posted
I'd say the attitude controls on that thing is the pinnacle of mankind. If you don't think that's impressive, imagine if they put that system under a sedan and made it hover five feet off the ground for ten seconds, just because they could. A car would probably weigh less than that thing, it made the trucklift bob when the engine gave out.
Registered: Aug 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
It's not nearly as hard to keep a (single- or multi-nozzled) rocket upright as it is to launch one into actual stable orbit and to also make your vehicle + any potential occupants survive reentry afterwards, which all these barely-suborbital cool kids don't have to worry about.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
It's obviously just a proof of concept. I don't think the application is in the engine as much as the software and attitude instruments. Segway-level sensitivity in a rhino-sized vehicle is positively titillating.
posted
Hmmm...What is it's fuel duration to do this though? It seems to be really thrusting like mad to stay aloft- possibly good for a soft landing for spaceprobes....but for practical purposes, that only means "for Mars missions" right now.
Reminds me of that VTOL rocket X-plane- the one where the pilot could not see the ground to land.
Of course, Newt was in Florida today promising all those laid off NASA engineers that he'd have a permanent moonbase if elected president- the same useles bullshit promise Bush gave. Because a moonbase would be useful in any fucking way ever.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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