Author Topic: Armadillo Aerospace Monthly Update (Read 3603 times)

braddock · « **on:** 02/07/2006 02:38 am »

While all eyes might be on SpaceX this week, here is a reminder that nobody spells "Well Funded Rocket Club on Steroids" like Armadillo Aerospace. The February update is online full of juicy rocket building tid-bits and a video of the latest test firing (including a violent hard-start) at http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=317

Their new 540 lb dry weight vehicle assembly is complete, so expect some test flights soon. Their X-Cup hover demo last year fell somewhere between success and failure.

Have you lost an afternoon reading the past six years of Armadillo monthly updates?
If not, get your must-see video history of oversized rocket fun:
http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/misc/sff04_high.mpg

Isn't it nice to know that all those Doom and Quake sales went to a good cause?

braddock · « **Reply #1 on:** 03/13/2006 04:29 pm »

Armadillo Aerospace has put up their monthly progress notes at:
http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=318
"We tried to hover the new vehicle, but it didn’t work out.... "

They are focusing now on trying to win the $2 million X-Prize Lunar Lander Challenge later this year, which is being hosted with cooperation from NASA:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/060223_xprize_lunarlander_challenge.html

The challenge is to fly a hovering rocket round-trip to land and return from a rock-strewn "lunar" surface.

The monthly Armadillo news is always a fascinating read...

publiusr · « **Reply #2 on:** 03/15/2006 06:46 pm »

More here:
www.xprizenews.org
http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/27/technology/business2_guidetospaceintro/

braddock · « **Reply #3 on:** 04/05/2006 05:21 pm »

Armadillo Aerospace has posted their monthly update at http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=320 .

John Carmack's wife got him a slick new Haas VF-3 enclosed CNC for his birthday, which has reduced his injector head milling time from six hours down to 45 minutes. Hope my future wife will treat me so well...

"We have generally had a very frustrating month, because we kept melting a lot of wiring and various other things on our test stand. A couple times it was due to fuel leaks on the engine plumbing (we were in good company with that this month – hi Elon…)"

http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2006_04_05/taperManifolds.jpg" width=75%>

http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/2006_04_05/engine6.jpg" width=50%>

Benny · « **Reply #4 on:** 04/05/2006 05:55 pm »

In comparison to SpaceX how would one evaluate Armadillo Aerospace?

What I mean is how "serious" are they? Looking at their HP I somehow
get the impression, that they are more on the fun factor.

braddock · « **Reply #5 on:** 05/08/2006 11:44 am »

Armadillo has put up their monthly progress update.

http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=323

They did a tethered test flight on their 100 acre test site, with video.

Unfortunately, due to some delays, they ended up doing the test at 9pm and got their neighbor mad enough at them that they are now looking for other test sites...possibly to lease space in McGregor, TX next to SpaceX.

They are the favorite for the X Prize Lunar Lander challenge later this year at the X-Prize cup.