Author Topic: Interorbital Systems Flights  (Read 78452 times)

Offline QuantumG

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9238
  • Australia
  • Liked: 4477
  • Likes Given: 1108
Interorbital Systems Flights
« on: 03/31/2014 11:28 pm »
http://moonandback.com/2014/03/31/interorbital-systems-achieves-major-flight-milestone/

"Due to a center of pressure anomaly, the rocket reached 10,000 feet, which was half of its calculated altitude."

"The following commercial payloads were on-board:

National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)
M2M2SKY/Boreal Space (Brazil/California)
Google Lunar XPRIZE Team SYNERGY MOON (California/International)
John Frusicante’s (Red Hot Chili Peppers) album ENCLOSURE (The Record Collection, Malibu)

All payloads were recovered still functioning and intact. The rocket sustained minimal damage and will be used re-used on the next test flight in which the CPM will be finless and guided.

Systems Tested:
Propulsion System in flight; Cable Launch Device (CLD) and Pyrotechnic Staging System (PSS);
Telemetry; Health and Recovery System; Wireless-encrypted CPM controller"

"A GoPro camera was mounted on the rocket and the video will be posted later."



Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline ChrisWilson68

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5266
  • Sunnyvale, CA
  • Liked: 4992
  • Likes Given: 6459
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #1 on: 04/01/2014 12:29 am »
Fun, but unfortunately they're nowhere close to even getting their smallest orbital rocket, with a 30 kg payload, to LEO.  It's hard to see any way they can get a payload to the moon in time to win the Lunar X-Prize.

It did kind of annoy me that their headline was "flawless" when in fact there was an anomaly that caused the rocket to only reach half the planned altitude.  They're not the only company to give misleading headlines (is there any areospace company that doesn't?), but I still get annoyed by it every time.
« Last Edit: 04/01/2014 12:30 am by ChrisWilson68 »

Offline QuantumG

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9238
  • Australia
  • Liked: 4477
  • Likes Given: 1108
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #2 on: 04/01/2014 12:32 am »
Can't say I disagree, but as they're finally doing what I've been saying for years they need to do in order to build the credibility they so desperately desire, I'm happy to cheer for them and hope that they ramp up more quickly than has traditionally been the case.

Edit: also can't rule out the possibility that this is an April Fools joke ;)
« Last Edit: 04/01/2014 12:58 am by QuantumG »
Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline ChrisWilson68

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5266
  • Sunnyvale, CA
  • Liked: 4992
  • Likes Given: 6459
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #3 on: 04/01/2014 01:02 am »
I certainly wish them luck.  It's always good to see things flying.

Offline QuantumG

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9238
  • Australia
  • Liked: 4477
  • Likes Given: 1108
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #4 on: 04/01/2014 02:32 am »
Here's the video.


Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline QuantumG

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9238
  • Australia
  • Liked: 4477
  • Likes Given: 1108
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #5 on: 04/01/2014 03:54 am »
The "flawless" heading isn't in the original press release:

http://www.interorbital.com/interorbital_03302014_018.htm

or it's not anymore.
Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline mheney

  • The Next Man on the Moon
  • Global Moderator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 780
  • Silver Spring, MD
  • Liked: 398
  • Likes Given: 199
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #6 on: 04/01/2014 02:58 pm »
I agree with ChrisWilson86.  You learn by flying - congrats to IOS for a good test flight.

Offline Danderman

  • Extreme Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10288
  • Liked: 699
  • Likes Given: 723
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #7 on: 04/01/2014 03:32 pm »
Congratulations to Interorbital for launching something!

Offline bad_astra

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1926
  • Liked: 316
  • Likes Given: 553
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #8 on: 04/01/2014 05:21 pm »
They could have bought an O class hobby motor and saved some time and money, but yeah, congrats I guess.
"Contact Light" -Buzz Aldrin

Offline JBF

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1459
  • Liked: 472
  • Likes Given: 914
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #9 on: 04/01/2014 08:45 pm »
They could have bought an O class hobby motor and saved some time and money, but yeah, congrats I guess.

Nice troll, it's obvious you didn't read any of the documentation.
"In principle, rocket engines are simple, but that’s the last place rocket engines are ever simple." Jeff Bezos

Offline Steven Pietrobon

  • Member
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 39214
  • Adelaide, Australia
    • Steven Pietrobon's Space Archive
  • Liked: 32734
  • Likes Given: 8178
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #10 on: 05/25/2015 07:58 am »
Here's a presentation given by Interorbital at the recent ACSER Cubesat conference. They are aiming for their first orbital launch at the end of this year. The first four launchers of their Neptune 5 vehicle are booked out. They have over 90 payloads waiting to launch, including Australia's iINSPIRE. I'm not sure how reliable their Neptune 36 vehicles will be with 36 cores!

Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design #1:  Engineering is done with numbers.  Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.

Offline ChrisWilson68

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5266
  • Sunnyvale, CA
  • Liked: 4992
  • Likes Given: 6459
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #11 on: 05/25/2015 08:34 am »
It will be interesting to see if they can actually get to orbit with their massive number of cores.

I didn't really understand the slide entitled "N36 Medium-Lift Rocket", though.  The subtitle is "Manned Orbital and Lunar Missions", and below that they detail the 36 common cores and so on.  And on the same slide it says Neptune 36 can take 1 metric ton to orbit.  Are they suggesting a manned orbital mission with a spacecraft that is only 1 ton, including passenger?


Offline The Amazing Catstronaut

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1065
  • Arsia Mons, Mars, Sol IV, Inner Solar Solar System, Sol system.
  • Liked: 759
  • Likes Given: 626
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #12 on: 05/25/2015 10:23 am »
That 36 core medium lift rocket looks even more Kerbal than Sea Dragon - there's no real precedent for rockets comprised out of double figure cores.

It goes without saying simply bolting on more cores isn't a particularly efficient way of launching something, as evidenced by "Cluster's last stand".  But hey, if it works and is cheap, it works and is cheap.

Edit: Just to be clear on my sentence structuring, I realise that it's not a Sea Dragon class LV. A 36 core sea dragon class LV would be hilarious however.
« Last Edit: 05/25/2015 08:59 pm by The Amazing Catstronaut »
Resident feline spaceflight expert. Knows nothing of value about human spaceflight.

Offline douglas100

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2177
  • Liked: 227
  • Likes Given: 105
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #13 on: 05/25/2015 04:27 pm »
I was slightly amused to see WFNA described as "environmentally friendly." A leak of that stuff would require some cleaning up. But of course all oxidizers are potentially dangerous...

It's interesting seeing an attempt to implement the ORAG approach to low cost spaceflight. The devil is always in the details in this game, no matter how "simple" the technological approach seems to be. Good luck to them.
Douglas Clark

Offline Jarnis

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1313
  • Liked: 830
  • Likes Given: 201
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #14 on: 05/25/2015 05:38 pm »
This looks decisively Kerbal :) - Space is Hard, so I wish them luck...

Offline The Amazing Catstronaut

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1065
  • Arsia Mons, Mars, Sol IV, Inner Solar Solar System, Sol system.
  • Liked: 759
  • Likes Given: 626
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #15 on: 05/25/2015 09:03 pm »
It will be interesting to see if they can actually get to orbit with their massive number of cores.

I didn't really understand the slide entitled "N36 Medium-Lift Rocket", though.  The subtitle is "Manned Orbital and Lunar Missions", and below that they detail the 36 common cores and so on.  And on the same slide it says Neptune 36 can take 1 metric ton to orbit.  Are they suggesting a manned orbital mission with a spacecraft that is only 1 ton, including passenger?

For all we know, they intend to bolt 36 36 core LVs together for whatever powerpoint lunar program they have tucked up their armpits, in an attempt to create a heavy version.


In all sobriety; they're likely to attempt to move onto bigger and better things (I.E. with less cores) once/if their entry level rocket makes them some moolah. Such has been the precedent for previous launch service providers and other emergent entities such as Firefly have indicated a similar desire.

Edit: I love the idea that some company is actually trying to create a "lego rocket" - something that you can just throw together whenever you need extra capacity, or yank a core off when you don't. Granted, it's a wee bit more complex than that, but the idea is interesting and needs to be explored.
« Last Edit: 05/25/2015 09:05 pm by The Amazing Catstronaut »
Resident feline spaceflight expert. Knows nothing of value about human spaceflight.

Offline ChrisWilson68

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5266
  • Sunnyvale, CA
  • Liked: 4992
  • Likes Given: 6459
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #16 on: 05/25/2015 10:01 pm »
I love the idea that some company is actually trying to create a "lego rocket" - something that you can just throw together whenever you need extra capacity, or yank a core off when you don't. Granted, it's a wee bit more complex than that, but the idea is interesting and needs to be explored.

It's good to explore every option, but I doubt the lots-of-identical-cores approach is the best.  I'm sure it could be made to work, I just don't think it's the most cost-effective approach.  When you have 10,000 shipping containers to send from China to North America, you don't take 1,000 small, modular ships and lash them together.

There are two kinds of economies of scale in conflict here -- the economies of building lots of copies of something versus few copies, versus the economies of building bigger rather than smaller.  I think the launch market is already large enough to make Falcon 9-scale cores and Merlin 1D-scale engines have enough unit volume to be worth it.  I think Interorbital is too far on the small-cores end while SLS is too far on the big-cores end.

As I said, though, it's good to explore all the options.  I'm happy to see Interorbital give the small cores approach its best shot.  And I'm also glad it's not my money being invested in it. :-)

Offline QuantumG

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9238
  • Australia
  • Liked: 4477
  • Likes Given: 1108
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #17 on: 05/25/2015 10:16 pm »
They haven't flown a guided rocket yet.. the last (and only) flight was last year and was fin stabilized.
Human spaceflight is basically just LARPing now.

Offline Lars-J

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6809
  • California
  • Liked: 8485
  • Likes Given: 5384
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #18 on: 05/25/2015 10:18 pm »
Edit: Just to be clear on my sentence structuring, I realise that it's not a Sea Dragon class LV. A 36 core sea dragon class LV would be hilarious however.

That might evaporate a significant part of the ocean!  ;D

Offline Vultur

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1919
  • Liked: 762
  • Likes Given: 184
Re: Interorbital Systems Flights
« Reply #19 on: 06/04/2015 02:50 am »
Edit: Just to be clear on my sentence structuring, I realise that it's not a Sea Dragon class LV. A 36 core sea dragon class LV would be hilarious however.

Oh, wow, it would. 80 million lbs thrust per core * 36 = 2.88 billion lbs thrust.

With 2% payload fraction to LEO, that would be... 57.6 million lbs or over 26000 metric tons to orbit!

But the sound/vibration would probably kill everything in the ocean for hundreds of miles...

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
1