Sunday we installed a blower system in the crew module mock up. Not only are the blowers acting as a mock up for the life support system but also as a actual life support system. With the hatch on there’s not a lots of air getting in there.
The MHD generators are still in the process of being refurbished. I hope to be getting some flame and noise out of them by the middle of next week.
2010 was good year of progress for Airship to Orbit. Here are a few highlights:
On the last day of this year we reassembled the Pup propeller after trimming the length. All the bolts got torqued down to the required 110 inch/pounds, then it was on to the proposal writing (we’re in the middle of two).
I’m putting together a “2010 Review in Pictures”. I hope to have it up sometime tomorrow afternoon. We’re not slowing down in 2011. Our first build session of the new year is Sunday, (we’re taking Saturday off for New Years eve recovery). We’ll be working on the crew module and MHD units.
Have a happy and safe evening all!
Onward and upward!
We have flown the PSL Rocket five times before. Here’s some pics from those tests. At the time we were painting all our rockets black so they would show up on the bright white desert floor. The long white boxes are the launch platforms for when the rocket was launched as a rockoon.
All these flights were before the turn of the century. Now doesn’t that seem like a long time ago?
New name for an old vehicle. This was the back up vehicle for the rocket we launch from balloon and flew to 72,233 feet back in 1999. This is the rocket we’ll be using to carry PongSats to space. It will carry 20 PongSats to 65 miles when launched from 100,000 feet. Publicly we called this rocket the Spaceflight Rocket. Internally we called it the “M” Rocket because it runs on an “M” motor (7000N). Now it’s the PongSat Launcher, and that’s what it does. It will be carried aloft by the Tandem airship, a Dark Sky Station or straight balloons depending on the mission requirements.
This is also our entry into the suborbital reusable launch vehicle arena.
We’re cleaning up all the old molds and tooling and putting her back into production.
All the MHD generator units have been broken down. We’re building them back up with smaller tiles. The large tiles tend to crack under the high thermal shock. The smaller tiles should be able to expanding and contract.
One generator will be for the ‘D’ and ‘E’ motors with the Faraday configuration. This will let us start to get a electrical power to thrust curve (we have the ‘C’ data). The other unit will use the small motors and be set up in a Hall effect configuration. I expect twenty or so firings before we see our first electron.
It’s Christmas Eve and the shop elves are busy clipping propeller blades and building a cardboard drawing board.
Have a safe and happy one!
A reporter from a local news station just spent a couple of hours in the shop filming a story about the Sand Bricks (the other thing we do). He also spend time filming on the JPA side of the house for a future story.
It will be a late night in the shop tonight. He’s coming back at 10pm to film a live teaser piece. The story is going to air tonight at 10:30 on FOX40NEWS. It should go on their website soon after.
