Not exactly stable, is it?
Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :
Looks pretty stable to me! Its the rocket equivalent of a unicycle. Balances pretty good, I'd say.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
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.
Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
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.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Bah- call me when it can erase minds and disentegrate people!
Really though....this might work better in a lower gravity, like Mars.
Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
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.
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.