Category Archives: Machinery

SpaceX orbital rocket launch

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Today the SpaceX orbital rocket (the first privately financed and cheapest orbital rocket ever) will be launched from the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands:

the Falcon 1 rocket will begin its journey to orbit, accelerating to 17,000 mph (25 times the speed of sound) in less than ten minutes. Designed from the ground up by SpaceX, Falcon 1 is a two stage rocket powered by liquid oxygen and purified, rocket grade kerosene. On launch day, Falcon 1 will launch into the history books for several notable reasons:

* It will be the first privately developed, liquid fueled rocket to reach orbit and the world’s first all new orbital rocket in over a decade.
* The main engine of Falcon 1 (Merlin) will be the first all new American hydrocarbon engine for an orbital booster to be flown in forty years and only the second new American booster engine of any kind in twenty-five years.
* The Falcon 1 is the only rocket flying 21st century avionics, which require a small fraction of the power and mass of other systems.
* It will be the world’s only semi-reusable orbital rocket apart from the Shuttle.
* Most importantly, Falcon 1, priced at $6.7 million, will provide the lowest cost per flight to orbit of any launch vehicle in the world, despite receiving a design reliability rating equivalent to that of the best launch vehicles currently flying in the United States.

The maiden flight will take place from the Kwajalein Atoll of the Marshall Islands. The customer for this mission is DARPA and the Air Force. The payload will be FalconSat-2, part of the Air Force Academy’s satellite program that will measure space plasma phenomena, which can adversely affect space-based communications, including GPS and other civil and military communications. The target orbit is 400 km X 500 km (just above the International Space Station) at an inclination of 39 degrees.

Laser fusion reactors

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The basic principles are relatively simple to lay out: a high energy laser is used to heat and compress a small amount of deuterium, a stable isotope of hydrogen. When the deuterium gets sufficiently hot, the outer layers detonate, sending a shockwave towards the centre of the sample.

From The Register

Morphing wings

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Wingwarping to the extreme – current wings use leading and trailing edge slats to change their shape in order to create more lift at different angles of attack (angles of aircraft and thus wing pitch into the airflow). This usually creates 3 seperate surfaces for control, but if you look at the way birds reshape their wings, it’s a much more fluid and precise process.

So these guys are building morphing wings on aircraft with wing spans less than 2 feet (probably due to structural integrity issues). It’s a cool beginning to this technology, and the site has videos etc.

Screw Spaceship 1, go round the moon!

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MOSCOW – A Russian rocket manufacturer is proposing sending space tourists on a ride around the moon for $100 million, and a top official of the nation’s space agency said the project could be viable.

from here

Just slightly more expensive than going with Burt Rutan and Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic at $100m

DARPA Robocars take 2

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After not having been able to finish the first time (or making it further than 5% of the course!) they’re going to give it another bash this time: The DARPA Grand Challenge!

The team that develops an autonomous ground vehicle that finishes the designated route most quickly within 10 hours will receive $2 million. The route will be no more than 175 miles over desert terrain featuring natural and man-made obstacles. The exact route will not be revealed until two hours before the event begins