MSS Q&A Thread

Here's two more videos I put together of the restart, by the way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqm48D5WZ6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhuEFCvUOoI

For those of you who don't have a rocket around to try this, bicycles or motorbikes work the same. If you want to make a right turn on a bicycle, you have to actually steer to the left a little first. That will move the point of contact of the wheels to the left with respect to your centre of gravity, so that you fall to the right. Then you steer into the turn, and the centrifugal force will counteract the falling so that you stay at the same angle. When you want to exit the turn, you steer right to get your point of contact underneath your centre of gravity again, which removes the centripetal force from the falling and makes you go straight again.

(Disclaimer: Do try this at home, in a place without traffic, obstacles, or other dangerous situations, and be careful not to fall off. You might easily break something and if you do, I'm not responsible. If you are a minor, seek parental supervision, a lawyer, spiritual counseling, and make sure there is a doctor at the ready. After all, we have to think of the children. Or something, heck, I'm not an American so what do I know about disclaimers?)

Congrats on the in-air restart by the way, looked pretty cool!

Ben, Perhaps it is just that when you make those motions to begin a translation or a minor adjustment in position, you do it more aggressively than AA. Like the difference of taking off at a run versus a walk. Your last video has an example. Near the end when you recenter over the pad (34 second mark.)

I understand the physics of it and I am in no way insinuating that you are doing it wrong. It would take me a month of banging my head on a wall just to get the code right, let alone setting it to the proper values and interfacing with gps and IMUs. That would keep me busy for much longer. I am fully impressed at the very very least. I simply happen to prefer the more gentle corrections that AA uses under normal circumstances. Their last violent relight as the exception...

If you watch the llc videos Scorpius barely tips noticeably to start and stop translation. You kind of tipped Xoie on her side to get going. It is not a question of which is using the correct algorithm. It is a question of which one my gentle stomach would want a ride on.

Thanks for responding.

Daniel

I just noticed this tweet from IIIan:


So it appears that Masten has just lost its second key employee... Masten has had a very good development pace and according to themselves very interesting projects lined up. Are Ben and Ian's departures going to (significantly) affect the ability to keep this up and continue the projects? Does the job opening for a propulsion engineer mean that Jon is leaving shortly, too?

Are these moves driven by them wanting to move out of Mojave or are they being "bought away" by competitors? Does this make it more difficult to recruit and/or keep replacements? Can this affect the future of the company?

I'm wishing you the best in finding capable new employees. I'm hoping for the best, but slightly worried (perhaps not rightfully so).

There's never just a push or just a pull, but in the end everyone votes with their feet.

This made me laugh

http://evadot.com/2011/01/31/thats-one- ... stronauts/

After rigorous adherence to Masten's "modify, test, modify" philosophy, Xaero has finally been unleashed from the safety tether, and performed a successful free flight hover this week. Improvements to our control algorithms were validated under tether earlier in the week, followed by careful analysis of Xaero's flight performance. The result is a picture perfect 22 second hover flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... w9TeBws_ds

Nice!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpH3u3hi ... r_embedded
Xaero vehicle rising to 444 meters and returning for a successful landing

I used to read Robert Heinlein books when I was a kid - this is awesome.

Fantastic flight & great camerawork! Definitely a dream-like quality to the rocket re-entering the camera view of the launch pad at the end.

500 metre flight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GRwimo1 ... r_embedded

650 meter flight, with awesome landing!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU4TZlA3jsg

New engine!
http://masten-space.com/2012/10/09/intr ... -scimitar/