Armadillo had two flights go bad on them recently. Here is a selection of quotes and some ideas that struck me while reading their report.
http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/n.x/Armadillo/Home/News?news_id=375 "Things that can't be tested before freeflight, like roll response, need to be more carefully analyzed and simulated." "Engine gimbal mounts need to be much stronger than their expected loading. Moving away from a screw in a cantilevered beam may be prudent." "Having a hard stop in the engine gimbal mechanism other than the hard stops inside the linear actuators would limit how quickly the rocket can go out of control, reducing aero loading. The engine went to something like 45 degrees, where 3 degrees would be a sufficient maximum for a vertical takeoff with no translation." "Most of the cameras on this vehicle were installed with the intention of documenting the hardware, rather than the view. In a nominal flight this is less useful, but for initial test flights this should be standard." "There should be at least informal crew rest requirements." "The pressure drop of the secondary film cooling system should be tested. Just as it would in the main injector, if the pressure drop is too low it can cause or reinforce feed system and/or engine resonance." My takeaways: - Focus on the water-cooled, steam-driven engine as innovative approach to heat transfer management. Film cooling is boring and hurts Isp. I am going to pursue a heat-transfer analysis of the water-cooled steam-driven engine in my thermo/fluids class. - 6DoF should consider hard-stops for the fins. - We should consider treating Vision as its own category of projects. Documenting views on the way up is good for publicity, but I would like to propose that for the next launch we attempt to get cameras on every mechanical system. _______________________________________________ psas-team mailing list psas-team@lists.psas.pdx.edu http://lists.psas.pdx.edu/mailman/listinfo/psas-team This list's membership is automatically generated from the memberships of the psas-airframe, psas-avionics, and psas-general mail lists. Visit http://lists.psas.pdx.edu to individually subscribe/unsubscribe yourself from these lists.
