of the woodwork? It is jealousy? They can’t comprehend the audacity of someone actually going out there and *doing* something instead of just talking about it? Or something else? I am legitimately curious…
Elon is from Africa, so couldn’t we legitimately say that criticizing him be raciss?
Implying that a member of the Oppressor Race can be a victim of racism be raciss.
Heh, funny thought – I wonder if SpaceX gets any benefit from being a minority-owned (African-American) business.
Lars,
Simple. He had his picture taken with President Obama. And he was smiling…
In today’s hyperpartisan world it is enough to condemn him as a liberal 🙂
Can you point to any examples of rocket stages of a similar size class to the Falcon 9 first stage having performed hover operations previously (around 40m height, over 200k liters propellant capacity)? 50 years ago or not.
Can you point to an example of a rocket performing that feat which has substantial design similarity to an existing functional orbital launch vehicle stage?
Paul,
Actually the first prototype subway in NYC was pneumatic. Built in 1869 it had over 400,000 riders by the end of 1870, but closed in the panic of 1873.
The First Attempted New York Subway: Beach Pneumatic Transit
Since Elon Musk named his electric car after Tesla, maybe he will name his pneumatic train after Alfred Beach to honor his pioneer work 🙂
This is so awesome! It used to be that many of the first rockets would crash simply due to fuel sloshing. The fact they can tilt this thing this way and that and gently return it back to the same launch pad is phenomenal.
I would sooo like to intercut that with video of a junior high student looking up while holding an 8-channel Futaba radio control, his fingers delicately working the joysticks. ^_^
They could have performed that test in Texas if not for the meddlesome Texas legislators regulating… oh wait.
Ha, this is nothing.
Have you seen the latest high resolution CGI-animations of the SLS launching to… to… to somewhere REALLY exciting.
Missed the animations, but I did see the latest Project Morpheus test (also held in Texas). Nice to see someone working on an autonomous landing vehicle, although in the latest it didn’t really land (it sort of just hung in its cradle).
Yeah, it’s great to watch NASA spend millions to achieve (part of) what Armadillo Aerospace declared to be a big waste of time years ago.
And what NASA itself accomplished decades ago…
Uh, weren’t the Lunar Surveyors and Vikings autonomous landing vehicles? Or don’t they count since they were designed and built in the old “slide rule” days 🙂
Surveyors perhaps, but not Vikings, unless you consider tanks parachuted out the back of airplanes as autonomous landing vehicles as well. If you do, then we can go back to organizations in WWII.
Vikings too, unless your parachuted tanks let their parachutes go at 5,000 feet and land on rocket power.
Impressive as hell.
Now imagine the same thing, only with nine engines going at once instead of just one.
I’ve said it before: Grasshopper + wings/fins = RAH
Screw 9. 27.           Â
As I understand it, and I may not, the idea is to land the mostly-empty and therefore light F9R core with its nine engines using only the center engine. So Grasshopper is a reasonable approximation of that.
I think the actual touchdown was the most impressive part. You could have had a China set on the top (If it were flat) and not lost a cup.
Elon Musk builds a rocket launcher. Very impressive with SpaceX being a startup and everything, but this has been done over 50 years ago.
Elon Musk builds an electric car. Very impressive, especially since Consumer Reports thinks it is a fine automobile and it has passed (Federal — haven’t seen the tougher IIHS test yet) safety tests with flying colors. But cars go back to the time of Daimler and the gummint has built high-tech electric car prototypes.
Elon Musk builds Hyperloop. Now that would be something to talk about. Vac-trains have been talked about for a long time, but no one has built any kind of prototype to base his low-ball 6 billion LA-SF estimate.
I say Mr. Musk is simply flapping his arms (about Hyperloop — I coined this term to mean an instructor meeting a classroom section with minimal preparation — my colleagues long called this “winging it” — meaning that one is moving one’s arms in imitation of flying but not engaging in any process that can result in actual flight).
“Very impressive with SpaceX being a startup and everything, but this has been done over 50 years ago.”
“But cars go back to the time of Daimler and the gummint has built high-tech electric car prototypes.”
I can’t believe you only made a post on an internet forum, that was so done 20 years ago…
What is it about Musk that brings the “conservative” detractors out of the woodwork? It is jealousy? They can’t comprehend the audacity of someone actually going out there and *doing* something instead of just talking about it? Or something else? I am legitimately curious…
Elon is from Africa, so couldn’t we legitimately say that criticizing him be raciss?
Implying that a member of the Oppressor Race can be a victim of racism be raciss.
Heh, funny thought – I wonder if SpaceX gets any benefit from being a minority-owned (African-American) business.
Lars,
Simple. He had his picture taken with President Obama. And he was smiling…
http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/10/spacex_opens_office_in_huntsvi.html
In today’s hyperpartisan world it is enough to condemn him as a liberal 🙂
Can you point to any examples of rocket stages of a similar size class to the Falcon 9 first stage having performed hover operations previously (around 40m height, over 200k liters propellant capacity)? 50 years ago or not.
Can you point to an example of a rocket performing that feat which has substantial design similarity to an existing functional orbital launch vehicle stage?
Paul,
Actually the first prototype subway in NYC was pneumatic. Built in 1869 it had over 400,000 riders by the end of 1870, but closed in the panic of 1873.
http://sometimes-interesting.com/2012/05/19/the-first-attempted-new-york-subway-beach-pneumatic-transit/
The First Attempted New York Subway: Beach Pneumatic Transit
Since Elon Musk named his electric car after Tesla, maybe he will name his pneumatic train after Alfred Beach to honor his pioneer work 🙂
This is so awesome! It used to be that many of the first rockets would crash simply due to fuel sloshing. The fact they can tilt this thing this way and that and gently return it back to the same launch pad is phenomenal.