There are lots of terrific things going on in space exploration, without humans on board, that don’t cost so much and work very well. As a taxpayer and voter that’s what I intend to support. As for those trillions of dollars that moon and Mars missions would cost, I’d rather spend them on improving elementary school education worldwide, so that reason can begin to prevail and famine and violence are greatly reduced.

Have there been some hang-ups with the account?

Ivan.

but can it walk through walls?

(RAH reference)

J/P=?

“Gary Hudson demonstrated this over 10 years ago (1996?) with the DC-X technology demonstrator at Mcdonnell-Douglas.”

I attended one of the DC-X flights in the summer of 1993, and knew people working on the project. This is the first I have heard that Gary Hudson was involved in that project. Could you be mistaken?

Certainly the vehicle resembles ideas Gary Hudson was championing for a long time. But I didn’t think he had been working for McDonnell-Douglas to build the DC-X or its (hypothetical) successors.

Their site is now in my space folder,,,anticipating more such success.

Gary 7

Just recently, the “New Shepard” (can’t recall the company, but it’s funded by Jeff “amazon.com” Bezos) just did a demonstration flight using a cold gas engine.

The thing that impressed me the most, though, was how quickly the ground crew was able to do the inspection and re-fueling. No, I don’t mean the time lapsed photography! I mean estimating the real time it took to be less than half an hour. The other vehicles mentioned above would have taken days.

- Jack

Is it flying or is it falling with style?

OK, enough of the lightweight humor. Pretty slick.

Width: ~75 inches
Height: ~75 inches
(Tanks are 36 inches in diameter)
Dry weight: 650 pounds
GLOW: ~1500 pounds
Propellant: ~360 pounds ethanol, ~500 pounds LOX
Engines: 1 (+ 4 cold gas attitude jets)
Thrust (sl): ~3000 pounds
Isp: ~ 140-200
Burn time: >180 seconds

For the longer level 2 prize they double the propellant available

Not they didn’t just check it for damage – they refueled it as well. The rules allow for refueling the craft bewteen legs of the flight. Had there been damage to the craft they would not be allowed by the rules to repair it between the 2 legs of the flight. I assume because it would be unlikely that you’d be able to repair the craft quickly on the moon but it is expected that you will be able to supply fuel. Basically all they did though was refuel it and make sure everything was still in flying condition – then they stepped back and sent it on it’s merry way!

Someone asked if Carmack had made deal with nVidia and yes I believe they made some sort of deal a while back. I remember reading something about that.

A good video, summarizing their goals and intentions with Armadillo Aerospace and detailing in video their progress from the beginning was posted in the last blog, check it here: http://media.armadilloaerospace.com/misc/sas07_high.mpg

Totally cool, though I noticed they had the ground crew do some maintenance between the two flights. But perhaps they only checked it for damage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack

I wouldn’t have thought this was very hard though. What about those jet packs that have already been invented? I would have thought since we already have the technology to use one of those, it would have been a piece of cake. Were there some cost restrictions or something?

Widget is the name of the mascot: Widget the armadillo
Pixel is the name of the craft.

Where do I collect my $2 mil?

Now they can get to work on light weight habitats!

I’m curious about the ‘car for a space elevator’ – that strikes me as a difficult task when (as far as I know) there is no set design for the elevator itself. I AM assuming that the motive system is part of the car.