We tested out bamboo as a low cost substitute for carbon fiber for trusses on our small test airships. It was a solid fail, but you gotta keep experimenting. #jpaerospace
We're working on replacing our carbon truss structures in the airship with air beam structures. We put a single rib in the Ascender 90 just to test and get the feel of it.#jpaerospace
Some examples of our airship carbon structures. They are strong and light, but we need stronger and lighter.#jpaerospace #space
Orbital Ascender airship cutaway.#jpaerospace
Configuration concept drawings of the electric/chemical hybrid engine arrays for the Ascender orbital airship. We're projecting eight arrays of four.#jpaerospace #space
Mach 4 research on a budget. This is our hypersonic wind tunnel made from home depot parts. Mach 4 for just a fraction of a second, but it's all we need, for now. Mach 8 version in the works.#jpaerospace
The Ascender Ellipse is one of our smallest airships. The new launch arena was sized so Ellipse can be worked on and launched protected from the wind.#jpaerospace
The gang has been sewing like mad on the Ascender Ellipse. There are over 80 fabric loops that hold the airbeam internal structures in place. We have 20 of them on...#jpaerospace
The Away 129 mission [October 2019] carried pneumatic actuated valves designed for the Ascender airship. The flight gave to the chance to test them at high altitude.#jpaerospace
It takes a lot of research to do impossible things. Ascender Airship fluid flow dynamics.#jpaerospace
It's bad drawing time! One of the steps in the Airship to Orbit program is to deploy miniature Vee shaped airships from our ML rocket at high altitude. This lets us do low cost partial reentry test. We're shooting for tests in the Mach 8 to 10 range.
Even more bad drawings! A further step is launching a small Ascender with a prototype hybrid chemical/electric motor from our Tandem airship. We call this test series the Mach Glider program. This sketch shows a Block 4 Mach Glider.#jpaerospace
Slightly less bad drawings of the Block 4 Mach Glider.#jpaerospace
The next step (and the next bad drawing) is the TransAtmospheric Ascender. The TA Ascender is designed for a suborbital flight from 140,000 feet to space and back. #jpaerospace
It's bad drawing Sunday. I can hear the shouts "Somebody take JP's pencils away!"This is the TransAtmospheric Ascender docked at the Block 3 Dark Sky Station. This trick is getting both of these lines of technologies to be ready together. One needs the other.#jpaerospace
Playing with plasma. Engine development work. MHD test firing no. 81#jpaerospace
This is one of our hybrid electric/chemical motor test beds. It has an acrylic/O2 rocket engine that is 'tuned' with 1k watts RF pumped with a coil antenna. At the end is a MHD power reclamation system. Neither the acceleration or MHD magnets are mounted in the pic#jpaerospace
Our new Data Dart Mark 10. The fastest lump of plastic in town. #jpaerospace
Working on the internal structural air beams for the Ascender Ellipse airship.#jpaerospace
Scaring the neighbors. Working on airships in the parking lot. One arm of the Ascender 9.#jpaerospace
Orbital Ascender coming at ya.#jpaerospace
Before the Orbital Ascender there will be the TransAtmospheric Ascender. This vehicle will fly a suborbital trajectory to space then return. It's a stepping stone research vehicle. It will be a crewed craft.#jpaerospace
Before the TransAtmospheric Ascender there will be Mach Gliders. These will be a series of small inflatables use to fully explore the flight envelope.#jpaerospace
Before the Mach Gliders there will be the Ascender Ellipse. It will test new structure concepts. It is under construction now and will fly we soon as the weather gets good.#jpaerospace
More Clamps! This is the burst diaphragm of the shock tube (supersonic wind tunnel). The burst fires it. The pretty machine bolts that hold it all together takes hours to change, bunch of ugly clamps, minutes. Messy clamps lets us go from 2 runs a day to 12. #jpaerospace
https://twitter.com/johnmpowell1/status/1210251219328831490Quote More Clamps! This is the burst diaphragm of the shock tube (supersonic wind tunnel). The burst fires it. The pretty machine bolts that hold it all together takes hours to change, bunch of ugly clamps, minutes. Messy clamps lets us go from 2 runs a day to 12. #jpaerospace
It's bad drawing time! This is Dark Sky Station 3. This will be a 50 ft diameter test bed for DSS tech. Heading to the edge of space in 2020.#jpaerospace
Playing with plasma. Engine development work. MHD test firing no. 99#jpaerospace
