Armadillo Aerospace Update Thread

[Robotbeat]

Any further update on the failure?  I've searched everywhere I can think of with no luck. 

I tweeted John, and there's going to be an update soon.

[go4mars]

Nah, it is getting off topic, and I get paid to go on and on about parachutes.

Well when your treatise on parachutes shows up on Amazon some day, consider me a likely buyer. 

[mto]

What Joseph heard, What Joseph "Thought" he heard...
"Published on Jan 30, 2013
Joseph is the only one of us with experience in the military. Not that he was experiencing any sort of post traumatic flashbacks or anything, but he did say the response to the initial sound was purely reflex... I can see why!

Still, the Artillery shell wins hands down!"

[Robotbeat]

Shovel recovery.

[notsorandom]

Shovel recovery.

Contingency lithobraking.

[savuporo]

http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=380

Thats in addition to the long post by Phil Eaton a few days ago on aRocket that talked about their parachute woes at length.

Curiously, none of the recent posts by AA guys or JC himself have mentioned anything about their near term plans.

[mto]

STIG B-I Behind Crew View

[mto]

Trimmed Down Facing on board RedB0005



the title makes no sense to me (above) but I think it's the air view of this;

Wamore Guided Recovery System on Stig B

[QuantumG]

Crazy audio on the on-board video. Some of it is quite haunting.

[ugordan]

Some of it is quite haunting.

Agree. Some of it sounds like something György Ligeti would come up with.

[Robotbeat]

http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=380

Thats in addition to the long post by Phil Eaton a few days ago on aRocket that talked about their parachute woes at length.
...

Yeah, I highly recommend reading that post/email. Very, very detailed.

[corrodedNut]

The next part of that update has been posted:

http://armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=422

"STIG B-I Mission, Saturday October 6th 2012"

[savuporo]

Im surprised that noone has approached Armadillo yet with a proposal to quadruple their funding to get things moving faster. Their saga is now over 13 years old.

It seems like with a bit of a funding boost they could make more bold choices like following the rule of always building 2.5x ( 2 whole, plus a set of critical spares ) flight hardware units and not getting stalled.

I assume they know what every skydiver knows, that their parachute recovery system will never be 99% reliable - but i figure its a stopgap solution anyway.

[Robotbeat]

Im surprised that noone has approached Armadillo yet with a proposal to quadruple their funding to get things moving faster. Their saga is now over 13 years old.

It seems like with a bit of a funding boost they could make more bold choices like following the rule of always building 2.5x ( 2 whole, plus a set of critical spares ) flight hardware units and not getting stalled.

I assume they know what every skydiver knows, that their parachute recovery system will never be 99% reliable - but i figure its a stopgap solution anyway.

The parachute for skydiving is much more than 99% reliable, otherwise it'd be too risky even with a backup for recreational skydiving like we have today.

[Jason1701]

Im surprised that noone has approached Armadillo yet with a proposal to quadruple their funding to get things moving faster. Their saga is now over 13 years old.

It seems like with a bit of a funding boost they could make more bold choices like following the rule of always building 2.5x ( 2 whole, plus a set of critical spares ) flight hardware units and not getting stalled.

I assume they know what every skydiver knows, that their parachute recovery system will never be 99% reliable - but i figure its a stopgap solution anyway.

The parachute for skydiving is much more than 99% reliable, otherwise it'd be too risky even with a backup for recreational skydiving like we have today.

Removing all the electronics and e-matches really makes a difference..

[savuporo]

The parachute for skydiving is much more than 99% reliable, otherwise it'd be too risky even with a backup for recreational skydiving like we have today.

Actually not quite. From many years of personal experience, probably around 1-2% of deployments have a very minor hiccup of some sort or another, either related to packing or less than ideal deployment position, speed etc.  By hiccup i don't mean a malfunction, malfunctions require cut-away and deploying the reserve, whereas things like hesitating pilot chute, minor line twists, a loose brake line, rough openings etc are just minor annoyances for a human skydiver and easily overcome. Automated systems will not cope that well, and they are not carrying a reserve either.

[QuantumG]

Im surprised that noone has approached Armadillo yet with a proposal to quadruple their funding to get things moving faster. Their saga is now over 13 years old.

It seems like with a bit of a funding boost they could make more bold choices like following the rule of always building 2.5x ( 2 whole, plus a set of critical spares ) flight hardware units and not getting stalled.

Heh. John Carmack has all the money he wants. Armadillo is progressing at the pace he dictates. Our mistake is assuming that he knows where he wants the company to go. He hasn't found it yet. The whole thing is a learning experience. It's "research". If he knew how to make fully reusable cheap rockets Armadillo would be doing it, but he doesn't.. yet.

[Robotbeat]

Im surprised that noone has approached Armadillo yet with a proposal to quadruple their funding to get things moving faster. Their saga is now over 13 years old.

It seems like with a bit of a funding boost they could make more bold choices like following the rule of always building 2.5x ( 2 whole, plus a set of critical spares ) flight hardware units and not getting stalled.

Heh. John Carmack has all the money he wants. Armadillo is progressing at the pace he dictates. Our mistake is assuming that he knows where he wants the company to go. He hasn't found it yet. The whole thing is a learning experience. It's "research". If he knew how to make fully reusable cheap rockets Armadillo would be doing it, but he doesn't.. yet.

They aren't bumbling around not knowing where they're going. They have explicit plans and goals, short-term and long, starting with flying (and recovering) suborbital payloads and getting paid for it. They also plan on using a descendent of STIG as a reusable pop up booster with expendable upper stage(s) for nanosat-scale orbital launches.

I actually think that a super strict plan is counterproductive when the goal is sustainable, cheap access to space.

[QuantumG]

They aren't bumbling around not knowing where they're going.

I didn't say they were.

They have explicit plans and goals, short-term and long, starting with flying (and recovering) suborbital payloads and getting paid for it.

They have no longer term plans, because they've yet to figure out "what works".

I'm not making this up, John says so all the time.

They also plan on using a descendent of STIG as a reusable pop up booster with expendable upper stage(s) for nanosat-scale orbital launches.

If the STIG line works, they might do that. So far it's doing pretty well, but there's still plenty to learn.

I actually think that a super strict plan is counterproductive when the goal is sustainable, cheap access to space.

Which is what I said! savuporo was wondering why Armadillo hasn't quadrupled their funding and got things moving faster.. his conclusion that it is a lack of funding is wrong. Their saga is now over 13 years old because they're trying to crack a tough nut and so far they haven't done it.

[Robotbeat]

Good clarification.