Discussion
Soyuz usually starts grass fires when it lands and they have to sit it out in the capsule until the support crew arrives to damp it all down.
They even landed in a frozen lake once and sank through the ice. The poor crew had to wait 9 hours to be rescued and that involved being dragged to the shore as it was too heavy for the helicopter to lift out. Russia's one and only splashdown IIRC.
They even landed in a frozen lake once and sank through the ice. The poor crew had to wait 9 hours to be rescued and that involved being dragged to the shore as it was too heavy for the helicopter to lift out. Russia's one and only splashdown IIRC.
Eric Mc said:
They fire so close to the ground that you don't get to see them. All you do see is a large puff of dust.
If you watch a Soyuz touching down, you will see something very similar.
Weird really, they have so little time to decelerate the vehicle that it can't be much more gentle than not bothering.If you watch a Soyuz touching down, you will see something very similar.
Einion Yrth said:
Eric Mc said:
They fire so close to the ground that you don't get to see them. All you do see is a large puff of dust.
If you watch a Soyuz touching down, you will see something very similar.
Weird really, they have so little time to decelerate the vehicle that it can't be much more gentle than not bothering.If you watch a Soyuz touching down, you will see something very similar.
It kind of acts like an airbag - without the bag.
PR e-mail from Jeff Bezos today...
"For BE-4, not only do we have to design the engine itself, we also have to develop custom tools to make it. One of these tools is an automated electrical discharge machining (EDM) drilling machine. The EDM precisely locates and burns more than 4,000 tightly dimensioned holes into the nozzle and main combustion chamber, providing entry to the regenerative cooling channels.
As far as we know, this particular EDM machine is the only one of its kind in the world. It has 11 axes of motion allowing for precise hole location and accuracy within a few thousands of an inch. Its dual-head design results in reduced cycle time for the drilled holes. Brass multichannel electrodes are used to drill the holes. Water can be pumped through the electrode in order to speed up the drilling cycle. The use of water also helps flush the hole and remove the powder-like foreign object debris generated by the process. This eliminates the concern for plugging cooling channels, which can easily occur with conventional drilling methods. A pair of automated electrode-changing stations allows the EDM to continuously operate for long cycle times at an average rate of one hole every 90 seconds.
Building and operating custom tools of this magnitude is a big investment, but it’s critical for developing an engine that will power America’s access to space in the future.
A pretty wise investment, if you ask me.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
PS: Blue Origin is hiring. Check out our Careers page and apply."
"For BE-4, not only do we have to design the engine itself, we also have to develop custom tools to make it. One of these tools is an automated electrical discharge machining (EDM) drilling machine. The EDM precisely locates and burns more than 4,000 tightly dimensioned holes into the nozzle and main combustion chamber, providing entry to the regenerative cooling channels.
As far as we know, this particular EDM machine is the only one of its kind in the world. It has 11 axes of motion allowing for precise hole location and accuracy within a few thousands of an inch. Its dual-head design results in reduced cycle time for the drilled holes. Brass multichannel electrodes are used to drill the holes. Water can be pumped through the electrode in order to speed up the drilling cycle. The use of water also helps flush the hole and remove the powder-like foreign object debris generated by the process. This eliminates the concern for plugging cooling channels, which can easily occur with conventional drilling methods. A pair of automated electrode-changing stations allows the EDM to continuously operate for long cycle times at an average rate of one hole every 90 seconds.
Building and operating custom tools of this magnitude is a big investment, but it’s critical for developing an engine that will power America’s access to space in the future.
A pretty wise investment, if you ask me.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
PS: Blue Origin is hiring. Check out our Careers page and apply."
Einion Yrth said:
Pitch
Yaw
Roll
X
Y
Z
Future
Past
...
I'm struggling...
They are probably coming up with that many as the machine has two heads so two X axis, two Y axis, etc etc Yaw
Roll
X
Y
Z
Future
Past
...
I'm struggling...
two 5 axis heads and an additional axis of movememt on the bed. Or two 4 axis heads and a 3 axis bed.
Would have to see a pic or video to work it out properly.
In fact a quick Google brings up this 12 axis machine Clicky
Edited by Buzz84 on Saturday 19th November 23:52
Another PR mailshot from Jeff...
"Just a very short note to update you on the 750,000 square-foot New Glenn rocket factory we’re building in Florida. The team has made extraordinary progress—as you can see here, the first steel is now going up."
And again, here's an image of what it will look like by the end of 2017.
I’ll keep you updated on our progress.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
"Just a very short note to update you on the 750,000 square-foot New Glenn rocket factory we’re building in Florida. The team has made extraordinary progress—as you can see here, the first steel is now going up."
And again, here's an image of what it will look like by the end of 2017.
I’ll keep you updated on our progress.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
Latest mail from Jeff Bezos
"Robert Goddard’s first rockets used compressed gas to force the liquid propellants into the engine thrust chambers. While simple in design and a logical starting point, he quickly realized the limitations with this approach: it requires thick-walled heavy propellant tanks and limits the engine’s chamber pressure and performance, both of which limit payload capacity. The answer was turbopumps. Store the propellants in low-pressure light tanks, and then pump the propellants up to high pressure just ahead of injection into the main chamber.
For even more performance, you can add one or more boost pumps ahead of the main pumps. We’ve done that on the oxidizer side of our BE-4 engine. Our Ox Boost Pump (OBP) design leverages 3-D additive manufacturing to make many of the key components. The housing is a single printed aluminum part and all of the stages of the hydraulic turbine are printed from Monel, a nickel alloy. This manufacturing approach allows the integration of complex internal flow passages in the housing that would be much more difficult to make using conventional methods. The turbine nozzles and rotors are also 3-D printed and require minimum machining to achieve the required fits.
The OBP was first demonstrated last year in testing, where we validated its interaction with a main pump. The second iteration of the OBP for BE-4 is now in test. We’ve also just finished assembly of the unit that we’ll install for the first all-up BE-4 engine test.
We’ll keep you posted on how our BE-4 powerpack and engine testing progresses.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
"
"Robert Goddard’s first rockets used compressed gas to force the liquid propellants into the engine thrust chambers. While simple in design and a logical starting point, he quickly realized the limitations with this approach: it requires thick-walled heavy propellant tanks and limits the engine’s chamber pressure and performance, both of which limit payload capacity. The answer was turbopumps. Store the propellants in low-pressure light tanks, and then pump the propellants up to high pressure just ahead of injection into the main chamber.
For even more performance, you can add one or more boost pumps ahead of the main pumps. We’ve done that on the oxidizer side of our BE-4 engine. Our Ox Boost Pump (OBP) design leverages 3-D additive manufacturing to make many of the key components. The housing is a single printed aluminum part and all of the stages of the hydraulic turbine are printed from Monel, a nickel alloy. This manufacturing approach allows the integration of complex internal flow passages in the housing that would be much more difficult to make using conventional methods. The turbine nozzles and rotors are also 3-D printed and require minimum machining to achieve the required fits.
The OBP was first demonstrated last year in testing, where we validated its interaction with a main pump. The second iteration of the OBP for BE-4 is now in test. We’ve also just finished assembly of the unit that we’ll install for the first all-up BE-4 engine test.
We’ll keep you posted on how our BE-4 powerpack and engine testing progresses.
Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos
"
Blue Origin have signed Eutelsat as their first customer for the New Glenn launcher
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-blue-oregin-eutel...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-blue-oregin-eutel...
Artist's impression of a New Glenn mission:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTEhohh6eYk
Looks like they're going to have some ship landings too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTEhohh6eYk
Looks like they're going to have some ship landings too.
Heres an interesting article on the New Glenn.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...
2 or 3 stage rocket, 1st is 7 BE-4engined, 2nd has one vacuum spec BE-4, all LOX/methane.
3rd is BE-3 powered with LOX/hydrogen fuel.
Very similar to Spacecx with the 1st stage reuse '100 times'
A 3 stage version should be really good at shoving things out of earth orbit
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...
2 or 3 stage rocket, 1st is 7 BE-4engined, 2nd has one vacuum spec BE-4, all LOX/methane.
3rd is BE-3 powered with LOX/hydrogen fuel.
Very similar to Spacecx with the 1st stage reuse '100 times'
A 3 stage version should be really good at shoving things out of earth orbit
RobDickinson said:
Heres an interesting article on the New Glenn.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...
That picture certainly puts things into perspective... We're gonna need a bigger boat.https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...
Caruso said:
RobDickinson said:
Heres an interesting article on the New Glenn.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...
That picture certainly puts things into perspective... We're gonna need a bigger boat.https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/blue-origi...
Can't wait to see the size of New Armstrong.
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