[AR] Re: Built another hovering rocket
- From: Ben Brockert <wikkit@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 21:23:45 -0500
I did most of the structure design and almost all of the propulsion
layout, with some engineering help doing FEA, making prints and
working with suppliers. The main thruster and the throttle valve
existed already, so I didn't have to create them but did have to test
them and that was mostly done by another guy. There were two techs for
most of the project. I still ended up doing rocket plumbing after
midnight more than once.
By the way, if anyone wants to work on peroxide/kero propulsion or
composites or other bits of a commercial moon lander, let me know off
list.
The avionics and software were all home grown from the component
level, and that group was large and already extant. Somewhere over a
dozen people.
We actually had seven people on console for tests, which I found
completely hilarious, but they wanted to be inclusive and practice for
bigger missions.
Nate, the cat pack is pure sliver and nickel screens, very traditional
and boring. The thruster itself is related to the one on Mighty Eagle;
in theory being a government project you should be able to get all
kinds of details on that one.
On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 7:21 AM, Robert Watzlavick
<rocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Pretty cool. Four months is pretty fast - how large was the development
> team?
>
> -Bob
>
>
> On 02/10/2015 09:22 PM, Ben Brockert wrote:
>>
>> I was the propulsion/structural lead on another hovering rocket, this
>> one for Moon Express:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAMPD65dvIY
>>
>> Concept to first flight in a bit under four months. It was built to
>> match MoonEx's planned control scheme and so has a slightly unusual
>> architecture, with one large fixed engine in the center and twelve
>> fixed thrusters at different downward angles on the outside. Center
>> thruster is monoprop peroxide (FMC "90%" which is actually 86.6% now),
>> outer are nitrogen cold gas.
>>
>> It won a $1M "terrestrial milestone prize" from the Google Lunar X
>> Prize. Astrobotic also won a $1M prize doing flights on Masten's
>> Xombie, so rockets I helped create have now won $3.15M of prizes. It
>> is not lost on me that this is an extremely odd thing to make money
>> at.
>>
>> It is a bummer that good peroxide is so hard to get or I expect we'd
>> see a lot more peroxide rockets on AR. If anyone is curious I'll look
>> up the pricing on the FMC stuff.
>>
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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