The Eurocopter X3 has kicked off it’s US demonstration tour in the skies over Texas. I understand the design just fine, but it still looks weird to me. In a production design I think they’d need to relocate the propellers; in their current location they really restrict approach and departure routes for passengers. You can really only come in from the aft quarters to avoid the props, and the risk of a wayward person wandering into a prop would be a lot higher than with a tail rotor. There’s also going to be some noise management to handle with the props right next to the passengers. That’s one thing Sikorsky’s X2 coaxial design has going for it; it is intended to use a single pusher prop at the end of the tail, well away from the passenger cabin.
NASA’s NuSTAR mission, or Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, was launched June 13, 2012 via an Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL rocket. While the X-ray observatories mission is interesting in itself, my main interest is in the Pegasus. It is unique among launch systems today in that it is air-launched, from the belly of a modified Lockheed L-1011 airliner. It is a concept that Stratolaunch Systems plans to take a much, much larger platform.
Pegasus, which has been around since 1990, basically uses the L-1011 as its zeroth stage. The airliner carries it to around 40,000 feet before it is dropped and the first stage ignites. It initially climbs under a combination of rocket power and aerodynamic lift from the wings which are part of the first stage, until the second and third stages complete the flight as pure rockets. All three stages use solid propellant. The launch of a Pegasus looks more like an old X-plane launch, like an X-15 – and indeed the initial Pegasus flights used the same modified B-52 carriers, until the L-1011 took over.
This launch highlight video is slightly disappointing. It was a night launch and I’m sure the ignition of the Pegasus must’ve been spectacular, but there is no footage from any chase aircraft. So we never actually get to see the rockets fire. But the interesting part, for me, starts around the 1:40 mark, when the L-1011 begins to taxi and we get a good look at the Pegasus mounted on its belly.
This video gives us a look at the vehicle processing flow in preparation for the launch. We get a look at the Pegasus XL being built up and the payload being mounted, but I think the most interesting part comes at the 5:00 mark when we get to observe the process of mounting the Pegasus to the L-1011 Stargazer carrier.
The Lockheed Martin Samarai is a pretty cool micro UAV. And yes, it is Samarai and not samurai. Hey, I didn’t name it.
It is based on the maple seed. For anyone who’s lived in an area where maple trees grow, you’ve probably seen these seeds falling from the trees. They’re asymmetrical wings which spiral gently down, and can travel for a fair distance on the wind. Lockheed Martin has used this design with motor to allow for sustained flight, and software provides control. The whole vehicle spins, including the camera, but the operator sees a steady picture thanks to image processing. It’s a radical design, and I think it looks pretty cool. It is certainly different from the typical fixed- or rotary-wing designs.
The Cable Show website has posted an interview with Jeff Klugman, TiVo’s Senior Vice President for products, filmed last month at the show. Actually, I’m pretty sure I saw this interview being shot during one of my visits to TiVo’s booth. They primarily discuss the TiVo Stream and the IP STB, as those were TiVo’s big announcements from the show. Jeff indicates the products will be distributed by MSO partners “last this summer” and available at retail “in the early fall time frame”.
There are other tidbits, such as the statement that side-loading is up to 4x speed, so an hour-long program and be loaded in as little as 15 minutes. But I don’t really agree with the comments about side-loading vs. out-of-home streaming (ala Slingbox). While I acknowledge side-loading is useful for environments where streaming isn’t viable, such as on an aircraft, I really have no interest in side-loading. I prefer to stream my content real-time from my TiVo when I’m on the road. The comments about broadband speeds just don’t ring true anymore. Back in the day I used to stream from my Slingbox to my Palm Treo over a 200kbps EDGE connection, and it was perfectly usable.
These days almost every phone has a 3G connection many times faster, if not a 4G LTE connection. WiFi is nigh-ubiquitous, and upload speeds from the home are more than capable of streaming content at a solid quality. My Slingbox PRO-HD can stream 720p video starting at around 1.5Mbps, which is not at all uncommon these days. So the excuse that out-of-the-home streaming isn’t supported due to available broadband capacity just doesn’t hold water. I hope TiVo gets it together and adds it to the TiVo Stream quickly. Especially for those of us with providers who copy-protect nearly everything, making side-loading impossible in the first place.
I realize I’m a couple of weeks late in posting this, but better late than never. Congratulations to SpaceX on the flawless flight of their Dragon capsule – from the Falcon 9 launch, to berthing with the ISS, to the picture perfect splashdown and recovery. The successful mission clears the way for the Dragon to begin commercial resupply operations to the ISS, with the first two flights planned to take place before the end of the year. The significance of this achievement really can’t be overstated. This flight effectively marks the start of commercial operations to low earth orbit.
Of course, there are several videos of the events. The press briefing before the unberthing:
The unberthing itself. Watch closely at the 5:40 mark and you can see the Draco thrusters fire in the first departure burn. It is just a small bright spot in the thruster bell.
The descent and splashdown video is fairly poor, but I still think it is interesting:
And last, but not least, a press briefing to wrap everything up:
While these unmanned cargo flights are certainly a major achievement, the next big step for Dragon is manned flight. SpaceX is working on the systems necessary to enable the Dragon to conduct manned flights, with an eye toward NASA’s Commercial Crew effort. With this successful flight Dragon is certainly the odds on favorite to be selected to carry crew to the ISS. But SpaceX isn’t the only company working on manned orbital vehicles.
Boeing is working on their CST-100, a manned capsule similar in concept to Dragon. The CST-100 is being designed for operations to the ISS, as well as the commercial stations planned by Bigelow Aerospace. They’ve been conducting drop tests of a boilerplate capsule (which means it is just representative of the shape and weight distribution, and is not the actual capsule design) to verify the parachute and airbag landing system:
Also in the hunt is Sierra Nevada Corporation with their Dream Chaser lifting body. The Dream Chaser looks more like a vehicle of the future than the capsule designs, something more appropriate for Buck Rogers or John Crichton. The basic shape is similar to NASA’s HL-20 concept from the 90s, and reaches back to the lifting body research programs of the 60s and 70s such as the HL-10, M2, and X-24. I have to say I’d really love to see the Dream Chaser become operational, if only because it looks like the future. SNC has been conducting captive carry tests of a test article in preparation for drop testing:
The vehicle builders aren’t the only ones working on future systems, NASA is preparing as well. The giant Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), constructed for the Saturn V program and used for the Shuttle, is being thoroughly modernized to be ready for the next generation of rockets. Not only is it being redesigned to handle NASA’s own planned Space Launch System, but commercial rockets and spacecraft as well:
To wrap it all up, a recent episode of This Week At NASA included segments on SpaceX Dragon, Orbital Sciences Corporations Cygnus capsule (a competitor to Dragon for commercial cargo delivery to ISS, but not intended for crew), the Boeing CST-100, SNC Dream Chaser, NASA Space Launch System, and more:
The Eurocopter X3 has kicked off it’s US demonstration tour in the skies over Texas. I understand the design just fine, but it still looks weird to me. In a production design I think they’d need to relocate the propellers; in their current location they really restrict approach and departure routes for passengers. You can really only come in from the aft quarters to avoid the props, and the risk of a wayward person wandering into a prop would be a lot higher than with a tail rotor. There’s also going to be some noise management to handle with the props right next to the passengers. That’s one thing Sikorsky’s X2 coaxial design has going for it; it is intended to use a single pusher prop at the end of the tail, well away from the passenger cabin.
