IIRC that was part of the mission? They wanted to push themselves to see what could and could not be done with a very strict budget and cheap commonly available parts and tools.
That’s basically what spin launch did. They went and bought just consumer parts (not even the ones NASA could get/build) and put them into their centrifuge.
What’s the word with spinlaunch these days? I feel like I’ve been seeing hype videos for like a decade and not a single article about progress/achievement/contracts.
It’s interesting and I love seeing the “payload yeeter” start to actually get traction, but iirc there is downsides. It’s not like you can just launch any old thing, the payload needs to survive more Gs and it only replaces the first stage. So still need fuel and propulsion.
So many interesting “hype” things either get lost due to development, or not panning out. So it’s always great to see when they “succeed”.
It’s pretty amazing our first try at a fully autonomous helicopter on another planet flew and landed successfully 71 times. Rest in peace, Ingenuity.
Built with such a tiny budget that they used cell phone parts
IIRC that was part of the mission? They wanted to push themselves to see what could and could not be done with a very strict budget and cheap commonly available parts and tools.
It worked surprisingly well
They blasted a bunch of phone hardware with radiation and picked the ones that held up
They then build a custom Linux system and called it a day
That’s basically what spin launch did. They went and bought just consumer parts (not even the ones NASA could get/build) and put them into their centrifuge.
What’s the word with spinlaunch these days? I feel like I’ve been seeing hype videos for like a decade and not a single article about progress/achievement/contracts.
Just this month they broke a 2 year silence.
Linky
That’s actually super exciting! I’d be glad to see a player other than SpaceX make headway in the industry. Thanks for the reply!
It’s interesting and I love seeing the “payload yeeter” start to actually get traction, but iirc there is downsides. It’s not like you can just launch any old thing, the payload needs to survive more Gs and it only replaces the first stage. So still need fuel and propulsion.
So many interesting “hype” things either get lost due to development, or not panning out. So it’s always great to see when they “succeed”.